so elder uceda came this week and it was incredible!! seriously i felt like i recieved so much of what i needed for the last 4 months of my mission.
wednesday we had a conferece with the 5 zones of guayaquil. everything went well with singing and leading and playing the piano, and he never did interviews so it was good! he is super loving and nice and not intimidating! he talked a lot about obedience to the mission manual and especially never being alone for about 20 minutes and we found all the refrences aobut not being along in the MM. i tried thinking about how that applies to not mission life and I decided it should be the same concept in a marriage and a family. we should always be united with them to avoid any problems... dang it i cant really explain it in words but the spirit made it make sense in my head. hahaha he also talked about our purpose. how it´s INVITE OTHERS TO COME UNTO CHRIST. öthers¨includes our family back at home, our campanion, members and non members. our purpose is not just to baptize. that´s why disobeident missioanries have baptisms. inviting very much includes giving people their agency.
then that night they had the ward council with all the ward leaders. that was awesome. i think it got the members excited. and then ten minutes before 9 elder uceda told president torres he could say goodbye to his ängles¨. cute!!
yesterday we had the consejo de los lideres and basically the whole thing was how to work with members. thats something that i have been struggling with becasue i feel like i dont know how and the ward here isnt too willing to help. but he told us about how we need to have faith in the Lord´s way of doing HIs work and know that it is the best way. He told a story about a guy selling shoes. his boss sent him to africa to sell shoes but when he got there he saw that no one wore shoes and went back to the states saying there was a mistake. so the boss sent a different guy and when he got there seeing no one wearing shoes, he got excited and saw that everyone was a potential client. we need to approach our areas the same way. when we see a weak ward we should look at it positively, excited that there is a lot of work to be done. yesterday i recieved the answer of why i have been sent back to almendros. and that is to strengthen the ward. yesterday only 70 people were at sacrament meeting. elder uceda said that we are not here to get numbers or to just baptize alone. we are here to establish and strengthen the church. i am so excited to work this week with the members and to reactivate families. I know that this is what the Lord wants us to do here and will bless us as we do His will. i know it will influence missionaries in the future when they come to this ward too. it´s going to be hard but we´re going to do it! if we want something we´ve never had we have to do something we´ve never done! so there ya go. oh he also told us how when he was trainging to become a mission president, president packer said taht one dya there would be so much wickedness in the us that south america would have to sustain the church. that humbled me reeeeal low. i have always been super prideful of how the church runs perfectly in the states, sometimes wishing i could be there, underestimating the power of the poeple here.
anyway. that´s just a fraction of what i learned this past week. i wish i could write it all.
oh an hermana in the ward gave us crab.... nassstyyyyy. my companion was trying to get me to eat the poop juice covered insides in the head part but i was like uh uhhhh. i ate the meat in the legs which wasnt too bad but not worth all the vaina trying to break it open.
my companions feet are not doing well at all. she said she thinks she wont be able to make it for 9 more months with the pain. poor thing. but shes so awesome. she just wants to work so she wont call the enfermeras so she just deals with it. pray for her feet!
just bear juan your testimony and tell him that he just needs to keep building his faith by reading, praying and going to church. and at church he can find someone to chat with about his questions about the gospel.
mmkay well i´m out of time. i want you to know that i have a testimony of this gospel. i know it is true! i know Christ is my Savior and that His authority is only found in this church. I know that by that authority, our family is eternal. i love you all so so much!!!
hermana bytheway
