Week 34

This week once again not a lot has happened. First of all to answer the questions. YES we do iron our clothes. We have to. A member washes our clothes and puts them in our laundry bag and they get super wrinkly. I just iron my white shirts. We iron every day. We can play volleyball or basketball in the mission, but we don´t play much. For exercises we go to the church basketball court and do sit-ups and push-ups and stuff. The district is ok. Everybody is struggling right now to find people to teach. The district´s numbers are all really low.

This week has been another week that was a bit rough. We are having a lot of problems finding people right now. When I got here they had that problem and almost no investigators, and right now we are trying to fight our way out of the same problem. We have a few investigators that are progressing. Miguel and Danny are progressing really well. Miguel works the nights. He worked from 7 at night until 7:30 in the morning, and he still came to church with us at 9:30 with only 2 hours of sleep. They are reading the Book of Mormon, and they just have to wait on their marriage. They have to go through a special and expensive  process because the kids don´t belong to him. But they are great. Also, we are teaching Juan Carlos. He has problems with the word of wisdom, but we are trying to help him. He is like 23 years old, and is the son of Miguel and Danny. Also, we are teaching a lady named Fanny Jimenez. She is super cool. She always lets us in. She is reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to keep reading it. She said she has desires to read it, and we explained that is was the Holy Ghost. She wants to get baptized like Jesus did, but she won´t accept a baptismal date. Also, she needs to come to church. Those are about all of the investigators that we have right now. Noria told us to stop visiting her because she has to solve personal problems. 

This week we also had a zone conference with Presidente and Hermana Moreno. They are awesome. They talked a lot about the obedience and how if someone doesn´t get baptized or when somebody goes inactive the reason is simple. They don´t understand the doctrine of Christ. Also, this week we contacted a pastor. My second in the mission. We were contacting and we contacted the house next door to the bishop. He opened the door and told us that he was a pastor and he had just barely started a church because he said that he was a prophet. It was a crazy experience. He doesn´t believe in the Godhead, just Jesus Christ. We used a ton of scriptures to tell him how the church really is and how God has a prophet and 12 apostles. We talked for like 30 minutes with him, but of course he was prideful and didn´t accept us. We bore testimony and left. That is about all that happened this week. 

My thought for the week actually comes from the mutual theme for 2018. If you haven´t heard the song you should go listen to it. It is called Peace in Christ. That is the theme for this year. In a part of the song the lyrics are: ¨He gives hope when hope is gone, He gives us strength when you can´t go on, He gives us shelter from the storms of life. When there´s no peace on earth there is peace in Christ.¨

The answer to everything we face in this life is Jesus Christ. If we are focused on Him and His Atonement and teachings, nothing will every permantly go wrong, and we will be able to find the peace that we need in this life to not only endure to the end, but to enjoy to the end, because ¨men are that they might have joy¨. I know that through Jesus Christ and His atonement we can find peace in this life and even more in the life to come. I have not only experienced this in my life, but I have had the joy to see it in a few lives here in Ecuador. When all of the worries of the world seem to fall upon us we need not worry because there is peace in Christ. He lives. He loves us. I know that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that He Himself guides this church through our dear prophet President Nelson. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I know that it contains the truth. And because it is such, it has the power to heal our wounds. I love you all soooo much. Keep the faith! I will get to call home in 2 short weeks. 

Elder Black

PHOTOS

It was Elder Bowser´s birthday. So for the district meeting the sisters decorated a little room and bought a cake. 

My district for the birthday of Elder Bowser (the other gringo)

I made patacones which is fried plantain patties, with fried eggs. Pretty tasty!

This is the Marvin doll that I mentioned about a month ago. It is the mascot for the marines here in Ecuador

Week 33

Another Week Down

The truth is that basically nothing happened this week. We haven´t been able to find many people this week. Everybody either rejected us or we had appointments and they weren´t home. But its ok, because this week we are going to find some people to teach. So first of all the questions. The new area is good. It is different, and a bit harder than my last sector, but we are working. In some parts it is cleaner, but in other parts it is even worse. There is a swampy area here, and the houses are on stilts over the water, and you can´t hardly tell that its water because it is pure garbage. They just throw their garbage away right there. Still can´t see the stars at night. A few, but by a few I mean that if you can count 15 you hit a new record. We have the toothpaste and hair gel on a counter in the kitchen because there isn´t any other place to put it. There is no room in the bathroom and no other place. Also, we have to use the kitchen counter to iron our shirts because literally it is the only place in the house that you can put things. There is no oven, no microwave, no toaster, etc. The only thing we have is a fridge and a 2 burner electric cook top. On p-day we have to write president and anyone else that we want. We have 1 hour. Here there is nothing to do for p-day so we do nothing. We wander the mall sometimes to find stuff. For example, today we went and bought ties. I bought 2 ties, and here the ties only cost $3 per tie. The ocean is close, but not super close. We aren´t close to the open ocean, but there is an arm of the ocean that comes close to us. To get there we have to take a bus for like 10 minutes. I still don´t play the piano. The church just has a keyboard. And they sing way off key, and when there is music they don´t sing with the music, they just go at their own rate haha. Its funny. As district leader the missionaries call me for any problems or if they want to leave their sector. Also, I have to call them at least every other day to verify stuff and see how their sectors are progressing. Then every Friday I have to give a lesson and teach the missionaries in an 1.5 hour district meeting. Its really not a ton of stuff. There are electric fences on all of the houses that can afford them because yes, the people here sometimes like to commit crimes. But there really isn´t that much crime here. Yes I remember Casey from football camps and sometimes he came to our ward. I will definitely recognize him when I see him here.

So this week like I said almost nothing happened. I did get sick this Thursday. I kept waking up in the night with an upset stomach and then at 6:00 I woke up and started throwing up. I threw up until like 1:00. Hna. Moreno made me go buy some medicine to take, and the zone leaders tried to get me to stay in the house to rest, but I took a short nap and we went out to work. So this week we taught Miguel and Danny. They are a couple. They aren´t married. We went to visit them on Thursday. Miguel read the whole introduction to the Book of Mormon and looked up the scripture in Moroni 10, and then we taught the law of chastity and he was like yeah, we are going to get married and get baptized. It was awesome. They came to the church once, and Miguel really is progressing. He even prayed before he read the Book of Mormon. He is awesome and I am so excited for them. The marriage is complicated here for them, so it will take a little time, but I know that they will end up getting baptized. It is kinda crazy how we found them. We were teaching one of our investigators and a woman came out. We invited her to listen and it turned out to be his mom haha. Then we had another appointment with her and taught her about the sabbath day. She said that she would come to church and we asked when we could teach her husband. She said that he would be home Sunday. Well they both ended up coming to church, and after church we taught them both. He is super cool and wants to change. That is about all that I have for this week. 

My thought for the week is from 1 Nephi. I don´t remember exactly where, but it is within the first few chapters. Nephis brothers were persecuting him, and also some of the children of Ishmael. Then some of the other family of Ishmael came and talked them out of it because Nephi couldn´t. I know that I kinda butchered the story but I don´t have time to type the whole verse. Anyways, the thought is that sometimes our prayers get answered through other people. Nephi was persecuted and he prayed and tried to talk them down and preach to them, but when it came down to it, it was some of the family of Ishmael that softened the hearts of his brothers. Search, ponder, and pray. You will get an answer, and it might just come through somebody else. Love you all so very much!!!! Keep pressing forward. Keep the faith. 

Love, Elder Black 

 PHOTOS 

A picture of a sign outside the mall. Its 30 degrees celcius and its like 9 or 10 in the morning.  

Not sure why, but I decided to wear my glasses today (Monday) haha kinda random 

Week 32

So first of all, yes we still walk everywhere, but the church is super close to our house. It is only 2 blocks away. Also, there are buses in this area that we take when we have to go buy something or leave the sector which is super nice because it only costs 30 cents instead of a taxi for $2. Being district leader is ok. It is a lot of work. Right now things aren´t going super great in the zone and so every night I have to call every companionship and verify stuff. Basically instead of having only our sector to worry about I have to worry about 4 sectors, but its ok. Your question about my companion...I´m trying to be positive and not talk negative, but lets just say that this is by far the hardest time I have had with a companion. With Elder Bazán I wasn´t worried about anything but our investigators because he loved to work hard and was super obedient. Now I am worried every day about something happening with obedience, I am worried about diligence, etc. I´m learning a lot of patience right now in this sector. I can´t believe that Jennifer Nielson´s nephew Casey is going to be serving in this mission. I´m super excited! When does he enter the mission field? Maybe I will get to be his trainer haha. If he has any questions just ask. There are a lot of things different about this mission that can help him that you don´t know based on the call packet. For example, here you can use a backpack instead of a shoulder bag if you want. Also, extra white shirts and garments would be helpful because it is SUPER hot and humid here. You sweat like crazy and in a short time your garments and shirts are yellow. And if you give service you have to come back and change garments because you sweat so much that it feels like you went swimming. Also, I would advise to buy the pants that you sent me that are cool instead of like mr.mac pants. They are SOOOO much better for all of the heat and sweating. Anyways...

So this week has been crazy. I´m not sure how to explain it, and some of it I´m just not going to explain haha. So this week we were looking hard for new investigators. We were having problems finding people. First I have to give some background information. About a week ago I was talking with my companion and I was like, I want to find a family of 7 to teach. So I started praying to find a family of 7. Well one night at 8:20 our plans fell through and we had some extra time to go contacting. We went and stood under a light post and said a prayer to know where to go. We felt where we should go and so we headed out that way. Well as we were walking I saw some people sitting on some steps outside a house down a side street. I felt strongly to go talk to them, so we did. We started walking towards them and as we got closer I saw that there were 7 people. There were 2 parents and 5 kids. We talked for about 20 minutes. We talked a bit about the restoration. They were all super duper cool and said that we could come back. Then I asked him if all of the people there was a family and he said yes. We went back a few times to try to find them, but we haven´t been able to find them home. I pray super hard that we can find them and that they can progress. Also, this week we started to teach a couple. Danny and Miguel. They are super cool and want to progress. They aren´t married but they want to learn more. We taught them yesterday, and they both came to church Sunday. There are 33 people that live in their house!!! Then we taught Noria Penilla. She has come to church 3 times, and we are teaching her. She has had a bit of a rough life. She gave birth to 7 kids, but 4 or 5 of them have died. She is in very hard circumstances economically. In this sector there are a lot of houses of bamboo with dirt floors. She is one of them. She believes in the Book of Mormon but won´t accept the invitation to be baptized. She struggles with a few things like the word of wisdom, but we are helping her. This Saturday we went to her house and mixed concrete and made her a concrete floor in half of her house. It is definitely different and of much lower quality than the people in the US would do. They mix the concrete on the ground in the dirt and don´t use forms, so the edges of the concrete are really jagged. We had in total 10 people in church. The ex bishops daughter was one of them. She isn´t a member and she gave birth at 7 months to a baby that died days later. We are teaching her, and this hard experience is humbling her. Well that is about all for this week. Sorry it is short. But not a lot happened. Actually a lot happened, but I can´t tell everything. 

My thought for the week isn´t a scripture or anything, just something I have been thinking a lot about lately. Lots of times here the people wonder why life is so hard. And I have often times wondered why missionary work is so hard if it is the Lord´s work. Well this week I was listening to a talk by Elder Holland. Basically he said that if we are doing the things that we should be doing then we are walking where the Savior walked. And if we walk where the Savior walked you can´t think that it is going to be easy. The Savior lived a perfect life. He was the literal son of God. And yet being who He was it was still hard. He lived the hardest life of any man to come to the earth. Walking where the Savior walked is the only way to find our way back home, but it also means that we have to pay a very small token of the price that our Savior payed. When we walk this path it will indeed be hard. However, we can know that when we are walking that path no matter how hard it is at times, that we are walking shoulder to shoulder with the greatest Man that ever walked the earth. We are walking shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ. I know that a lot of times life is hard, but I also know that Christ lives, He is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that through Him and His Atonement we can overcome any and all challenges that we face in this life. Whatever we go through is for our own good. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ. I challenge everybody to study His words that were given through His servant President Nelson. His talk about revelation is amazing and he gives us all a challenge that we very much need. I love you all so much!!!!

Elder Black

PHOTOS 

Me with a Book of Mormon and pamphlets...There is a story behind this picture but I won´t tell you until I get home

When you don´t have a closet and you have a missionary budget...I built this with thread from my sewing kit and a 60 cent broom stick haha Now I have a place to put my clothes

Our house from the outside...yes that is an electric fence

Week 31

¡7 Meses!
I can´t believe that I have already been out here in the field for 7 months! First of all, I sent letters home today. They are super short, but I sent one for the family, the grandparents, and I sent one to the wolf den in the ward. I sent it to Kaye and Jerry Bradford the leaders, because they sent me a card for Christmas that I recently got. So if you see them tell them that I sent a letter to the boys in response to their questions, but I have no idea when or if it will get there. Also, I just barely got your letter from November 6. I got it April 6, exactly 5 months later haha. Also, I got the calender of the family from Grandma, and a letter from Brother and Sister Seiter. Anyways. I also am buying a few souvenirs here if anybody has any requests haha. Now I will answer the questions like usual... The missionaries in Blanding are right. I wanted to get transfered, but it stinks. I wish I was still in my old sector haha. The new area is ok. The work here is super hard, and there isn´t a program going. I got here and we have no baptismal dates and only a couple of investigators that have been investigating for years. So it is hard. But thats ok, because we are going to work our guts out to turn this sector around. I have been praying super hard about it, and I got an answer...2 actually. President Moreno sent me an email saying that I did great in Puerto Nuevo and that now the Lord needs me here. It was something simple that just helped me get motivated here, because really we are basically starting from scratch. Packing and unpacking actually wasn´t too bad. I didn´t have that many things to pack because I didn´t really unpack much stuff in Puerto Nuevo unless I really needed it. The goodbyes were quick and not too hard. I mean its hard to say goodbye to them after bonding for 6 months with them, but its ok. I didn´t have much time to say bye because we didn´t find out until 2:00 that I was leaving and we had a lot of appointments. My new companion is Elder Rojas from Lima Perú. I think I already said that. He has a year in the mission and all of his family are members. We don´t have to hand wash any clothes anymore!!! YAY And the member that washes our clothes only lives like a block away. There is still no hot water, but I am used to it now. I don´t think I want hot water haha. Yes we print our emails out, and we get fed tons here. I am going to leave this sector fatter haha. The apartment that we have is pretty good. It is small, but it is only us 2 that live there. The area that we have is super weird. One end is super poor and live in bamboo houses and barely have enough money to eat. You can see the house a little bit in the picture I sent from the service project. The other end of the sector has houses with cameras and electric fences and brand new F-150´s. It is super weird. I will try to send more pictures. We even found a house with a lawn!!! It is super rare and the only house that I have seen with grass. We are in the city. When I say lawn I mean that it is like smaller than the small lawn in the front yard because the houses rich or poor are stacked on top of each other. Still don´t like the weather here. It is hotter than ever. It is a tiny, tiny bit cooler than Guayaquil, but not much. At nights it is hotter than Guayaquil. I sweat like crazy. And it is super duper humid. There are some bugs and ants and stuff, but not tons. Also, we have an air conditioner in our room!!! We only have it in our bedroom, and we can only use it at night when we sleep, but it is awesome. I get cold at night!!!! The ward members are cool. They help us a bit, but not much, so we are going to work super hard with them. There are a bunch of cool places to eat here. Not a ton of stuff, but the ocean is right there and so there is a ton of sea food and a bunch of restaurants. Also, this is the banana capital of the world here in Machala. And just so you know I am actually in the city called Puerto Bolívar. At the temple only the missionaries serving in the city of Guayaquil get to go. I didn´t see anybody from my group, but I did see Elder Hoole who I lived with for a time. We had to watch general conference in the stake center. And I miss everything about my old sector. I have to learn the area, the members, and the people all over again. We worked super hard in my old sector and a bunch of people are going to get baptized, and in fact in my old sector Hna Sylvia Cereza got married today and is getting baptized! And I came here and there is nothing, but its ok. We will change that. I loved all of the thoughts that I got today, and I sure would have loved eating venison and mashed potatoes and gravy with freezer corn and chocolate chip cookies. I miss that sooooo much. You don´t even know haha. Every day here is rice and chicken haha. I like it but I mean its nothing like the venison 5 course meal.

Anyways not much time left. Also, guess what???????? I am the district leader. I know right. I got a call from the zone leaders my 3rd day here while we were walking and they said that I was the district leader even though my companion has a year in the mission. It was kinda weird but ok. I´m not sure about it, but I will do my best. The whole zone in Puerto Nuevo didn´t have any sisters, and my district alone here has 4 sisters, us, and the zone leaders, so it is different. I had to give the first district meeting Friday, and it went ok. So not much else, and no time. However, we have a few cool investigators. Juan Carlos who accepted a baptismal date. Noria Penilla, who we did service for. Walter and Leonel who are 2 need to get married, and Anthony and Iris who need permission. I will tell more about them all later. Anyways, hope all is well back home. Sorry to everybody because today I don´t have time to write anyone else :(. My thought for the week is a quote from Presidente Monson....

¨Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an un-ending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often epect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.¨ 

Life is hard. I know it is. The life of a missionary isn´t any easier, and in fact I am pretty certain that it is harder. Keep up the good work.. Push through the hard times with patience. I am out of time so I can´t send my testimony this week, but I KNOW that the Savior lives. He is the way to happiness. He really can make our burdens light. The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true....READ IT. It will change your life. Love you all tons!!!!!

Elder Black

photos

the new house... 

Kitchen

bathroom

 and the tiny broken rack to put our clothes on haha

The service project we did Wednesday...It was a huge pile and we already did half the work when I took the picture...Faith really can move mountains but you sure do have to be ready to grab a shovel and sweat a whole lot haha

Encebollado-fish soup that is super good...I think it is my favorite food here

the ocean

 We only have a little arm of the ocean that we can see. There are trees on the other side. However, a little ways out it opens up into pure ocean.

 The catholic church here that has a giant tower with a clock at the top

Me and the ocean :) 

 And an old building and monument type thing that is out in the water.

The boats in the water

A place we went to today for p-day that has a bunch of statues of sea animals and stuff. It was pretty cool

A bunch of souvenir tents

A pirate ship

Me at the little park place with the sea animal statues 

These are ideas of souvenirs if you want anything. The shell is my companions, but the other stuff I bought today. There is a ton of cool stuff here haha

Week 30

Machala- La Paz

So this week has been super crazy, and I don´t have a lot of time to write home. I wasn´t even able to print and read the emails this week, I just skimmed them over. Í will respond to any questions that you have next week. So I had transfers. I am now in Machala. My sector is called La Paz. My new companion is Elder Rojas and he too is from Lima Perú haha. So this morning I had a 3.5 hour bus ride from guayaquil to Machala. I live in a house with just my companion, and it is super hot here as well. We are pretty close to the ocean here in this sector. It has been crazy packing and unpacking and saying goodbye briefly to a few families. I got the call Sunday at about 2:00 when they told me that I had transfers. Anyways, don´t know much about my new sector yet or the people here, so I will send more info and pictures next week. So general conference was super duper good. We tried to get it broadcast for us gringos in english, but we had to sit with our investigators, so I watched it all in spanish. I was super worried at first that I wouldn´t understand it very well, but I did. It was great. I did miss a little bit being able to hear the actual voice of the apostles and prophet, but its ok. I learned a lot. Also, the whole deal with the ministering thing will be different. So I will tell a few last stories about Puerto Nuevo. So this week not a lot happened. It was crazy with going to the temple, and transfers, and conference. However, on Friday we felt to knock a door. We knocked and we just asked a simple question and they opened the door and let us in. We talked a bit about the plan of salvation. Not sure what will happen with the family because I´m not there anymore, but anyways... Also, this week we took a TON of taxis back and forth from our sector to the stake center to watch the conference. I always share the gospel with the taxistas even though a lot of them reject. I started talking with one of them, and I was just asking questions about his life, and he started telling some personal stuff about struggles he was having. I was able to share the hope of Jesus Christ. We talked for a while, and he almost started to cry. He said that he didn´t know if God was hearing his prayers, and I told him that God put us in his taxi and that we were his servants. We ended up writing his info. down to visit him but he lives in another zone. Not sure what will happen, but I think he will accept. He ended up not charging us as well. So not much time, and life here is super crazy right now with transfers. However, we have 2 investigators named Melany and Arelis. They are progressing well and came to 4 of the conference sessions. Arelis basically told us that she wants to get baptized. I can´t tell the whole story right now, but we found them by knocking doors. One night we had a few extra minutes. The door to a house was cracked and I felt that I should knock it. A subtle feeling. So I did, and it was a lady that was grumpy and evangelic. She asked what we wanted and I told her we wanted to share a message with her about Christ. Long story short she accepted us and told us that she wanted us to teach her grand-daughters. Now we are teaching them and they are progressing. Also, I said goodbye to a few people very quickly because there isn´t really time to say goodbye. Anyways, I said goodbye to familia montenegro and gave them pictures and a letter. Only Veronica and Mikayela were there, and they started to cry. Then Elvia Montenegro and Anita called me that night to say goodbye and they too started crying haha. It is a bitter sweet moment. There are so many good people in Puerto Nuevo. I love being a servant of the Lord.

To end, my heart goes out to the Grover family, and the community. Cordell passed away 6 years ago as well. HOWEVER, I testify with all of my heart that God has a plan...a perfect plan. We will indeed see our loved ones again some day. I KNOW IT. And if we follow Christ in this life, we will be able to live as a family forever. Life is full of heart ache and pain. There are ups and downs. But the gospel of Jesus Christ gives me so much joy, because I know that there is a plan. I know that there is a Savior who overcame sin and death. He truly overcame the world. As was said in conference, that is the greatest gift of all. We can overcome anything in this life. Sin, pain, grief, sorrow, afflictions, anything. We just need the faith. The faith of a mustard seed. Faith can move mountains of sorrow, and doubt. I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that He lives and loves us too. My thought from conference is to do the little things. My challenge as well is to do the little things. Little things truly bring about great things. Read the scriptures individually and as a family. Pray individually and as a family. Have family home evening. All of these things will bring about great blessings. I never understood it very well until I arrived here in the mission. And now my eyes have been opened. It is hard, but I am in the Lord´s care. I am ever so happy and honored to be His servant. I love you all soooo very much!!!!! Christ lives! What joy this sweet sentence gives. When we do the things the Lord asks. When we choose to do the small things, we receive great blessings. The small things are easy to do, but easy to forget. Just don´t forget them. Love you!!!!

Elder Carver Bruce Black

Garbage in the streets ugggg

The temple...we got to go do a session on Friday

Elder Bazán and I at the temple

saying goodbye... Hna. Bella Cornejo

Angel, Andreas and Diego

Hno. Mauro our ward mission leader

Sergio and Claris

also tell everybody sorry for not responding to emails. Today really has been super crazy with a lot of traveling and unpacking and stuff.