This day finds me wearing my handy-dandy raincoat because, well, it's raining. Also, this day finds me with a new companion! His name is Elder......Tuckett! A gringo! He's my first gringo companion in a long time (since Riobamba, but even then that didn't count much). He recently was made a zone leader, so I get to teach him all that he needs to know about being a zone leader. He seems like a pretty good guy, and I'm very excited for this change. All of the sectors in the zone had a change, so there are now 6 new missionaries in the zone. Elder Miranda is going to be training, so I'm going to be a grandpa again! Oh, and one of my "grandsons" is training, so I'm now a great-grandpa. I'm getting so old. (That reminds me: 4 months.)
This week was very nice. We had two baptisms and four confirmations! Woo! Gaya Piñán and Cristian Gamboy finally came to Church again and were able to get confirmed, and the Almache family was married, baptized, and confirmed this week. Woo! We need to find a lot more people though because we're running out of people to teach. We can do it though! With a lot of divine help, we can do anything.
We had a pretty cool spiritual experience this week. While we were teaching the Reinoso family their son came out of his bedroom. He was incredibly drunk and I didn't think that him listening to us would amount to anything at all. Anyway, he sat down next to me, listened for a bit, and then went back to his room. I thought he was leaving for good, but he just went to turn off the music. He came and sat back down next to me, and after listening for a bit more asked us for some advice. It turns out that the lesson we were teaching his parents was the Word of Wisdom, so we decided to teach him about it too. We just told him what it was in simple terms (that we shouldn't partake of alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, tea, and coffee), and then I felt prompted to tell him that if he really wanted to start changing his life, then he needed to start right now by throwing out any alcohol that he still had. The son got up, went to his room, came back with his alcohol, opened the door, and chucked the bottle out. That was the first time I had ever seen that. It was wonderful. Then we had to end the lesson because we had to go to the baptismal service of the Almache family, and the whole family, including the son, decided to come down as well. While in the baptismal service, the son asked what was necessary to be baptized and said that he wants to prepare to get baptized. It was a really spiritual experience. Some might say that it was just because he was drunk, but I know that he truly wants to change his life. We're going to be passing by more frequently with them, especially to help the son lay off the alcohol and everything that's destroying his life right now. Stay tuned to see how this story ends (or begins?).
Go Jeffrey and Madre for being missionaries! Woo! Just remember Alma 32 and that perhaps you are planting those seeds. Keep on keeping on! And yay for feeding missionaries! I'm sure that they were appreciative of that. I know I definitely would be. Food is one of a missionary's best friends.
I was going to send a letter packet today, but I don't think we'll have the time to do so. Sometimes I really don't like change days because all one does is wait. And then call and hear that you have to wait more. And then after you've waited all day long you can go and spend 2 hours doing everything that you need to do. But luckily this only happens once every 6 weeks.
Oh, little culture tid-bit. Instead of having a lot of really big grocery stores here, there are little corner stores on every corner (and frequently between the corners, too). They don't sell everything that a grocery store sells, but they sell snacks, eggs, milk, vegetables, and the basic necessities for Ecuadorian life. I'm going to miss those when I get back. No longer will I be able to walk down to the corner to buy a couple of eggs for breakfast, nor to buy a soda or anything like that. If I want something, I'll have to get dressed, get in a car, go to the grocery store and buy it there, which is way too much hassle. Sigh. Oh well. I guess I'll have to get used to American life again, but not for another 4 months.
Well, I love you all very much. I hope that you've already started preparing for GENERAL CONFERENCE!! WOOOO!! (That's basically become my Super Bowl.) I know that if someone prepares to receive revelation, then they will receive it. I love you and wish you all the best. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Schomburg
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