P-Day 10 September 2012

¡Hola familia desde un Guayaquil muy caliente! Wow, it's been a hot week
here in Guayaquil, not only the temperature, but the work of the Lord is
heating up quite a bit, especially in the last week. More or less, we're
still working in two sectors, so for that reason our success has increased
a little bit! We're looking to have several baptisms not this week, but the
week after, so Elder Rueschmann and I are pretty excited for that. One of
our investigators showed up to church last week and this week and told the
missionaries of that ward that he wants to get baptized, the thing is he
actually lives in our sector, so that was a golden referral they passed
along to us! And tonight, yet another member of our ward has his mission
farewell! That'll be six members that have left on the mission in the time,
five and a half months, that I have here in Amazonas 2. That's what keeps
me excited about the ward, they're very focused on missionary work. There
are even more members who are preparing to leave towards the end of the
year or early next year. Late last week we even met some Ecuadorian Boy
Scouts. Interesting, but they don't have the same program as in the States.
I tried explaining the rank of Eagle Scout to them, but they must call it
something different.

As I mentioned in the beginning, it was a really hot week, I even got a
little burned, but nothing too bad. It appears that the temperature is on
the rise again here in GYE. Wow, can you believe that tomorrow marks 11
years since 9/11? It doesn't feel like it's been that long. I don't know
how, but I still remember just about everything I did on that day, even the
concert we went to that night.

Well family, not too much to report on, but all is going well, the time is
passing by faster and faster every day!

I love you all, un abrazo para todos!

--
Elder Garrett Cederquist
Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur

P-Day 3 September 2012 - 21st Companion

¡Hola familia! Wow, this was a super week! It was only one day that made it
a super week, too, that being Saturday. We had the great privilege to hear
and see in person Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. Wow, that was something incredible! Before the meeting started,
all the missionaries present were able to shake hands with Elder
Christofferson, his wife, and two other Area Seventies, Elder Pino (who we
recently heard from at the end of July) and Elder Vallejo. You can probably
imagine the huge ear-to-ear smile I had on my face after shaking hands with
him. That is definitely a moment I won't forget. What was interesting was
that the message he shared with us wasn't all written out, it was shared by
way of a Question & Answer session he held. He touched on many topics, but
the three that stood out the most were Faith, Pure Love (Charity) and
Confidence. It definitely was a big spiritual feast, a good warm up for
General Conference next month! I took plenty of notes, so I'll have those
to look back on and study.

This week we'll be preparing to have a baptism. There's still some things
to be worked out, but I have the faith that we'll be able to get everything
in line for Saturday! Ah yes, before I forget, I do have a new companion,
Elder Rueschmann, from Ava, Missouri. It's a small town about 4 hours
southwest of St. Louis, close to the city of Branson. He has 22 months on
the mission, so he'll be ending next month! Seems like I'm getting all
those who are ending lately! Soon enough I'll be the one ending, haha, with
this week being 20 months completed for me! And it's already September! The
time has passed by so quickly! And I'm sure the next four months will pass
by even faster!

Well, that's about all this week from Ecuador!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love you all!




                                                   --
Elder Garrett Cederquist
Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur