Mi Primer Hijo en el Desierto (kind of)

To explain the title, I'm training! Kind of, we had transfers this past Thursday and I stayed in La Toma, but I received a new companion since Elder Francom went home last P-day.  We went to the offices to pick up our new companions and they called all of us up and they said I was training and that I would be training Elder Gonzalez!

Elder Gonzalez is from Uruguay and is pretty funny to be around him. He doesn't quite understand the dollar and I have to explain which coins are dollar coins, 50 cent coins and 25 cent coins. It's pretty funny to see his face drop when I told him the half dollar coin is bigger than a quarter. Also how there isn't any tricis in Uruguay and wonder how we set the price. We passed a trici that had a sign saying that one person could go for 30 cents. But it said $0.30 and he asked what 0.3 means. It's pretty funny to be explaining all of the little cultural things to him. He's an awesome Elder and loves to work and is really obedient. If anything, he's training me. He has 4 months in the mission, he had a reassignment in Uruguay and was waiting for his Visa. So he is technically out of his training and I am "adapting" him to this mission. 

This past week our friend Yami finally came to church! We have been trying to get her to come to church and she finally came. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and completing every invitation we give her so I think we will try and put her on a date to be baptized. We also received a member reference and it was the member's girlfriend that wanted to learn more about the church and have the lessons. We talked about having a goal for a date of baptism so I think we will also put her on a date too to be baptized. But other than that it's been a fun couple of days to be leading and trying to be busy during the day. It's safe to say my faith has increased knowing that Heavenly Father is preparing people and putting them in our path. 

It's definitely a big change to go from being a companion to elders with a year or 22 months to going to an elder with 3 months in the mission. We are learning a lot together and trying to try different things out in the sector. It should be a pretty fun couple of transfers here!

But that's all for this week

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper

Transfers

Today is transfer day.

Keaton is now training a new companion - Elder Gonzalez from Uruguay.

Elder Gonzalez has 3 months in the mission.

Keaton is looking forward to working with him!

 

Miracles

This week was quite full of miracles. I think this is the most I've seen the Lords hand helping us out in the work. To start, we found 16 people this week and had 22 lessons with members. The thing is that we didn't knock many doors to find those 16 and were just family members of people we are already teaching. 

To start off this week, we had an intercambio with me leading in the sector and it went really well. At the beginning it wasn't going very well, but when it got later we ran out of time to visit all the people we had planned. We had about 10 minutes between lessons and we decided to knock a couple doors to pass the time and we knocked on a door that didn't look like anyone was home. But it ended up being an hermano that speaks English and even invited us in and we shared a little bit about the book of mormon in English. It was really weird to have a lesson in English, but it went really well. 

Later that night we visited a member that has been excomunicated, but wants to get back into the church. That night we taught his family. Safe to say they're a really cool family and were pretty excited and were also understanding the restoration thanks to the Dad or member of the family. 

We have a lot of potential in the sector right now, so this next transfer should be a fun one. 

We also had a baptism this past Sunday. We have been working hard with Andrea and preparing her for her baptism. We put her on date a couple weeks ago, but then she texted us saying she didn't feel ready. The baptism basically went perfect. There were a lot of members there to support her and to welcome her being a new member in the ward. We also visited her after her baptism and she said she felt so excited and was telling all of her family that she got baptized. She also said she wants to go on a mission which is awesome. 

Also, today Elder Francom finished his 2 years and went home. I have learned quite a bit from him and am very very grateful that he was working and enjoying it up until the end. 

Those are just some of the few miracles that we have seen this past week.

Hope all you guys have a happy 24th of July! 

Miss all you guys,

Elder Roper

Yapingacho

So for those who are wondering what the heck yapingacho means or what it means, it's an Ecuador plate that I think is my new favorite plate here. It's kind of weird but it's potato with a peanut sauce, some sausage, a fried egg, and usually a little side salad of onions or cucumbers. It sounds really weird but it's super super good and there's usually not that much rice which makes it even better. 

This past week we have seen miracles left and right in the sector of La Toma and in the whole entire zone honestly. But to start we had 5 people show up to church this past week. We usually have 2 people that come every week but can't get baptized since they aren't married. Then our fecha baptismal came to church and we think that she will get baptized this upcoming Sunday which is very exciting! Then we have been teaching this older man who has problems with his eyes and just been teaching him and hoping that his testimony would build through prayer. On our way to church we saw him walking to church with his grandson and they came to church! He said he loved it so that same Sunday we tried to put him on a date to be baptized but he didn't feel quite ready to have that goal yet. 

Then the 5th person who came to church was a miracle in itself, last week there was a hermana just kind of sitting in the street with her daughter kind of playing around her. Her daughter called us over and the mom started asking us stuff like where we are from and where we go to church. We immediately got some member vibes and asked if she was a member, she has been a member her whole life and has been inactive for 10 years or so. But this past week she came to church with her whole family which was awesome and she texted after and said to keep visiting her family.

Sunday night we were walking around since we had around 10 minutes before a lesson and we said screw it let's go to a reference where a member said an inactive member lives. We knocked on the door and the hermano asked how we are and what  ward we are from. Safe to say he was a member and has been wanting to get back into the church but just hasn't heard any word from his past bishop or his past ward. We also had found an hermano named Jorge Parredes who works with police, but we gave him a Book of Mormon in the first lesson and he accepted it and he said he WILL read it and we will have a conversation the next time we come by. 

Safe to say we have been seeing quite a bit of miracles in the sector and seeing the Lord's hand a lot !

That's all for this week though.  I hope everyone is having a fun summer! 

Miss all you guys,

Elder Roper

A Special Visitor

We received the visit of Elder Pino Sevententa general authority and Sister Patricia Pino in the Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission, we received inspired messages from them and also from President and Sister Suarez.

 

Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue

Well, I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July and was able to have some fun that day. All day I had "Made In America" and "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" in my head for this past week. Here in Ecuador the soccer team played Argentina and lost so people were pretty sad on the streets. We bought some burgers that were pretty good and then the next morning made us all have stomach aches. 

This week was a pretty eventful week. We had interviews with President this past week and President had us write a talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ with our testimony at the end of it. He also asked us if we could make a list of our favorite scriptures about the Atonement. It was a really cool interview since we just talked about the Atonement and how it has afected my life and Presidents life. He also said that I have a bright future in the mission, so we'll see what's in store for these next couple of transfers. 

This past Sunday Elder Francom and another Elder in a different sector had their last interview with President so I went with another Elder and we found 5 people in their sector on a Sunday. Usually people don't want to talk to us at all on Sunday but people were home and wanted to talk to us yesterday so that was a miracle that we saw this week. Also I don't think I have mentioned Fabian in an email, but he is a recent converts of 6 or 7 weeks and Elder Francom has been working with him so he can keep progressing. Elder Francom gave him one of his white shirts and he ended up blessing the sacrament this past Sunday! He had to say it a couple of times, but he eventually got it all right.  

We also kind of had a baptism, Elder Francom baptized this older lady that was a red dot or a no contact person. He found her at the beginning of his mission and she had been following him all throughout his mission. But this Saturday she was baptized and said ahe was getting ready to go to the temple!

We have a conference with the whole mission with Elder Pino this next week so that's something we have going on next week! 

Hope everyone has had a good week!

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper