6 Feb 2012 My New Companion Is 6 Foot 5...

Hello family! Wow, this last week went by really fast, especially with getting things prepared for the baptism of Jose Luis, which we had Saturday night! It was a fantastic experience, and we had so much support from the ward it was incredible! And yet again, the adage of the mission applies here: Have success, get transferred. But this time it's not me who's on the move, it was Elder Alvarez, who was sent to Loja this morning! Crazy I tell you! The Companion Counter clicks once again, this time to number 13! My new companion goes by the name of Elder Herrera, from Bogotá, Colombia! He has 7 months on the mission, and measures a very tall 6 foot 5 inches! I seem to always be looking up with most of my companions, even more now! But I suppose that is a good thing!

This last week went by fast, but it seemed kind of slow because we weren't having too much success in the way of finding and teaching people. That was Monday to Friday! Saturday and Sunday all the blessings I thought I wasn't receiving through the work we've been doing all came, and there were many! One of those worries I had was that we wouldn't have many members from our ward attend, even though we had been announcing the baptism all week. But not only did the members show up, another ward also had baptisms that night, and members from that ward had came as well! The attendance was basically double what I thought it would be! It was great! 

Also, the family of Jose Luis wasn't sure if they'd be able to attend, but the made some arrangements and all of them showed up! They said it was a great experience, and the mom even said "I want to be the next one (baptism)." We put a baptismal date with her, but she didn't quite accept, but just seeing the reaction she had to the baptism makes me think she will accept a date to be baptized! The sisters of Jose Luis however, did accept dates for the 25th of the month, so we will be working diligently with them to get them all prepared! The first five days of last week were more or less, but Saturday and Sunday things really started rolling, a much needed boost for me in this sector!

It's going to be a good time working for the next few weeks, as we have a lot of potential baptismal candidates, those we know, and those that we've not come into contact with!

Awesome to hear that the Giants won, I think I mentioned to Dad last week that I would be rooting for them! Sounds like the news is still crazy, wow. Sad to hear that things like that happen.

Well, things are still good around here, still hot and rainy most days! I think I'll be glad when it's just hot later on this year!

The photos are from the baptism!

I love you all, have a fantastic week!

--
Elder Garrett Cederquist
Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur