I lie not when I say we didn't do much this week. This week there was a bunch of election stuff for the equilalent of a governor, so everybody was into that and weren't really home...pretty much everything fell through this week. That, and then yesterday we had to stay inside all day. Not even exaggerating lol. Went to church, went back home. It was nice though because I had tons of time to read the scriptures. It was one of the only true vacation days I've had in the mission =). I read 150 pages of the scriptures. That was pretty much the highlight of my week lol. Nobody came to church and we don't have anybody with baptismal date....They're all sinners....Nah just kidding =). We did have one good thing though. We went to go teach Diana (got baptized last week) and she's doing awesome. In church they had given her one of those Teachings of the Prophets manuals and she's been not only reading it, but applying it and teaching it to her co-workers! He says she really likes helping people and she wants to serve a mission. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about =). Other than that there's really not much else to tell....

Funny thing of the week: We had an appointment with a recent convert at 7:00pm one day and we agreed to meet in a park so he could show us where he lives. We sat down at a table and some weird street bum started talking to us. He said he was a pastor, which he wasn't lol, and he started talking to us about a bunch of junk. He took off his shoes and stomped on the ground saying that God gave him his feet and he's not afraid of the devil. Then he went on about how this water (the brand is called "Cielo" which means heaven in english) he had was sent by God from the heavens. Then he started singing religious songs. It was really funny because we were in park and there were other people watching him be weird lol. Then he offered us some of his water, tried to give us 3 pennies each and some other weird stuff. You want to know how long he talked to us?.....30 minutes lol, and he only stopped talking because we cut him off and left. Heh....only in the mission =)

Peace out, 

Elder Black

(Look for explanation at the end of the letter... :) )

Diana's Baptism and New Companion Elder Poma

Well, basically all that happened was me going to Quito getting my new companion. Elder Bolton left on monday morning and I was left alone ='(, but I'm okay. Then on tuesday I did divisions with a member all day. It was awesome. His name is Jairo. He's a recent convert of 8 months and he's 27, and black. Don't forget that part =). He's great though and helped me out a lot. So I've had questions as to what I do with all these trips to Quito that I have; because they are really long trips. A lot of the time I read, stuff like Jesus the Christ, the scriptures or anything else that I have, that and I know this will shock you all, but....watch worldly movies! I know. A lot of times they put on movies and we are allowed to watch them (it's almost impossible to not...). Sometimes they put on inappropiate movies and our President says that if we want we can buy more wholesome movies to watch and give it to the guy to watch instead of the garbage they sometimes put on. Don't worry. I don't watch the garbage lol. Just the good stuff like Iron Man 3 =P.

So yeah. I got my new companion who is Elder Poma. He's a little peruvian and is a little strange. He seems special, but he's not...When he's not teaching he acts immature and awkward lol, then when he teaches he's way different. He's more serious and talks as if he's giving a talk in General Conference, Elder Scott style =). He's a good guy though. He's super excited to be out here and work and he wants to be obedient. 

We started out the change good with a baptism! Nice. Her name is Diana. Her whole family is member except her. They all live in Esmeraldas and she's here by herself along with her brother who lives apart. She almost got baptized with some other missionaries but didn't. She told us it was because she saw a spirit and it told her that he was going to cause problems for her. From then she started to have tons of problems in work, family, schooling and everything, she got scared and then backed off from baptism. Now she's super awesome and got baptized and confirmed. He even gave us a couple references and we'll be visiting them with her in this coming week. Awesome!

Funny thing of the week: Advertisement- Have you ever wanted to understand the book of Revelations better? Is it too hard to understand for you? Well don't you worry! Not anymore! With our new Jehovah's Witness guide to understand Revelations even the people who aren't part of the chosen 144,000 can do it! This stunning book beautifully displays the deep doctrines found in this profound book so that you can understand what the 7 headed dragon, the great whore and the horses with a mans face, womans hair, scorpion tails and wings really look like. Yup, they're so real.....In short words, Jehovah's Witness's are super dumb and think that that stuff is actually real lol. 

Pics- by the way the old lady is Diana's great grandma. She was crying =)

Elder Black

Well...a rather uneventful week....I went to Quito this week...again....for another meeting that we had as zone leaders. All good there I guess. Although I'm broke from traveling so much lol. Then this week I'll be going to Quito...AGAIN...to pick up my new companion. That's right, I'll be training. It'll be kind of weird training as a zone leader but meh...why not =). 

Not much happened this week because I wasn't here for half of it. My companion (now old companion) stayed in the sector and worked with the second councelor in the branch presidency, Hermano Alvarado. He's a clown...no really. He is a clown, that's his job. Anyways lol, he did divisions with him all day tuesday and Hermano Alvarado loved it. He said he felt like a missionary. 

When I got back we didn't do too much. More than anything we visited less actives and helped them out this week. It was cool because we saw a few of them in church this sunday. The bad part is that we didn't see too many of our investigators in church. Diana was in church though. She had to study on sunday, but she got permission from her college professor to get some time off on sunday so she could go to church. She'll be getting baptized this week. It'll be a good welcome for my new son =). If you remember Karina, our golden investigator, she's on vacation right now and isn't in town and for that reason didn't come to church. 

All and all things are going good still. It's sad to see a good companion like Elder Bolton go, but I guess that's how life is. My next companion will be my 18th companion and my 3rd son =)

At the Zoo!

(I'm not sure if he's taking notes or committing him to Baptism!)

Chapel in Coca

So sad to see such a good companion go... :(

Well....right now I'm in Quito and it's kind of hard trying to think back on last week  =)....So we started out by going to the zoo. That was pretty cool but I'll have to send pictures next week because I don't have the cable I need to send them right now =(. Anyways, this week was pretty good. I don't remember anything specific that we did that was spectacular, but we worked as hard as we could despite the challenges. On monday and thursday I felt pretty bad. Basically like a zombie...Lots of body pain, headaches, diarrhea, and fatigue. Fun stuff. Me and my companion were like that but we tried to work the best we could. I think that's why this week turned out well for us. We sacrificed even when we felt like crap =). 

During this whole change we haven't had more than 3 people in church and this sunday we had 8. Out of those 8 we even had a few people that had baptismal dates! Finally! I feel like finally all our hard work is paying off. We even had a 9 year old investigator that gave us a reference and then brought her to church. Awesome!

Not really sure what else I can say...I think that going on would just drag out the letter and I would just start saying random boring stuff, but yeah, everything's going good in the sector and with my companion. We already have changes again at the end of this week! It's so crazy how fast the mission goes by...

Funny thing of the week: Well...unfortunately the funny thing of the week is contained within the pictures that I took at the zoo, so next week it will be a special episode =)

Elder Black