#37 La Chocalatera

So, last monday we went to the chocalatera... which to my surprise and dismay actually doesnt sell chocolate! how disleading. haha but no the chocolatera is the piont most west of all of ecuador, and like most of South America i think. its pretty cool. we didnt have a lot of time though so we couldnt see all of it, so we are going to ave to go back. but it was still fun.

  Also, this week we were with the familia Sosa, the family that we babtised the grandpa Silvio last week, and well first  off they are just so aesome. i love that familia so much! theyre the bomb. but so we were with them and the dad Henry said that his neigboor there were some less active members and also some investigators that had heard the misionaries before but nothinghappened. but we were like well could you come with us and introduce us to them. and he was like of course! so we went over and they let us in and we taught them and it was a super good lesson, and they all commited to coming to church! and this sunday, Magdalena the mom, Damaris, Marisol, Sussana, and Ismael all came to church!! Sussana and ismael are less acvtives, but the rest are investigators. and they are aesome! they all said they really like church, and tomorrow we have a family home evening with them and the Sosa´s, which is going to be awesome. we´re going to make Tacos! jaja but they are awesome and we are super excited to be working with them!

  we´ve also been able to get a few other referals this week which is awesome, because we have had a super hard time getting any refereals. but when you ut your mind and might to it and trust in the Lord anything is possible! and i know that refereals is one of the best way to get new investigators that will progress! well besides that everything is going well here in Libertad. hope you all are doing great!

love,

Élder Taylor

#36 Bautismos

  alright, so the highlight of this week was the weekend. this saturday, we had the babtisms of Gina Rodriguez and Silvio Sosa! i love these people so much! it was such a happy day!! its just one of those feelings you cant describe but just makes you smile super big. i wasable to babtize gina, and it was such a great experience to be the one to affect the ordinance for her. and silvios son babtized him. and that was so special to see the love in the family as everyone was there to support their grandpa, and especially the son was able to babtize his own father, after waiting soo many years for this day. it was really special. now Silvio has the goal to go to the temple, and in a year be sealed to his wife for all of the eternities. thet day will also be so special!

  the other highlight obviusly was yesterday, when i got to talk with the family. i dont think theyres words to express how much i love my family. it was especially special to also be able to talk with my sister whos in New Jersey on her mission. i love my family so much and miss them, but its this very thought annd feelings that helps me be motivated to help families have this same love and unity. ive seen so many families thatsadly just dont have this love or just arent close as a family, and i know that if the just had the gospel how much difference it would make in their lives. also i encourage you everyone to always be looking for missionary oportunities. there are so many people in this world just waiting to hear the gospel, and you could be the one to bring it to them. well i love you all sooomuch and hope everyone had a great motheres day and that you all have a great week.

love,

Elder Taylor

#35 Vaccinations

  well first off, sorry for not writing anything last week. i had to go to guayaquil monday for a leadership council and spent the whole day there, and didnt have anytime during the week. and now i dont even know where to start.

  well this past week all the missionaries here had to go to the ospital and get vacinations. so that was NOT fun. i dont like needles. or shots. and especialy when they are a suprise. but it turned out all good and i didnt die or faint. 

  also cool story, on my way back from guayaquil, which is a 2 hour trip n bus, i sat next to this guy, named elias, and we started talking. and well basically he told me his whole life story. but its a very interesting story so i didnt mind. but to make a long story short, there is this frute called pitajiya, that supposedly is super healthy and good for the body and the use it on asia. and this lady from ecuador went to asia and found this plant and liked it and smuggled it into ecuador. and started growing it. and then this guy elias saw the plant and liked it even more and baught it from the lady and started growing it and now has plantations and is the main guy in all of ecuador for this frute and is doing contracts to export it all over the world. so it was really interesting hearing all about that. and i also got to teach him a shortened version on the restoration, so hopefully one day that will cause him to have more interest in the church. 

   also, one of our investigators, named Silvio, who was going to get babtized on the 23rd of this month, the other day told us that it would be better to do it sooner, and so now he is getting babtized this saturday!! he already had all the lessons,so it wasnt a problem, and he had his interview yesterday and is all set for saturday! love that guy.

   also Gina had her babtismal interview yesterday also, and so she is all good for her babtism this saturday! so this week we will be having 2 babtisms! so we are super excied about that! 

   we also have been working still with dayanara and her mom, and her mom said she prayed and now knows that joseph smith was a prophet!! she is super awesome. and so we put a babtism date for them both for the 30th of may. the mom still has some challenges, but we are working them out and are really working towards here babtism for the 30th! we have also found some really good new investigators taht we are excite to be working with.

   well, i think that all for this week. i hope you are all doing super well and have a great week!!!

love,

Élder Taylor

#34 Sick for 3 days

  alright, so ill be honest, i never really know how to start these letters. creo que sería mas fácil en español. jaja okay so this week was interesting. both me and my companion fell sick for about 3 days, so 3 days we only worked for about 3 hours per day. so that was a little rough and frustrating. the worst thing on a mission is to not be able to work. but thankfully we are feeling better now. but this tuesday we had a lesson with a referal, the father of a member here, and he wants to be babtized! he is a little older and doesnt here too well so its always fun teaching him because we are almost yelling the whole lesson. but he is super awesome. his babtism is scheduled for the 16th of may, and he is super animated for it.

  also we are still working with dayanara. she  attended this week and wants to get babtized, but her mom says its too quick. but what is awesome is that at first we have only been teaching dayanara and her mama didnt want anything. but me and my comp wanted to teach them both obviously, and so we made plans to get the mom involved, and we have been trying to talk to her every time we go to visit her daughter. and then finally this week she accepted to listen to us!! so now we have tought her 2 times with her daughter and comitted her to come to church this next sunday! so thats super exciting and we´re praying that she can come and that her heart will be touched and then that she can be babtized with her daughter.

  Gina is doing well. she couldnt attend this sunday because she had to go to quayaquil. but she is still super excited and wanting to be babtized, so her and her daughter will be babtized now the 9th of may! they are both super awesome and excited and doing really well! just pray that nothing comes up to hinder them from being able to atttend this sunday!

  well we are working with some othr people also that we are excited to see how things go. well i love you all and hope all is well with everyone!

love,

Élder Taylor

#33 He Lives!

 well this week has been awesome! first off, i met a guy who speaks greek. he lived in greece for like 4 years. also he has been all araound the world. this guy is awesome. well so you know he is a grandpa now, but he is super cool, and has been teaching me some greek in exchange for teaching him some english! so ya, basicaly im fluent in Greek now.. jana

  also, we have an investigator, her name is Dayanara. we have been teaching her for about two weeks now, and this past week, we put a babtism date with her! she had been reading all the scriptures we had been leaving her, and said she had prayed and felt good, and believes that this things are true. so me and my companion talked and decided that ya we should invite her to babtism, and she accepted! so her babtism date is scheduled for the  25th of april. also, we were able to bring her to confrence this week, and she assisted the last session on sunday! so we are super excited to keep working with her

  also, it was so great, because this week we had really been working hard to get people to conference. the past week, we didnt have anyone in church, so we were a little worried about the same thing happening again. but we worked and prayed and worked and prayed some more, and every single one of the people who we had planned to come to conference showed up! it was such a miracle! i know that God really does answer our prayers, though its also necisary that we put in our part! but Maria attended with her son Josue, and also monica and Gina. this was the first time we were able to get Gina to come, and she said she really enjoyed it and felt good. we are super excited to keep working with her, because she is so awesome, and has a real desire to know the truth.

  also, another cool thing, is that we were talking to one of the members yesterday, and she told us that one of our recent converts was struggling, and had decided to not go to conference. but then that me and my companion had decided to call her to see how she was and if she was coming. the member told us that the recent convert almost didnt pivk up, but she answered and because we called right in the moment she decided to go to conference. and that it was a great experience and that it helped her a ton! its seriously the best feeling to know that i helped someone whom ive grown to love in her time of need, even with something so small as a little phone call. Well i know this is the Lords work, and that our Savior Jesus Christ lives and helps each and every one of us if we call his name with faith. he is always willing to help us. so let him in. i love you all and hope you all enjoyed conference and could learn something new. i hope you all have a fantastic week!

love,

Èlder Taylor

#32 Parade

well, this week me and my companion found ourself in the middle of a parade! we were just walking going to one of our appiontments, at around 7 at night, and all of a sudden we notice there are a ton of people in the street. they had flags they were waving around and there were some people dancing and there was music and all sorts of stuff. it was crazy! we were so confused tho, so we asked what was going on, and apperently here in Libertad every year they have this party/parade where they dance thruogh the streets and even have some floats and stuff. so that was pretty cool to see.

this week we have had some new investigators and some really good lessons. we had one with a man named Cristian. he is super awesome, and said he prayed about joseph smith, and believes he is a profet! he said he felt super good when he prayed ad asked! the only problem is with his work he hasnt been able to attend church yet. so we are working to ry and find a way to keep him to attend; hopefully he can attend General Conference!

also, this week, i had a super cool experience. as we were heading to one of our lessons, we were passing by a house, and i saw a lady sitting in her doorway. a said hi to her as we passed, and she waved back, and i had the thought to talk with her. but we were in a hurry so we kept going to the leson we had scheduled. but after the lesson we passed by her house again, and she was still there, and this time yes we did stop and talk with her. and shes awesome! she aid usually she doesnt talk to people when they come and stop by like we did, but said for some reason she did with us. and she let us in and we were able to teach her the restoration, and it was a really good lesson! she is super awesome, and im excited to see how things progress with her!

well, i love you all, and hope you have a great week!

love,

Élder Taylor

#31 Guayas

well, this week felt super short. and even crazier is that today starts a new transfer. time flies so fast! but this week was aesome becasue we were able to go to guayaquil! tuesday afternoon we left on the bus (its a 2 hour trip) and got there that night. slept there at the temple, the same place i stayed when i very first got here to ecuador. and the best part though, hot showers!! first hot shower in like 7 months. that was nice. ha but then wednesday morning super early, we got to go to the temple and do a session! so that was actually even better then the hot shower. haha it is always so awesome to be able to attend the temple with all the other missionaries and with president. then after the temple, we had a confrence with president, that was amazing, like always. president is so wise its ridiculous. i seriously just wish i could download all his knowledge. that would be so useful. or pull like a Spock and see everything. but even not being able to upload intelegince, i learned so much from him. then after the conference it was pouring, so we got wet waiting for a taxi. and my shoes i was wearing have holes in them, and i stepped in a puddle and the water went right through and soaked my socks! haha so that was fun, but it was all good i the end, as we took the bus back to Libertad. the rest of the week went well, we{ve been able to find some new investigators, and were able to have a few of them at church! but they couldnt stay the full 3 hours which was a bummer. but me and my companion are excited to start this new transfer and are sure that this transfer is going to be even more succesful then the last! well i love you all and hope you all are going well!

love,

Elder Taylor