Ecuador Quito Mission: Banos

¡hola!

Well today as a zone we went to Pailon del Diablo. It is a REALLY STRONG waterfall in Baños and seriously it is so pretty and really just puts me in awe about nature and about the creations of God. I seriously love this beautiful planet, and especially beautiful Ecuador and its wonderful waterfalls. We got completely soaked again, and so we came back super cold, so we were happy to put on nice warm clothes. Just my hair has a nice after effect of the humidity of Baños and being soaked :)

This week I kept focusing on focusing on the spirit and really noticed a difference. This week a ton of appointments fell through, everyday. And we were found where all of our appointments, including backup plans, were null and we weren´t sure what to do. But, this week I noticed alot more of the hand of God in this work, and I am convinced its because we turned to Him more. We found ourselves praying to Him, letting Him guide us, and really trying to focus on what the Spirit was saying. And I know that if we keep doing that, we will see a huge difference.

One miracle was that we were walking in the rain going over to try and find someone we had contacted a couple of days earlier. While walking there, we noticed some kids huddled under a poncho running to their house, and then they noticed us. They all started waving, and we waved thinking it was probably some little kids that wanted to wave to the two gringas, but then one of the kids asked us if we remembered him, and then it clicked in my mind that it was the kids of the person we were headed to. So we said yes, and we asked if they were going to their house and if their mom was home, they said yes, and then they showed us to their house. Their house was really complicated to get to and so we never would have found it if we hadn´t had run into them. They are a cute little family, and we haven´t been able to visit with them again, but we are praying that we find them this week. We were really grateful for that little "coincidence" or better said miracle from God.

We also were able to visit with 2 other new families this week that are really great and seem like they have a lot of desire to follow God and to learn more about Him, we have been praying to find a family and we were able to find 3 this week. I know that families can help each other progress and really come to God, so I am grateful for the chance to be teaching them and helping them to know the way that can bless their family.

We have 2 progressing investigators right now, and they are really great! One is Fernando, and he is a 18 year old boy and has a ton of desire to know God and to follow Him. One thing that really respect about him, is his prayers. He really has such sincere prayers and pours his heart out to God, and with that desire we have seen him grow over the last 2 weeks and really have come so much closer to God. The other is Patricia, she is great and has been really doing all she can to follow God and to change her life for the better. She loves what she sees in the church and she wants her daughter to grow up in the atmosphere of the church. We are excited to be working with her as well and to really see the change in her from the gospel. They both have baptism dates for the 8th of October, and we are praying for them.

Hermana Bench and I are getting along great as well. We work hard and I love her desire to work and her desire to just do that much more. She is great and I love working with her.

It was a great week and I really love this work and these people.

Con mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Me with Fernando (our investigator), Gaby (a member, and his girlfriend), and Jessica (the less active we have been working with). I love them!

Us with a member that came with us for the afternoon

We had divisions this week and I was with Hna Loayza, she is great

¡Buenas Tardes!

Today as Hermanas we went to Baños again and went to the zoo there! It was really cool! I especially enjoyed all the monkeys, they had some pretty cool monkeys and a lot of them as well. I enjoyed the morning with the hermanas and getting to know more of this beautiful country where I have the opportunity to live right now. I will include some pictures :) It is also really humid in Baños so my hair was going crazy!

Also it is "summer" here. But, there summer is when it is really cold and rains alot. I am not really quite sure how that works out, but thats what everyone keeps saying. But, it rained like everyday all day for the last 4 days, it rains a lot here, but not that much, and its been so cold!!! The only downside of wearing a skirt all day, is that when it is cold and windy, your legs are cold. But, gratefully I am always warm in my bed, with my 2 blankets, soaks, and sweatpants :) I feel like I am probably not actually in Ecuador.. haha

beautiful Ambato

Mira Flores just likes to be a challenging area, but we keep going and working and we are giving it our all. It is a good thing we enjoy contacting. :) I am doing good and really a lot less worried about the numbers and that as a gauge of success, I have been starting focusing alot more on what would the Lord think about the effort I gave that day. I am not a perfect missionary and I have a lot to improve still, but I know that the Lord knows my heart and sees that I am trying to do my best. I just got to keep moving forward and doing whatever I can to help the people in my surroundings. We are doing a lot better at contacting every family, it doesn`t matter if we are running for an appointment or not. I had that goal before, but somehow it got pushed down on the list, I have reput it as number one, because that should be our focus finding families to help them to become an eternal family. So that is my goal this week, to talk to EVERY family. Maybe we might be running between every contact so that we can still get to our appointment, but I am really going to focus on this and ask in my prayers for help to really accomplish this goal.

This week we were able to talk to Stanley more about baptism. We committed him to pray about the date of the 18th and asking God for help to prepare himself for that day. He didn`t accept a date, but he is preparing himself, and he is reading in the BOM everyday and he has come to church the last 3 weeks in a row all 3 hours. We just have to teach more clearly repentance so he has a desire to be baptized and be baptized as soon as possible. He just wants to be sure he isn`t going to break a commandment after his baptism, so thats a good thing.

We were able to visit with a member this week, who we have been wanting to visit since I have got here, we just haven`t been able to get a hold of her to set up an appointment. And she is the greatest! She has 2 years as a member, but has a lot of difficulties and is fighting with a lot of opposition from her kids, they are all grown up. And she said in her prayer after the lesson thanking God for sending us to her, because we were exactly what she needed in this moment. It really made me feel grateful for this calling and time I have to dedicate myself to the Lord, because we are able to be answers to peoples prayers and quite often. Sometimes I don`t think to much about that aspect, and then moments like this remind me that we really are servants and representatives of Jesus Christ in every moment and I can`t take for granted all these moments we have to be answers to peoples prayers. It really is a great blessing we have.

We had divisions with the Hermana Leaders this week and I was with Hna Peralta. She is a really great missionary and I learned alot from her, one thing that she mentioned was testify more frequently in the contacts. I sometimes find myself wanting to teach the person so bad that I start trying to convince them, but that never works. I have put that in to practice and I always feel good and full of the spirit walking away from a contact, whether they said no or yes. Because, I know that I was teaching with the Spirit helping these people feel something from our message. Hopefully I don`t forget that again. I just love divisions, it is a time to learn something from the Hna Leaders and really reflect about the work that I am doing in my sector. We also were able to find some new investigators for them and they are really great and seem really prepared to hear this message. I was really happy to find them and I hope that the Hna Leaders can help them to progress.

Also there is a less active here in our sector who has been less active for over 30 years, and we contacted her about a month ago and have been trying to visit with her. At first she didn`t really trust us and always avoided a lot of contact with us, but this last week we were able to visit her and were able to share a message about the importance of keeping the promises we make with God. Then a couple of times this week she thanked me for actually teaching her something and helping her to recognize that if she is going to make a promise with God, she is going to keep it. Hopefully we can help her to realized what kind of promise she made with baptism and help her to have a testimony of our church.