Ecuador Quito Mission: Trip to the Volcano!

¡Hola!

I am doing good. I am loving the work! For our pday activity today we went to a volcano, called Quilotoa!! Well.. It is a lake in the pit of once was a volcanoe, but is now dormant. It was super pretty!! The old bad thing was we didn´t have enough time to go down to the lake, because it is quite the hike, but we got some really cool pictures!! I love this beautiful country and the cool places there are to get to know!

This week I focused my studies on the Atonement, and focusing on teaching it as well to help the people have a reason to do the things. Through the Atonement we can find real peace and comfort. Also I read alot about how Christ was the only one that could do it, and that He WILLINGLY sacrificed His life for us. I have heard that many times before, but reading that this week really made me feel the love that He has for me and for the other people. I realized that as I am teaching people, when I am really focused on their needs and their concerns I can feel the love that Christ has for these people, and I truly develop a sincere love for them. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that He sacrificed himself for us and that through Him and this gospel we can find true peace and happiness.

Well this week was good. In our lessons we focused alot on teaching with the commitment in mind and being more specific about what and why of the commandments to get people to commit, and we saw a change. Just no one came to church.. we were a little sad about that. It is always hard being in church and no one had come..

Our investigator Miquel, commited to be baptized this week, really we could see a difference in him and a bigger desire to follow God and be baptized. He came to a baptism on saturday of a kid in the ward to see how it was, and he said he liked it, he was just hesitant with the goal we put with him. We commited him to pray and ask God about the 6th, and he said he would. Then we didn´t come on sunday, even though saturday he was saying he would be there. He doesn´t have a number that we can call, we just have a number of his friend that he is with alot. So we weren´t able to call him in the morning. We are planning on visiting him tonight, and we are hoping we find him. Also our other investigator that had a baptism date, was Dayana. Dayana is the granddaughter of some recent converts who is 18, and she has really been affected by the change she has seen in her grandparents that she wants to join the church as well. She is reading and praying and is commiting to all the commandments that we teach her. She also came to the baptism on saturday and was super excited to come to church. We called her sunday morning, and she didn´t answer, and she didn´t come to church. In the afternoon we called again, and she slept in.. so we are going to be seeing what we can do to help her not to sleep in. They are both great and the faith and desire they have to follow God is awesome and I am learning a lot about seeing the blessings of being a member of the gospel and having a desire to learn.

We had a really powerful lesson yesterday with a less active, Jessica. She has been holding in a lot of feelings of guilt for the past mistakes she has made, and she is so close to really coming back strong, the only thing holding her back is forgiving herself. We shared the scripture in DyC 58:42-43, and we testified to her that God has forgiven her, and as we said that a strong feeling came over me that God truly loved her and that He had forgiven her for her past mistakes, and that He was just waiting for her to come back to Him. We testified that the power of the Atonement really allows you to feel peace that you can recieve a complete forgiveness. At moments the only thing holding us back from feeling this peace completely is ourselves and our unwillingness to let ourselves be forgiven. But, if Christ has forgiven us, why can´t we forgive ourselves? We left her with the commitment to pray and ask for help to forgive herself, and she seemed a lot more hopeful :) I love this gospel and I love the Atonement!

Yo sé que a través de la expiación de Jesucristo podemos sentir un paz y gozo inmenso, podemos sentir el amor que Él tiene para cada uno de nosotros, y podemos perdonar a nosotros mismo. Yo sé porque he sentido esto en mi vida y sé que es para todos. Y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

More pictures of our visit to the volcano: