Hey everyone what's up? Hope Christmas was all good. I'm betting you guys passed in in cooler temperatures than I did, hopefully with more snow too. If Monticello doesn't have more snow than Esmeraldas right now, it's gonna be a rough summer.. . I enjoyed talking with all of you. I was informed of some of the people that read my blog. I know it's late, but Merry Christmas to Jimmy & Carol Forrest. I hope it passed well and that your family is doing well. Thanks for all the prayers and support. This week was fairly hard. The work here is hard, but we just have to keep working with what we have. This Sunday nobody felt the need to attend so that was rough. Our two persons that were going to be rescued didn't attend so that's delayed for more time. we worked hard to find new people and everything but right now it's just hard. But we are going to keep working. For Christmas, we had a zone meeting, We had lunch, and we called our families and went to the house at 5 p m. Then we studied for the majority of the time. We ate a little, and ya it was good, listened to all the music they were playing around our house which wasn't what I'd call Christmas carols, but ya ha ha, I'm all good. I have a new shirt with a calculus equation on it and i have new belt so life is good in the neighborhood. We had a snow ball fight with the fake snow you guys sent me, It was great. While we were studying a lot this week I read a scripture that I like a lot in 2 cor 9:7,"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, For god loveth a cheerful giver." The scritpure impacted me pretty hard so I began to study a little more with cross references and everything I found in Deuteronomy 15:11 it says,"For the poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore I command thee saying, thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in the land." I also remembered the talk by Jeffrey R. Holland titled "Are We Not all Beggars?" This comes from Mosiah chapter 4 where it also says, "perhaps thou thalt say, the man has brought upon himself his misery, therefore i will stay my hand. . .Wherefore, oh man, I say unto you, whoseover doeth this, the same hath great cause to repent. . For are we not all beggars, wo we not all depend on the same being, even god, for the substance which we have." It was right there when I thought, ya know, our job is not to judge the poor or how they became poor. If our job was to judge them, God would have given it to us. What we need to do is give to those in need, It's not important how they got there. What's important is that we help them. If we do, it says in Proverbs 19:17,"He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him again." Also in Acts 20:35,"it is more blessed to give than to receive." I love this principle, I think one of the members here demonstrates this principle very well. Her name is Evolin, Evolin is really poor. she works every single day selling the bread that she makes every night. She doesn't get a whole lot of hours of sleep every night becuase she is doing things for work. Whenever we visit her, she is usually very tired, but still working hard with her work. There is also something really cool she does almost everytime we visit. She stops everything and makes us some type of lunch or food. She tells us it is becuase she want to do something good for God, so she treats the missionaries well. She is poor but she always has enough to live. It's hard but it's amazing how she, being so tired and busy can cheefully give of what little she has. This is someting that can bless our lives a lot, when we remember those who have less than we do. It is something that has been taught basically forever by the prophets and apostles. That's pretty much what I've got this week, I love you guys. Happy New Years, Talk to you next week. Love you guys.
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Hola everyone! Ya this week was rough. We went to Quito and that was a blast, but with the work. Our week was full of appointments falling and really nothing else. Quito was a blast. We went and we had a small lunch. Then we played some games, shared some messages, and we had a great dinner. It was American and I enjoyed that. Rice every single day is good and all, but that dinner was super good. Hermana Richardson can cook. This week we found two new less active families and that was the good part. It was full of appointments falling, sun, and lots of walking. That's all about all that happened this week. I read a scripture in Romans 14:13 the other day that I like a lot. It said "That no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way." I liked it a lot. It made me think about how important it is to watch the way we treat those around us. In all reality what happens here on earth with work, sports, and life isn't going to matter that much when it's all said and done. What matters most is that we help others along in what matters the most, and that we represent ourselves in way that helps them move along as well. I read another scripture that I like a lot in Romans 14:19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace,and things wherewith one may edify another. If we edify one another we can become like what it says in 1 corinthians 1:10 ,Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord JesusChrist, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be nodivisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together inthe same mind and in the same judgment. Ya well this is what ive got this week. I love you guys. Talk to ya tomorow. We learned that Easton's p-day has been moved to Wednesday due to Christmas. We look forward to hearing from him on Christmas day. Yea, Yea :)
Hola everyone! What's up? Christmas is super close. I hope there is more snow in Monticello than there is in Esmeraldas Ecuador! I'm preparing for my first christmas with temperatures above 90 ever haha! This week was a hard one. The sector is still pretty hard. We had a little more than last week but still not too much. We're still fighting like heck, but we just haven't been able to win lately. We found one person this week that we think has potential, but she didn't attend the church Sunday so we will have to see this week. One of our other investigators didn't attend this week either so we are pretty frustrated. Others attended but still don't want a baptism at this time, so it's pretty hard right now for sure. We just got to keep working. We're headed to Quito this week for a Christmas dinner with the president. I got the packages you guys sent as well. We are all good there. I've now recieved three. Dad the jerky is super good. Here in Esmeraldas they have built some cool lights that hang over the streets. I'll try to get some pics this week. Encebollado is still really good. Oh ya, I was lookin a letter Marci sent me a while back, like right as I got to Ecuador, it said I hopè you don't have to shower out of a bucket. I kind of laughed because I've been showering out of bucket for almost 6 months. I'm pretty much livin the life here in Esmeraldas haha. I don't have a whole lot today. I'm sorry, not a whole lot happened this week. But to end I like 1 corintios 13. the whole chapter is about the pure of life Christ. I love how it says in one of the versus something like this, "though I give all my alms to the poor, if I dont have charity it profiteth me nothing." It's awesome. This Christmas season think about what Christ gave to us, then think about somebody who is not going to have a whole lot this christmas, whether big or small. You should do something for them, but for the right reason always. Then they and you will receive great blessings and will have happy Christmas this year. I'd encourage you all to read the chapter. It's really good. Well I love you guys. I'll talk to ya next week on Wednesday. I won't have p-day Monday next week, but on Wednesday, so just letting you know. Love you guys, see ya later.
Hola everyone! This week was rough. Not a whole lot happened either. We have hit a pretty hard point in our area and trying to work out of it. This week we started feeling pretty good but then our investigators and potential investigators starting falling one by one throughout the week. We contacted tons of people when our appointments fail and of those contacts we felt good about a good chunk of them. Well, we would go to our appointments that we had with them and one by one they fell. Either they were not there, or they didn't want to hear what we had to say. This happened until everyone of those contacts had fallen through and we were left with three or four people. Then one of our three or four wanted to go the temple but something happened and she couldn't so that's a rough situation that were trying to sort out as well. The point is, we're struggling to find people and have success right now, but were just going to keep working like crazy and see what happens. The Lord works in many different ways so we're going to keep working hard, and have faith that by some way we can find success. There is a cool scripture in Omni 1:26 that is really good. "And now my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel,and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption, yea come unto him, AND OFFER YOUR WHOLE SOULS AS AN OFFERING UNTO HIM, and continue in fasting and praying,and endure the end, and as the Lord liveth ye shall be saved." I love that scripture. I´ve thought a little bit about that line, offer your whole soul to him as an offering. I think there are many examples in the scriputres of this. For example with Nephi in 1 Nephi 3:15,"As the Lord liveth and as we live we will not go down. . . until we have accomplished the thing that the lord has commanded." Nothing else mattered to Nephi apart from what the lord commanded. He did what the lord commanded; it was jsut something he did. It didn't matter if it was hard or what. He did it because he loved the Lord. There are many different examples of this in the scriptures, and I hope we can all think about how we can offer our whole soul to him. That's about what I've got this week. I love you guys and I hope to talk to ya next week. Hasta luego.
Hola everybody! This week was awesome! We worked like crazy. Also I'm staying in my area for another change so that's cool. I love my area. First off, we were able to have a baptism this Saturday, and it was awesome. The service was great. The members pulled together to help us a little bit, and it was really just a good solid service. We almost didn't have this baptism. Our ward mission leader filled up the faunt in the morning which we thought was awesome until we went to check everything and found the water was really dirty. He had forgotten to clean the fuant and there was spiders and dirt and gum and all kinds of things in the water. So, we knew we had to drain it, but we didn't have enough time left to drain the water. So, we tracked down a pump so we could pump it back into the well. While that was happening fast enough for 3 1/2 hours, we, my comp and I, used buckets to get it out of the faunt. Then we cleaned it and at around 1:30 we began refilling it. This faunt is huge so we were worried we weren't going to have enough time to fill it up by 4, which was when we had the baptism. Well we said a prayer. We left for 20 minutes to eat and we went back to the chapel and found the font was still almost empty with only 2 hours left. So for two hours we were racing with buckets to fill it up and at 4 o clock exactly we through the last bucket in and we're ready to go. The people got there. We got everything else ready, and we had us a baptism. It was miracle we were able to fill the fuant up in time for sure. That's really what it means when it says "After you have done all that you can do." 2 nephi 25:23. We did all that we could have done and wouldn't ya know it, we made it somehow. We were trully blessed a lot. This week we walked so much. We went to all 4 corners of the earth to find people, not just the corner in Ecuador. . . We are making progress though. I'm really hoping to see some success in December. I feel like we are super close right now with some people. Ya well here in Ecuador we didnt have thanksgiving. They don't celebrate it and I honestly didn't even notice it passed by. However there are some Christmas lights going up around our sector right now. Some are prettty awesome; I need to try to get pictures. This week I was just reading a little bit in the book Marci made for me cause I was bored. I was reading what Michelle said and I read an awesome qoute. I never knew my sister was so wise with words. She said "Never let your pride keep you from learning a lesson that will further your eternal progression and recieving greater blessings." felicitaciones a Michelle Morse for the qoute of the week haha. I immediately thought of Elder Valverde. I dont know if I ever told you guys the story of how I was able to learn so much from him. One night Elder Valverde and I were planning and we were pretty tired and I just wanted to get it done. Well I was a little impatient because I was tired and he started messing around with something. I dont remember what, but I said hey let's get this done, and he could see I was pretty tired and a little frustrated with various things, so he told me we would plan in the morning because if we were to plan right then it woud not have been good at all and would not have served us for anything. I was a little more frustrated at this point so I got up and left the room for a few minutes and layed on my bed for a second or two. Then I went to talk to him and he asked me, why are you acting like a girl? Now just try to imagine what I was thinking at this point. I told him, are serious? I said I'm learning a new language in a new country in a new culture and I'm a little frustrated and I just want to plan and move on with my life. Then he told me, very calmly which also bothered me a little (I dont know why but it did) He said " Those are little things" I about fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe it. He then said, "I've seen you speak the language really well. You have been in this area for awhile so I think you have adjusted just fine. I think your just letting little things bother you. Now at this point, with my pride screaming that I was somehow right, I had two options, continue with what I believed, or give his words a chance. I thank my Heavenly father everyday that I gave his words a chance because from Elder Valverde I was able to learn how to deal with a hard companion. I had to look at myself through his eyes to learn this and realize I was being a little bit of a hard companion. I learned to forget about the little things and really just be a man in the mission. He told me to just be a man. That ticked me off but I gave his words a chance and I learned. Just be positive with everything. I also learned how to be patient from him. I was never a patient person before my mission but I can honestly say I am now a pretty patient person. I can continue to go on with what I learned in two weeks with Elder Valverde. But I will say there is a lot of wisdom behind that qoute. "Never let your pride keep you from learning a lesson that will further your eternal progression and recieving greater blessings." I have a long way to go as a missionary, but I am the missionary I am today because I didn't let my pride win in a situation where I was sure I was right. Thats about all I've got today. I love you guys. Hope to hear from you next week. Hasta luego. |
AuthorThis blog is dedicated to Easton Nielson's mission to Ecuador Quito North Mission. Archives
March 2016
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