This past week was alright. Meh...It was all thanks to Carnaval...It's a holiday here and everyone here goes to the river or out of town, as a result, lots of fallen appointments =). Hoorah! The good part is that we were still able to do some good stuff. We found a few promising new investigators who did not attend because of STUPID CARNAVAL!! Hrm... anyways...I'll skip all the bad stuff and just talk about the good stuff that happened. 

So we've been working on a less active convert named Patricia. She's 12 and was baptized about 4 months ago; in all my time here I have not seen her in church. We've been trying to get her to go and nothing....Then, this week we taught her parents who almost got baptized awhile back. They need to get married but we're going to try and help them with that. So we taught them on Saturday night and they weren't so committed to go to church on sunday. They didn't even want to commit to go 1 hour. But on sunday they (parents, Patricia and her little brother) all showed up to church and stayed all 4 hours! Nice =). It was awesome to see them there. 

We will also be having a baptism this week. His name is Orlando. We've been teaching him for a while and he kept saying that he wanted to know more and he wasn't ready to get baptized, but then on saturday he went to the baptism of a family that the other missionaries were teaching and then he said he was ready to get baptized. Awesome! So out of nowhere we'll be having a baptism this week =). 

Also, there was a cool experience that I had this week. So, this week was supposed to be the leaders meeting in Quito. I was going to travel to Lago Agrio on sunday night to be able to travel on monday morning with the other zone leader Elder Coram. Me and my companion got to the terminal at 7:30 to be able to meet up with the other missionaries to leave my companion with them and pick up a couple of things that I needed to take to Quito. We waited there for awhile and they got there at around 8:05. They gave me the papers that I needed, they left and I went to go grab my bus. The last bus left at 8:00 and I missed it....Luckily there was another bus going to Quito that passed by Lago Agrio at 9:00. But it would get there at around 10:30 and I needed to get permission to take a bus so late at night. So I called President and he told me that we would not be having the meeting and that we should not go to Quito. So, abandoned in the terminal I went back to the missionaries house in taxi where I waited for them to get home....So, what's the cool part of this. If the missionaries wouldn't have gotten late to the terminal I wouldn't have missed my bus, I wouldn't have called President to get permission to go late, and me and Elder Coram would have gone all the way to Quito without knowing just to come right back to Coca. The Lord takes care of his missionaries =)

Funny thing of the week: So this week I had to do a baptismal interview for a half deaf guy in a room that has a metal roof during a rainstorm...It was really noisy in during the interview and I could barely hear. He was talking softly and the rain was really pounding down on the roof. From what I could hear the interview was going well and then we got to question 4, the part about if he had commited a serious crime. Right then the rain came down harder and he went on talking. I tried really hard to listen but I could hardly hear anything. Then, as he was ending his story the only thing I could make out was, ".....so that was the worst sin I've commited...". Uhh.....darn it...Uhhhhhhh........."So you haven't any problems with the law or anything?". "No. Never". Okay good lol. It was funny. It was literally the only thing I could hear. Although I couldn't really tell what he was saying I could tell that he didn't have any problems. =)

Pics

1. Baptism of the other missionaries, Familia Guaman (4). They're so awesome =)

2. Orlando, Elder Poma and I at the baptism. 

3. Awesome cooked cinnamon apple french toast I made this morning. It was just as good as it looks =). I was so proud for making it =)

4. BMX show that we saw before coming to right today =). The close up is a member named Pedro Heredia who happens to be Diana's brother (Diana's the one that got baptized a couple weeks ago)

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... :(