Hello earthlings,

Well, this week was alright; nothing too exciting happened. We contacted a lot but we weren't able to find very many new people this week...But we do have a few investigators that we're really excited for. One is the Arias Family. There's only 2 of them, but they're middle-aged, unmarried colombians. They're super awesome though. Carlos, the dad, isn't even baptized yet and he's almost finished the Book of Mormon and the Teachings of the Prophets book. Yup, he knows more than some members lol. He does have a lot of doubts and things he doesn't know, but he's got a really open mind. I guess most of his life he's been looking for the truth and has maybe literally researched every religion known to man. Christian, muslim, hindu, jew....about everything lol. So that's why he has a lot of ideas in his head. But the good part is that he believes almost everything we tell him lol. They're also planning on getting married this week. Hopefully it works out =)

Well...that was really the only exciting this this week. We spent most of our time trying to contact new places in our sector, but nobody really wanted to listen to us. One funny thing that we saw in all the contacts though is that they all thing that we're wrong about having modern revelation and prophets and they say that it says in the Bible that there can't be any more scripture because it's already in the Bible and that it also says that it says that there can't be anymore prophets or apostles. Then we ask them where it says that and they start looking in their Bible and can't find it, "Oh I know it's here! I read it! I can't find it but I know it's here!".....Yeah.....Then once I told a lady that if she can find where it says that in the Bible I'll get baptized in her church lol. She still didn't find it lol. People are funny sometimes. They tell us that we need to study better the Bible so we can teach the people the truth. It's funny because we CAN pull out scriptures to back up what we say and they can't.

Funny thing of the week: I found this little notice in a bus stop and translating it says, "Urgent. Need normal people to accomplish abnormal activities"....Uhh.....Like what lol. Yeah, that's all it says but I thought it was really funny and random =)

Well, I got changed this week =(. I was really wanting to stay in Coca until the end of my mission, but I guess that's how life is =).

So now I'm in Otavalo (where are the indigenous people and souvenirs are). It's pretty cool here in both senses of the word. After being in coast and jungle places for the past 7 months the climate change has been rough on my body. Where I used to like the cold, not anymore lol. Here it's been really rainy and cold. To top it off there is no hot water in our house, not even in the shower....Now I want everyone who is reading this letter to go to the nearest sink and put their hand under the water as cold as it goes. Super cold huh? That's what I have to shower with everyday....The first few times you shower you can't really breathe, but after a few days you get used to it and you feel like a real man for showering with that water =).

Other than the cold the ward is pretty good and pretty big. The bishopric actually does visits and the members are very willing to go with us and visit people. When I got here we didn't really have any investigators, but we found a bunch this week. There are lots of people that are prepared to recieve the gospel here; and out of all the investigators that we found this week 5 of them came to church. Now that is awesome!

Now my companion, his name is Elder Pinta from Colombia. He's got about 18 months in the mission and he's cool. We got off to a rough start, but I think we were able to work out our problems. We were able to contact lots and build up our program of investigators a lot. 

Elder Black

*(I will post pictures later on today)

Well, we haven't received a letter from Skylar this week.  We are assuming he got changed...

Well...the most exciting thing that happened that happened last week was that I didn't go to Quito. The bad part is that I'm in Quito right now for another meeting lol. The members in Coca are telling me to buy a house in Quito because I'm always here anyways =). 

This week was great! We found lots of new investigators and some even came to church. One new investigator was a contact named Fani Calpo. We contacted her and taught the Restoration right there. As we were about to offer the opening prayer she asked, "You pray sitting down?". Uhh....yeah? She wanted to pray kneeling down. Nice! So we knelt down and we explained how to pray and she said that she wanted to offer the first prayer. Yeah why not. Then she raised her hands up in the air and started praying the Lord's Prayer and then said "Amen". Uhh.....thanks for the prayer? lol. It was kind of awkward because we were teaching her in the open on her front porch....But she seemed really interested though =). Then another family we taught was a reference from some recent converts. In total there's 5 of them. They're pretty awesome and even came to a branch activity and church this week. They'll also be doing a FHE in the members house who's reference they were. 

Other random successes are these. We've been working on a less active family (Familia Villón) for a really long time. They have been long time inactive members; but the good part is that we've got them to church 2 weeks in a row and one of their sons that's now 9 has a baptismal date for May 17th. Also, an investigator couple of 2 years finally got all their marriage papers fixed and are all good to get married and baptized! Yeah! 

Overall things are going good here in Coca. It's been a bit difficult because we haven't had any baptisms in almost 3 months, but we've found people that aren't just good, but are keeping commitments. We're excited for all the work to be done! Hopefully they don't change me this change....

That's all for now!

P.S. Yes Mom, she actually really liked the cookies =)

Elder Black