Week 86

1 More Month in Galápagos

Hola. Well time sure is flying as always. I feel like we had our last p-day just yesterday. Also, this Saturday Elder Franco finishes his 90 days here in Galápagos and so this Saturday he leaves and I will be getting a new companion.

Anyways, today we went to a place called ¨El Barranco¨ in La Lobería. It is a small cliff that looks out into the ocean. We were able to see a ton of sea turtles there in a group. It was pretty cool. However, the best part of the week was the miracle that we had. Carlos Tigua was going to head to Guayaquil to study. In fact, he was going to go study and live in my first sector, Puerto Nuevo. However, his family went to sign him up and there were no openings in the high school, and so he decided to stay here to study. So on Saturday he was baptized. The exclamation mark on this keyboard isn´t working or I would have put a few there haha. Carlos wanted Diego to baptize him but he couldn´t because of work so my companion baptized him. I then confirmed him. It was a great experience. Carlos is awesome. We have talked to him a tiny bit about the mission, and it looks like he might want to go. We will see this week, but he still has 2 years of high school left even though he is 18. We had 2 people that we are teaching go to church, but familia Mantilla didn´t go again. Also, the grand-daughter of a part member family came and is super awesome. She went to the baptism at 6am and also went to church. We will teach her this week. There is a lot of potential here, but there are also a lot of challenges for the people. This week was also very interesting because one day a lady from the US came up to us and asked if we were mormons. My companion responded in english and told her that we were members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She asked if we were from the US and my companion said yes. He was talking because I was talking on the phone. She then said, ¨Well maybe you just better go back there then.¨ And then she said something bitter about the church that I didn´t hear because of the phone call. It was a weird experience haha, but it made me grateful for my testimony and the knowledge that God has given me.

So this week I will briefly tell Carlos´ story. On February 27, the day I got here, we were walking in the street with a 16 year old member named Erick Endara. We walked past another young man who we greeted and he greeted us. I felt impressed to ask Erick who he was and he said he´s Carlos Tigua. He is into drugs. I then asked where he lived and Erick avoided the question saying that he wouldn´t ever accept us. I asked again and Erick said, ¨No, really Elder, he is into drugs and won´t accept you.¨ We explained to him how all people need the gospel and then I told him to just tell us where he lived to be able to go visit him. The next day we went to visit him. He accepted a Book of Mormon and a baptismal date. He kept progressing slowly. He had trouble with reading and coming to church. As we taught him he began to have spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon. He loved the law of chastity. He gained a testimony. We continued to work with him even though at times we almost thought about leaving him because he progressed very slowly. And now, this weekend, he was baptized and confirmed.

I know that this email isn´t the greatest and is pretty short. I don´t have a whole lot to say, but I do have a testimony of this gospel. This week I have been reading about the 2,000 strippling warriors. They were firm and courageous. They had strong testimonies because their mothers always taught them to never doubt. Oh how grateful I am for my family. Thank you for your examples and for raising me in the gospel. I know with all of my heart and soul that Jesus Christ lives. He is indeed the Savior of the world and the Son of God. He knows us. He loves us. He pleads for us before the Father. He is my faithful friend. I love this gospel. I love this work. I see every day the effect that Jesus Christ and His word have on people. Those who delight upon the word of Christ grow in strength, in light, and in testimony. They become like Christ. However, those who stop delighting upon the word of Christ start to lose the testimonies which they have, and they begin to be lost in the mist of darkness as described in Lehi´s vision. There are 4 groups of people in his vision, but only those who were constantly holding fast to the iron rod made it to and remained at the tree of life. I hope you all have the best week ever. Love you tons...

Love, Elder Black

Photos

Week 85

Time Flying in Galápagos

HOLA. Time here in Galapagos sure is flying by. I only have 5 more weeks here on the island. You would think that time here would be like a vacation...Its really not haha. I´m doing awesome, but the work here is super rough. We see many miracles, but at the same time the people have such a hard time acting. This week we only had one person go to church, Carlos Tigua.

So this week we had 2 really cool experiences, and a not so cool experience haha. First of all, one day we taught Carlos Tigua. He is super awesome, and I felt that I should leave him 3 Nephi to read. So I did. The next time we went to visit him he was super excited. He had marked a bunch of verses in the chapter, and he even memorized a part because he liked it so much. He went and showed his mom. It was a testimony builder for him about the Book of Mormon. I was filled with joy as we shared that experience. He has a baptismal date for this Saturday. However, this is where the not so cool experience comes in. He told us that he wants to leave the island to study, and it is very likely that he will be leaving this Saturday. So if that happens then we won´t be able to baptize him. We would have to pass on the referral to Guayaquil. I hope that he stays, but I will accept the will of the Lord. The other experience was with Ulises Mantilla. They are passing a lot of problems right now and they have no work. We promised them that if they read the Book of Mormon every day for a week than he would get a job. Well, after just 2 or 3 straight days of reading the Book of Mormon he got a call. He couldn´t call back and he didn´t know who the number belonged to. He was stressed, saw the Book of Mormon on the table, and started to read. He felt that he should leave the house, and so he starting walking in the street and stumbled upon 2 jobs. One full time and one part time. He told us of his experience. He searched earth and heaven for the number that called him and he doesn´t know where the call came from. It is also a number that you can´t call back. He said that it came from God. He feels that the Book of Mormon is true and he is always reading and marking his favorite parts. However, they failed to come to church this week.

My testimony keeps growing here in the mission. It is amazing to see the experiences that people have as they read the Book of Mormon, because it is a true book. I hope that everybody had a great easter. Here it was pretty good, but we didn´t have much success this week. Everybody went to the catholic church for their false traditions haha. Also, today for p-day we ate something called Maremoto. It is a soup type thing that has fish, shrimp, yuka, and octopus. It was pretty good. The octopus was interesting. I love the mission, but the closer the time gets to finishing the more stressful it is. Time is FLYING, and I never want to leave the God sheltered life as a missionary.

My thought for this week is D&C 1:31. It says: “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” I love this scripture. Really God never excuses us for sinning. Little things or big things, it doesn´t matter. Read the scriptures daily, say your prayers, keep the sabbath day holy, avoid your own pleasures, and go to the temple. All of these things will keep us spiritually prepared because it builds us a spiritual shelter. I love the mission because of this. I have been able to be so very blessed spiritually. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that this is His church, the only true and living church on the face of the earth. I know that God answers prayers. He is mindful of all of His children. Please keep on the covenant path. Do those 4 things. Fight the good fight. Love you all tons.

Love, Elder Black

Photos

Week 84

Remember Fernando Morocho?

Hola a todos! This week has been good and not so good at the same time, but all of my afflictions are swallowed up in the joy of Christ.

So our investigators are doing ok. Ulises and Fernanda Mantilla accepted baptismal dates. However, only 1 investigator that we are teaching came to church. In total 13 people took the sacrament and 18 people were in church. It is super sad. I felt so much like the prophets in the Book of Mormon that say their hearts were burdened and afflicted because of the wickedness of their brotheren. I feel that sooo very much this week. We worked SUPER hard this week especially to get people to church. We committed 13 people to go and 1 of the 13 showed up. We went to pick up 4 of the families and nothing. The people here have no problem with lying sometimes, but I still love them. It is just hard sometimes. Romina left on vacation. Familia Becerra is also on a short vacation. Carlos Tigua didn´t come to church but might get baptized in 2 weeks, who knows... Anyways, I have been praying asking the Lord if He is pleased with my work, and all of my afflictions were swallowed up in the joy of Christ today. It all started with an email from Fernando Morocho (a man I found in Cuenca). He emailed me the following:

Gracias Hermano!

Hermano, buen día!

Un gusto enorme comunicarme con ud. Le agradezco mucho todas sus enseñanzas. Sabe, me he bautizado junto con mi hija, Maria Paz, y realmente Ud. llegó justo cuando más necesitaba de un apoyo, de un consejo y, sobre todo, llegó con esperanza para mi vida. Hermano Carver Black, nunca me voy a olvidar la primera vez que Ud. Llegó a tocar la puerta de la casa; Ese es mi testimonio, y siempre lo menciono y en cada ocasión. Gracias Hermano por ser un excelente ser Humano. Hermano, me hubiera gustado mucho darle un abrazo de despedida, créame, personas como Ud. No hay muchas y aprecio y agradezco a Dios por haberlo conocido... Gracias Hermano, Muchas gracias por todo, me gustaría seguir en contacto con Ud.

You´ll have to translate it, but in short he and his daughter were baptized this weekend. Not much is going on here to tell you about, so as my thought today I will tell you the story about Fernando which I don´t think I have ever told.

One day in Cuenca I was walking in the street with Elder Kalina. We had just past new years and president Moreno challenged us to bless 10 homes every day. So one day we were walking down the street and our plan fell. So we started walking and a certain house called my attention. So we went to the house and I knocked. Fernando came to the door. We presented ourselves, and I contacted him. I said something along the lines of, ¨Good afternoon, we are representatives of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was here He always blessed the sick and walked about doing good. We as His disciples are here to do the same, and in this day we would like to bless your family and your home by offering a small prayer. Is that okay?¨ He responded by asking what the prayer would be like, but then he rejected us and told us no. When somebody tells us no normally we just accept it and ask for a referal and leave. However, I will never forget how I felt in that moment. I had the strongest feeling, almost a voice within, that I should make an appointment with him and speak with him about the love that God had for him and how Christ can bless the family. I shared that with him and asked if we could visit him another day. He accepted. We returned and he accepted us doubtingly outside of his house. The lesson was horrible. After we went back 2 more times he finally accepted us inside his home. He struggled gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but I will never forget the day that he shared his testimony with us. He told us that he had never ever accepted anybody who has come to his house to talk about religion. However, the day we went he felt something different, and he saw how much enthusiasm and happiness we had. He was amazed by our great attitude and love. He said that he accepted us for that reason. Shortly after, he seperated from his wife. We lost contact with him for that. We found him again one day when we had to travel to Tarqui to bus a bus ticket. On our way to buy the ticket I knew Tarqui well because I served there before, and I said to elder Solorzano that there was a great bakery nearby and that we should go. So we went to buy a bread, and outside the bakery Fernando was there in his car. What a miracle. Had I not served first in Tarqui we would have lost contact with him forever. God put us in our path once again in the most unusual place. We continued to teach him. He asisted a baptismal service with his daughter and felt the spirit. Later I had transfers, but today he shared with me that he will never forget when we knocked his door because we brought hope into his life. I know that Christ lives. He is the light and life of the world. He changes lives. He works miracles. Salvation is worth the fight. Love you all tons!!!

Love, Elder Black

Week 83

Conference!

Hola a todos! How´s life in good ole Blanding!? Life here in Galapagos is pretty good. This week we saw a ton of miracles and a lot of success. I don´t have a ton of time to write so forgive me if I leave something out haha.  Conference was super awesome. I really don´t have a favorite talk becaue I recieved answers and inspiration from so many. We did get to watch all of the sessions. We watched 3 sessions in the church and we couldn´t watch more there because it was the internet of a members work. So the other 2 sessions (both of the 2:00 sessions) we watched in the houses of less active members. The people here in south america are huge into soccer. However, in the mission it is prohibited to play soccer, but here in Galapagos we got special permission because our group is so small and playing soccer is a way to find people. That is how we found Bryan. We play every friday at 7:00. We invite the people that we are teaching and members and we play with whoever shows up. Sometimes there are people there who we don´t know and we play with them. I´m not very good at soccer, but I´m getting better haha.

This week was incredible. First of all thank you so much everybody for your prayers and or fasts. I can feel their power, and I truly see their power. This week Bryan and his dad and sister came to church. Also, Carlos Tigua came to church, and a new person that we found named Romina Cox. We found 2 new families this week to teach, and have truly seen many miracles from the heavens. So this week we were looking for some former investigators. As we were looking for a young man we instead found his 23 year old sister. We shared the restoration with her and turns out she has been looking into prophets and leaders of different religions. She was very open and is looking for the truth. This is Romina Cox. We invited her to the conference and she came. She has started to read the Book of Mormon. It was a pure miracle. The Lord has also helped us have patience with Carlos Tigua. He has been stuggling with his commitments. He came to the priesthood session and we taught him about the law of chastity. His response was surprising. He is an 18 year old who has had problems with drugs and has grown up without the gospel. In teaching the law of chastity he responded, ¨Wow I really like that! This lesson was incredible! It is strict but awesome and true.¨ He is a great person. I really hope that he can be baptized in April. Also, familia Becerra, Bryan´s family is doing ok. This Saturday they failed to come to the session of conference that they said they would attend so we went to their house to see why. On the way we found the parents outside a neighbors house and turns out that the mom was drinking beer, and a lot. Super sad. It broke our hearts. However, on Sunday everybody came except for her because she was hung-over. This week we found familia Mantilla. They are awesome. They are passing through a lot of problems and they want to read the book of Mormon.

Not much else to say, and I am out of time, however, I want you all to know how much I was inspired by the conference. I loved Elder Ballard´s talk. I learned that we must go through our daily tasks with a cheerful countenance and a happy heart. I also loved the talk by president Eyring on praying and reading as a family. There were a lot of talks on how the home is our training center. If you aren´t doing it I invite you to do so. Be happy. Love life. Help others. Life goes by fast so use the time that you have to change your own life and later the lives of others. Christ lives and is the Savior of the world. I know with all of my heart that Russell M Nelson is God´s prophet and seer. I loved his talk on daily repentance. Love you all tons!!! Have the best week ever!

Love, Elder Black

Week 82

Galápagos- More than a Month

Hola! This week hasn´t been the greatest, but I can´t complain. I can´t believe that I have been here for over a month! Time is going by faster than ever. My companion speaks pretty good english. Many here speak a bit of english, but really not a ton. Here is super safe. People leave their bikes in the street without locking them up and the people don´t steal them. There is a bit of crime, and some drug usage, but really it is super safe. I have tried tons of different foods. One was Ceviche de Canchalagua. I have no idea what canchalagua is, but it is some shell animal. It is good. However, the other day we got fed canchalagua and it was super hard to eat. It was overcooked, and it was literally like trying to eat the rubber off of your shoes haha. It was super hard. I couldn´t chew it. However, the mamita here cooks really good, but she gives us waaaaayyyyy too much food. I don´t eat dinner, and I eat very little for breakfast, and I think that I am putting on some weight. She gives us tons of rice and carbs. It is insane how much she gives us. The religion here is catholic and evangelic. Those are the two big ones. Many couples here aren´t married and don´t want to get married. Investigators this week really aren´t doing too well. None of them came to church....again. It has actually been really hard. We committed a ton of people to come to church, and none of them came. We went to pick them up, we talked with them 3 hours before church, and nothing. It has been kinda frustrating and a bit discouraging. But it is what it is, and we are fasting and praying for miracles.

So I will start off with the most exciting part of this week. So this week has been super bitter sweet. We taught Bryan & Daniela Becerra. They are progressing SUPER well and are reading the Book of Mormon and know that the church is true. We found Bryan when we had our first friday soccer match here. We have tried to teach the family, and we haven´t been able to because they work. Anyways, one day we taught Bryan and Daniela and they realized that the catholic church is false and that they need to get baptized in the true church. They were super excited and accepted baptismal dates. They are 15 & 12 years old. However, 2 days later, we finally got to talk with the mom and she said no. She said that they can´t get baptized until they are 18 and that she is their mom and what she says goes and that she is catholic and will die catholic. That broke our hearts. We were so disappointed. So on Saturday we decided to fast for this family. We did a very specific fast that we could teach the mom and that they would accepted to read the Book of Mormon for a week as a family and that the mom would have a softened heart and recieve an answer. Sunday, an hour after finishing the fast we taught them. The whole family listened and the mom was very open. They accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon as a family every day for a week. We promised that if they did it that they would recieve an answer that it is a true book. I hope and pray that they read every day. The Lord fulfills his promises. It was such a special experience. It is a family of 4. It was such a sacred moment and an answer to our special fast. I hope with all of my heart that this family gets converted to the gospel. Also, this week 2 non-members showed up to church out of nowhere. 1 of them isn´t very interested, but the other is. Also, a family came here for a year because the husband is in the armed forces. He isn´t a member but the wife is and she found the church. She wants us to teach the husband, so we will see how that goes. Today for p-day we had to download a bunch of safety videos and we ate a great $4 encebollado.

I know that the email is a bit short, but not a lot to say today. My thought for the week is Alma 20:29. You´ll have to read it. However, I love it because those missionaries were facing super hard times with super hard hearted people. But they had patience in all that they were facing. I know with all of my heart that the Lord tries our faith and patience. But I also know that if we have faith and patience then we will be comforted in all the trials that we are asked to face. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know that families are eternal. I know that the plan of Salvation is real. It is true. It brings happiness. I can´t wait for the day that I get to see my Father again. What a great day it will be. I love you all tons!!! I am so excited for general conference. It will be great! Take questions because they will be answered. Until next week....

Love you!!!

Love, Elder Black

Photos