Garrett in front of the Guayaquil Temple

Monday, September 26, 2011

26 Sep 2011

Hello once again family from what's been a very sunny and hot Guayaquil for the past week! It's also been one of the craziest weeks I've seen here on the mission! After last Monday things were pretty crazy in getting the Rodriguez family married and baptized, which happened Thursday and Friday respectively! But it all wasn't a cake walk this past week in getting those things accomplished. We had to help the entire family get excited and and leave their "cold feet" feelings behind! I think Elder Badger and I could be professional motivators after all the uplifting we had to do this week! I've attached a photo of the entire Rodriguez family before their baptism! After all was said and done, I could actually take a breath and gather all my thoughts after running around our sector like crazy.
 
Now I could just end that story right there and move on, but I'll give you the rundown of Thursday and Friday: Thursday is the day when marriages can be performed in the Registro Civil here in Guayaquil, and only from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm can they be done. Well, our intention was to go at 1 pm, so we could have enough time to get Tony and Fidencia married, here's where the first case of cold feet comes in. We call Tony to see where he's at and when he'll be back, he tells us 2:30 we'll go. 2:30 arrives, still not at the house, so we call again, and now 3:30 is supposedly when we'll go. 3:30 arrives, and now we're worried, because we have only an hour to pull off the marriage, but Tony is at his house. We leave at 3:50ish for Registro Civil, really pushing our luck with the time at this point. 4:00 right on the dot and we arrive at Registro Civil, and there is a problem, we need two witnesses for the ceremony, but we only have one. So putting in to practice what we've learned as missionaries, we start talking to random people in the street asking them if they could just give us 15 minutes of their time to be a witness to a marriage. Well, that wasn't very productive, so back inside we find out that another couple is getting married as well, so we kindly ask a lady who was going to be a witness for that marriage to be a witness for ours as well. She agrees, so we're good on that point, but we're really short on time. 4:25ish or so, Tony and Fidencia start to fill out the papers and all that legal mumbo jumbo. 4:45 arrives, yes, past the 4:30 limit, but they can still go forth with the ceremony. 4:55 and they are shutting the doors as the ceremony is about to start! AGGGGH! Luckily everything goes through fine, Tony and Fidencia are legally married, so that's one heavy weight off our shoulders!
Friday and the BAPTISM! And that came with it's fair share of obstacles as well! This time it was sister Fidencia who got the cold feet on us. The baptism was planned for 11 am Friday. We passed by them at 9:30 or so to let them know that in an hour we'll be leaving for the Chapel to have the baptism. 10:30 rolls around, and Fidencia has left her house to buy meat for their small business they have! NOOOOO! 11:15 and she arrives, just taking her time and putting us in another tight spot. We kindly tell them that "hey, everyone is in the chapel awaiting your arrival, we've got to go now!" 11:40 we get to the chapel, so the baptismal service doesn't start until about 12! But all went well with the baptism, it was a super spiritual experience, but not all of them were confirmed on Sunday, so with General Conference this week, Tony and Fidencia will have to be confirmed on 8 October. Their son Justin, who had the most excitement to be baptized throughout all the commotion, was confirmed Sunday and really loves being a part of the Church!
 
Can anyone top my crazy week? I don't think so!
 
This week will be more calm, or so I hope so! I don't think I've been so tired in my life after this past week! Good thing P-Day is today, and even better that General Conference is this weekend!!! I'm ready for yet another spiritual boost from the Prophet and Apostles! Yet another round of transfers are coming up on Sunday night, so who knows if I'll be going anywhere...
 
There you have this week's update from Ecuador! And nothing new on the move to our new house. The mission office has been delaying some things for a while, so I'm not too sure when we'll make that move. It still might be a while!
 
Have a great week family and thanks for your updates!
 
I love you all!
 
PS: (Photos are of the baptism, my awesome Ecuador national team jersey, and the many languages of the Book of Mormon we have in our house: English, Spanish, French, Quicha (native dialect here in Ecuador.)) Enjoy!
--
Elder Garrett Cederquist
MisiĆ³n Ecuador Guayaquil Sur

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