6 Week Review

After 6 weeks in Ecuador, the missionaries met to review the goals they had set at their new missionary training. 

1st Transfer in Sedalana

Well, I've been in Sedalana for one transfer and it has kind of flown by. I have learned a lot by learning how to lead the sector and tell my future companions about the people and about the sector. But I also have a ton to learn in Spanish and how to just be a better teacher. 

This week a lot of funny stuff happened. To give some context we are teaching a young woman and she is progressing and going to church a lot. She practically is a member at this point and all she needs to do is be baptized and she will be a member. Well she is from a different area and is staying with her aunt to be able to teach her. We were just going to do a video chat lesson and got an audio message from her aunt yelling at us that we should be doing lessons in person. So we went to the house and started teaching and her little 4 year old daughter came into the room, had some water and threw up all over the floor and was super close to my companion. That was kind of funny to have something happen in the middle of a lesson but also hard to get on topic. 

We also knocked on a door and out came a young woman and we asked her if her parents are home and then she just stared at us for what felt like 20 seconds and said that her parents are all atheist and that they don't want to hear our message. We just walked away laughing. 

I also gave a talk in church just yesterday and the topic was given to us 3 days before so we had some time to think up something to say. We talked about how we can share the gospel like the Savior. I shared something about how we can share the gospel through our examples and through the joy and happiness we find through living the gospel, We also put 2 fechas down for baptisms this week. We have them planned for back to back weekends in April so we will see if they actually happen or just fall. It seems we've had a lot of fechas fall just because the people just don't go to church and we can't have lessons with them. It's been frustrating but we are finding a lot of people to teach and we've found a few who seem interested so that is exciting. 

That's pretty much been it this past week. Nothing else really crazy or exciting this week happened. I'm not sure if the ward or area will do something for Easter but we will see how next weekend goes since people just party every weekend. Yesterday Ecuador played against Italy and they lost and everyone was outside drinking and blasting classic Latino music so the weekends are sometimes rough to get through. 

That's pretty much all for this week.

Miss all you guys,

Elder Roper

Behind The Clouds

Safe to say that the sun was behind the clouds the last couple of weeks because this week it decided to come out and be really really hot. Elder Knudson said that it's worse when it rains then the sun comes out since it's super Humid and then the sun comes out and just makes it even hotter. It's also really fun eating a hot bowl of soup while it feels like 100 degrees outside. 

But another thing than the sun being behind the clouds this week has reminded me of a Brad Paisley song "Behind the Clouds". This Thursday we had another day of citas or meetings falling and then not being able to find anyone. Then that night the power decided to go out and I woke up to our fans not working and being super confused why they weren't working then walking to the kitchen and seeing the whole block with no power. I was completely convinced that the power would be out for 3 hours and we wouldn't be able to sleep at all that night. But then around 15 minutes later the power was back on and all was well. 

Then I think it was both this past Friday and Saturday that we were actually able to teach some lessons and actually find some people too. So the "sun" was behind the clouds those days and it finally came out too. I think I have learned a lot about patience with finding people and also with our investigators on when they can meet and if they have been learning and reading. 

Thursday morning we also did some service for a member in the ward who doesn't have any legs and his brother was going to make it possible so that he doesn't just have a shower but also a bathtub too. His brother invited us to do some service but he just ended up doing everything and just watching what he is doing and trying to learn and trying to help. We haven't been able to do much service here in Sedalana but I guess if you go out in the boonies there is a lot of service for the missionaries to do. 

We also have some friends that are progressing but are progressing very slowly and just won't come to church. They say that they are reading and praying but we just can't get them to church. Then the people who are really progressing towards baptism seem to not want to meet with us or just have been super super busy this past week. I think that's the hardest part of this past week is when we have lessons with the people who are progressing and they just say they aren't home or we go there and they just aren't home. 

Sorry for the short Email but this week it was just kind of a repeat of last week. Some days were really good and we found 2-3 new people and some days we didn't find anyone and none of our lessons went through and just went home hoping the next day would be a little better than the last. Something a little funny is that we were teaching a mother and the little 4 year old boy was bothering her and just really being annoying, she went and got the belt and the little kid still was bothering her mom saying that he wasn't scared of her and the belt. As soon as she got up he ran away screaming and started crying. The same thing happened the second time we visited them this week too. It was kind of funny but not at the same time. 

Anyways, I just want to remind everyone that there is a "sun" hiding behind the clouds of our lives. We just have to be patient and wait for the clouds to pass us by and then we know that the sun is still there. 

Miss all you guys

Elder Roper

A Lucky Penny

Week #2 leading the sector in Sedalana

This week has been fun but also very tiring and a little frustrating. We once again pushed a truck and once we got it going fast enough the owner got in the truck and started it up. I'm not really sure how that works but we only pushed it like half a block so it wasn't too hard. We also walked out of our area two separate days and we didn't even know it. The first time a member thought we were lost and called us over and said the road we went down is out of the area. Then the next time we were walking down and I didn't recognize any of the houses and told Elder Knudson that this isn't in our area. We turned around and our District Leader and his comp was just a block down. So we talked to them about where our area ends and where their area starts. 

It also felt like we DE'd or decided we're not gonna teach a few people that are just not progressing and aren't coming to church. It felt like we cleaned out all of our people that we were teaching and so we had to find some new people this week. But Friday I think we tried talking to 8 or 9 different doors and we either got their Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelists, or just "busy". We didn't find anyone. Earlier that day we were supposed to take two of our friends to the temple but they never responded to our texts and wouldn't answer their phones. So safe to say Friday was a bit of a rough day. I think all of our time to meet with people fell through and we just stayed in contact all day. 

Then Saturday was a big turn around. I found a really beat up penny in the middle of the street and Elder Knudson said that might be our lucky penny. Safe to say it was our lucky penny. I think we found 1 or 2 people Saturday and found 4 yesterday. All of our lessons or at least most of them we were actually able to teach and we both seem to be getting to know the people and sector pretty well. 

I can't remember what day it was this week but we also listened to another BYU devotional from Elder Holland called "Remember Lot's Wife". It is a super good talk and has some really good quotes for example "We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future." This quote I really like because sometimes we can look back and only see the ashes or the bad stuff that has happened when in reality the embers are the brightest parts and in a fire the easiest to see. I'll leave the link to the talk in this email and also a song that Elder Knudson showed me that we can listen to here that's probably the closest we can get to normal music. 

 

To finish up this week was a little rough but without the rough days you can't have the good days. (2nd Nephi 2:11) But there were many learning experiences from either Elder Knudson or just new stuff that I have learned. 

Miss all you guys

Elder Roper

Remember Lot's Wife

All We Need

Emergency Transfers

This week started pretty normal with Elder Velasco. We were just doing normal missionary things during the week and doing some pretty normal service around the ward. This included pushing a taxi that had run out of gas about half a mile and then the same night helping a family move but getting into the back of the moving van with all of the stuff to get to the new house. Safe to say it was a pretty fun week and was going pretty well. We had about 5-6 friends progressing and it felt close that they were actually interested and wanted to eventually get baptized. 

Then we get home Friday night and the APs call us and tell us that we have Emergency Transfers and they can't say why they are transferring us. I don't know why but that was the worst to hear about why they were transferring and I just got the worst feeling ever. Having led a sector I only have been here for 4 weeks and have to figure out how to know the sector and have to kind of figure it out. But here I am two days later so we are all good. 

My new companion is Elder Knudson and he's from Virginia and has 22 months in the mission. So that has been kind of hard, him talking about home and what he's going to go do when he gets home so that is hard but other than that he's a really good missionary and I have a lot to learn from him. He has helped me with a lot of things and just is doing his best to get to know the sector. 

But about pushing the taxi, both of our lessons fell through and a guy was pushing his taxi that ran out of gas. We decided to help and then I looked at Elder Velasco wondering how long we would push it for. Then we pushed it for about half a mile, then after a few lessons our ward mission leader called us to help move a family. We helped move a fridge and freezer which might be the sketchiest thing I've ever done, going down steps that are less than 6 inches wide holding a big fridge. Then after we got everything packed up I asked how we were going to get to the house and we just climbed in the back of the moving van. 

Anyways, kind of a crazy week but it's been fun. We listened to a BYU devotional from Brother Wilcox called the Grace of the Atonement or the Grace of Jesus Christ. Go listen to it, it's only I think around 30 minutes and is very very good. 

Hope all is well at home and miss all you guys

E Roper