23 May 2011 Machala, Ecuador

Hello dear family! Another week has come and gone quickly yet again! And maybe, just maybe the pictures will send...

 

This week was pretty good. We were able to teach our progressing investigators, Omar and Wilmer, this week, and we managed to find other people here who we think can progress quickly. Sadly, Omar can't be baptized this Saturday because he couldn't come to church on Sunday, which means he needs to attend with us this Sunday so that he can be baptized on 4 June. Wilmer, on the other hand, can be baptized, it's just a matter of him accepting a baptismal date, something he's not 100% on right now, but he's getting there. We feel confident that in the next few days he will accept a date, and we will be helping him to the best of our abilities.

 

As I mentioned, we have found some more people who seem interested. One of these people we found, Moises, lives about a block from our church here in Puerto Bolivar. When we contacted Moises, somewhere in his 80's we think, he began to rattle off basically his life story to us, and it went all crazy from there. He was telling us how "when I was in my youth in 1930 something I could speak to the animals." He then began to "speak" this language, and all we could do was nod our heads and try to see if we could teach him something brief in his house. Well, after HALF AN HOUR, we managed to get in to his house and start teaching, but he continued his everywhere and anywhere stories. So we only taught a brief portion of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he said he wants to be baptized, so we'll see where that one goes. I also got the *great* chance to talk to a drunk guy Sunday afternoon (22 May). He wanted to know how he could change his life, so we explained to him how that's possible, but in the state he was in, there was no way he was going to remember. Hopefully we can find him again and help him get out of a tough part of his life.

 

On Sunday we had Stake Conference here in Machala, it was a really good turnout with some great spiritual messages as well. The Stake Center in Machala is also one of the few buildings that has air conditioning in it, so whenever there is a meeting there, I always seem to smile for some odd reason or another... :)

 

On Wednesday we will be traveling to Guayaquil to have a conference with Elder Walter F. Gonzales, of the Presidency of the Seventy. This meeting was originally supposed to be with Elder Richard G. Scott, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, but due to scheduling conflicts, he won't be able to make it. So this week is shaping up to be a busy one, with traveling, teaching, and TRANSFERS next Monday! I'll let you know then if I'm anywhere new! I have a slight feeling I could be moving, but who knows?

 

Well, not much else is going on around here, nice and calm as it should be!

 

I love you all and I'm looking forward to writing you all again next week!

 

Take care! (And yes I'm jealous you're all going camping!) Have fun!

 

--
Elder Garrett Cederquist
Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur