Tuesday was Mission Leaders council. The Kaneens and Lynn and I went to help. We had pancakes and scrambled eggs. Sis. Ghent had a delicious syrup that she made with butter, vanilla, sugar and cream, besides the more traditional maple syrup. We are becoming quite the team with preparing these meals for the groups of missionaries. Lynn didn’t stay long since he had to go with Elder Cantera to the airport to meet a missionary who was coming from Peru. He is actually assigned to the Quito North Mission but for some reason was sent early and is assigned to serve in an area that will change over to the North Mission on July 1st.
Wednesday we had the verification meeting for those that came on April 9th. They also go to the Panecillo and tell about when Pres. Kimball’s, as member of the Quorum of the twelve, dedicated the land of Ecuador for missionary work. Since I hadn’t been I wanted to participate with this group in going and was given permission to do so. For all the time that Sister Thomas has been here she hadn’t gone either, since there always had to be someone at the office. So, I mentioned it to Sister Ghent and she arranged for Sister Thomas to go, also. It was a great experience. While the AP’s were reading the story of the dedication to the missionaries there was a lady who came up close to the group with a load of hats in her hand. Sister Thomas thought she was going to try and sell the hats to the missionaries and so she went over to her and quietly told her this was not a good time to try to sell her hats since we were having a special meeting. She shook her head and said that she just wanted to listen. So Sister Thomas gave her a copy of the story to follow along and held her hats for her so she could do so. [I’m including the story at the end of this letter]. She listened very intently to the story. After we were done one of the sister missionaries went up to her and talked to her, getting her contact information so that they could tell her more. Since I have needed a hat I decided to buy one from her. It was only two dollars but will help keep the sun off my face when we go on our monthly outings with the senior missionaries.
Lynn hadn’t been to the Panecillo either but he had to take some of the visas that were brought in by the missionaries and get copies in preparation for the trip that afternoon to apply for their empadronamientos. We have decided to include this as part of their trip into Quito for those who are serving outside the Quito area so they don’t have to make another trip in. After the training meeting and after lunch, he took 19 of the missionaries, along with their companions/trainers, to get the empadronamientos. There were also about three of the trainers that also needed their empadronamientos. It went fairly quickly. They got to the government office a little after 3 and were done by 4:30pm.
On Thursday and Friday I got more packets ready for visa renewals, two of which were for President and Sister Ghent, since theirs will be expiring at the end of the month. Lynn has been busy helping some of the visa waiters that are going to Argentina get the certified birth certificates that they need for their visa applications. They will be leaving next week.
We also got word that we have seven visa waiters coming from Mexico Missions next week that need to renew their visas. They are all from Ecuador. One of them was here in our mission and the rest in other Ecuador missions when they got visitor visas to Mexico that now need to be renewed. The comings and goings of the visa waiters keep us on our toes. We never know from one day to the next what to expect. And, housing them is a real challenge. This is especially challenging as we are preparing to split the mission. Everything is supposed to be frozen on June 15th, meaning that we are not supposed to make any changes during the last two weeks of June so that the transition can be made. This wouldn’t be all that hard except for the visa waiters.
Friday night the senior missionaries, except for Sis. Thomas and the Segos, went out to eat at a local Chinese restaurant. We each got different entrées and they were put on a large round turn table in the center of the table and we shared. It was delicious and we enjoyed an evening of visiting.
Saturday was a quiet day, with not too much to do. I did wash and Lynn went on one of his long walks. I worked on some of the things from the office. It makes it nice to have the files loaded in our Dropbox account so I can do that.
We get a lot of English-speaking visitors to our ward. Most of which are those who are working with the orphanage. But, today we had a sister visit who was here in Ecuador for an internship at one of the local hospitals. She graduated from BYU and is now in medical school in Texas, doing this internship here as part of that training to become a doctor. She has been here for four weeks and has two weeks more to go. As we were visiting today after church it was mentioned that she had served a mission in Russia. I asked her where and when she said Samara I asked if she knew the Sartoris, who are presently serving as the mission president and wife there. She said that they started about half way through her mission. Another one of those “small world” incidents.
Tonight we had our Senior FHE at the Segos. We talked about the Guideposts in our lives that have helped us to be where we are spiritually in our lives. Some mentioned leaders that had touched them as youth and changed the direction of their lives. Others told of how seeing negative examples had them to see what they didn’t want in their life. We always learn so much from sharing with each other. It’s a great group.
Story of the dedication of the land of Ecuador for the preaching of the Gospel.
Here is the story of the dedication of Ecuador as presented to the missionaries after their arrival to the mission.
Welcome to Ecuador. You have been called to a place that is really a little piece of heaven. You are going to see a wonderfully beautiful country. You’re going to experience a perfect climate. You’re going to meet a people that are kind and spiritual. You are on this hill because of the prayers of prophets and apostles.
In 1965 Elder Spencer W. Kimball spoke with President David O. McKay about plans for missionary work in South America. Elder Kimball said, “I took my large map of South America and put it on the desk…I pointed to Quito, in Ecuador and spoke of the millions of indigenous on the high plateau of the Andes mountains. President McKay asked me, “Millions? I said to him: “Yes, President McKay, there are millions and they are pure blood Indians who speak different languages and dialects.” I spoke to him about certain valleys that we wanted to explore to see if proselyting was feasible there, and he said: “I believe that the time has arrived for the Lamanites to hear the gospel”. And he said, “Yes, this is the time. They should hear the Gospel and you are one of the apostles that has the vision of this. You have my authorization.”
In the first days of October, 1965, four missionaries were sent to Quito. On October 9th Spencer W. Kimball visited Quito…There he met and talked with people in the market and later traveled in taxi with the Mission President of the Andes Mission and the four missionaries to the top of the hill called Panecillo, in the center of the city, in order to offer a prayer dedicating the country of Ecuador for the preaching of the gospel. On the Panecillo they found a family of tourists and Elder Kimball sent the missionaries to invite them and their driver to join in the prayer. All gathered together and Elder Kimball offered the dedicatory prayer. He prayed saying: “They have waited so long, our Father, for the gospel to come to them…We ask thee to bless them, Father, that their hearts may be warmed and that they may be filled with the glorious truths of thy Gospel.”
Later Elder Kimball and the group traveled to Otavalo, where in a small plaza they sat in the shade of a tree whle the driver changed a tire on the car. A boy appeared and asked if he could shine their shoes for a few cents, and they accepted. Elder Kimball said to the youth, “Cornelio, there are things more important than money”, and he explained to him that the missionaries would come to Otavalo with the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Kimball promised to write him, and he gave him an Articles of Faith card with his name, saying that some day he would return to Otavalo and he would like to know how Cornelio was doing.
The first nine members in Quito were baptized just three weeks later on October 31, 1965. Among those first members was the taxi driver who had taken Elder Kimball to the little hill to offer the dedicatory prayer.
Elder Kimball returned to Ecuador in 1967. The elders took him to visit the Peguche Indians. There they found a site for a meeting and the elders stopped the people who were passing along the street to invite them to the meeting. One of the elders began the meeting with a prayers and President Jepperson began to give his message while the elders were running high and low seeking investigators. Finally, about 100 people met and sat in silence and listened to the mission president talk about the Book of Mormon. Later Elder Kimball spoke about the visit of Jesus Christ to the Americas. He testified of Jesus Christ and told the Indians that the missionaries were teachers of truth. After the meeting, those who had attended pressed forward to shake hands with him. Elder Kimball later recalled the occasion. “Of all the meetings that I have ever attended, I believe that this was the most inspirational and motivating.”
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