15 New Investigators this Week!

Hello (don't you always like how I start with "hello"?),

This week was a pretty solid week. We didn't have any baptisms this past week but we have 6 baptisms planned for this next week that are for sure. Ready to go and another possible one. 5 of the 6 belong to Family Barreto. They all went to church this week so we're going to call our mission president to see if we can get special permission to baptize them even though not all of them have 2 assistances

The other person that we have planned is named Adriàn. He has been going to church for 2 and a half years now and hasn't been able to get baptized because he couldn't get permission from his mom. But he has just turned 18 and now it doesn't matter what his mom says =). He's super excited to get baptized. He knows everything and has a strong testimony. So prepared. 

We found 15 new investigators this week! Well, to get 15 new people we did basically nothing =). We went to visits like normal and family and friends are sitting in there and want to listen. The Lord just keeps putting people right in our path. We never even have to contact. References, references, references. As far as finding people to teach El Carmen is a dream come true. 

9 of our new investigators live together. 2 families in total. They all accepted a baptismal date and they all have desires. They were practically begging us to baptize them lol. Their date fell because of the church assistance. Some of them went at 9:00 and the other ones said that they would come at 10:00. They did but they said that they felt kind of awkward going into a church that they don't know. So they didn't lol. They promised us that they would go next week. I'm pretty confident that they will. 

Also, here are a few pictures of the trail that goes into that finca that I talked about last week. We went over hills, crossed rivers and everything inbetween. It was quite an adventure just to get to one visit. 

Well that's the bulk of what happened here this week. A pretty good solid week. We're trying to work with all these families lots but it's kind of hard since we have to many people. Luckliy the fact that they're families and they live together makes it a little easier.

Congrats on the science fair Katarina, even though you didn't want it =). That's kind of funny. Here are a few more pictures and the funny thing of the week. 

Funny thing of the week: I think the funniest thing of the week was when we went to that visit in the finca. At the start we took a way that we didn't take the first time and I asked Gretti (the girl that was guiding us) if she was sure that that was the right path. She said,"Trust in me Elder Black". Okay.....so we headed off on the trial and we hit a fork and she said,"Uh....I don't remember this part". This is why I doubted her lol. Needless to say we took a very long route. We walked up steep hills, crossed through rivers on bamboo poles walked through mud and all sorts of stuff. I rubbed the fact that she didn't know where she was going in her face =)


Also here's a little clip from Elder LeBaron's (my last companion) email to his family. It's pretty cool =)

Christ in The Americas-I would like to tell you a little bit about our Plaza Activity that took place last Saturday in a park. (Which we put up a bunch of posters that had different questions and pictures on it) It was so awesome, right when we started putting up a poster a couple that was standing on the other side of the street looked over at us so we called them over and we were able to teach them all of lesson one and give them a Book of Mormon right there. Also a couple elders were able to invite two people to baptism and they accepted it. An experience that Elder Maldonado and I had was we saw an older indigenous lady looking at the sign that said, "Did you know that Christ visited the Americas?" We asked her if she knew that he came and she said the following, "I did know that he came" My companion and I were quite astonished to hear her say that so we asked her how she knew that he came. She said, “My great ancestors told me of a time when they were planting seeds and it was the time of a great destruction (like in the picture of Christ in the Americas she said). As they were planting a white man came down from the heavens and talked to them, and also said to keep planting and if they had faith it would grow, and that on the morrow he would come back. My ancestors and those that were there went around running to tell all of what had happened and some believed and others were unsure. But my ancestors told them that Christ promised that he would come back the next day. He came back the next day and continued to talk with them." I couldn’t believe what she had just said! She pretty much quoted 3 Nephi and we asked for her name and number and said that we could come by. She is not in my sector but i will want to be asking about what happened to her. I know that without a doubt if she reads the Book of Mormon she will know it is true just by reading 3 Nephi 11. I love this work and most of all being here in Ecuador having the privilege to work with direct descendants from the Lamanites and all in all the children of our Heavenly Father that are lost. I love this work and i know that it is true without a doubt!!!!!