Week 34 from Quito Ecuador

This will probably be a fairly short posting and sorry to not have any pictures this week.  Not too much happened this week.  That’s kind of the way it is in the office.  It’s either feast or famine.  We’re either really busy or not.  Next week will be our busy week since we have missionaries coming on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 7th and 8th.

We are starting to prepare for Christmas since it will take some time to get the various items and gifts for the missionaries ready, we are needing to start early.  Sister Richardson and her daughter, Andrea are making salt dough ornaments for each of the missionaries and my job is getting the pictures to put on them ready.  I am also gathering the pictures needed for the Christmas card.  Sister Allred ordered the study journals for the missionaries and is preparing the index guide to go in them.  These are all projects that will be really special to give to the missionaries but will take some time to prepare.

Wednesday morning I helped the Quito mission by preparing the last seven empadronamiento packets for the seven missionaries that had arrived the night before.  Elder Nuttall was at the government office early that morning and met the missionaries there that he had already prepared the packets for.  Once I had these seven ready Lynn hurried them over to the office so that Elder Nuttall could do these also.  They were able to get all twenty seven of the missionaries done that morning.

Our list changed again of those arriving on the 8th of October.  We added four new visa waiters to the list.  Elder Cantera has a real challenge to try and acquire all the apartments that are needed. He and Elder Morton spend a lot of time looking for and making the arrangements for getting the apartments. By the end of the year we will have nearly 200 missionaries in our mission.  The Quito mission will have even more.  That will be almost double what the Quito mission had before it was divided.

The missionaries have really been working and teaching.  This last weekend we had two of the zones that had what they call “White Nite”, where they have a lot of baptisms on one evening.  The Ofelia zone had 18 on Saturday and the Quito zone had quite a few as well, not sure the number.   The membership here continues to grow.

Saturday all the senior sisters met at the Kaneens apartment.  Elder Kaneen offered to fix dinner for us and then we watched the General Relief Society conference together.  Sister Ghent joined us.  The talks were great and, as always, we enjoy visiting with each other.  Pres. Monson talk was especially inspiring.  He reminded us that no matter what we have done God still loves us, every one of us.  That love never changes. It is constant.  We were not place on this earth to walk alone.  It’s reassuring to know that He is always there for us, no matter what.  All we need to do is ask.

We had FHE at the Segos this week.  Elder Sego taught a lesson on our unique differences and the things that the Lord asks of us that are the same for everyone, such as to love one another, to have compassion, to forgive, etc.   Regardless of how different we all are we are still expected to work at having these same attributes and to help us become one, as He wants us to be.  It was a great lesson.  After some of the others had left, the Kaneens and Lynn and I ended up staying a bit longer.  We had a discussion on how hard it is for Sister Sego, the Kaneens and I to learn Spanish and to be able to understand what is being discussed in our church meetings and as we function in our various duties in the mission.  Even Elder Sego and Lynn confessed to sometimes having a hard understanding some of what is said.  It was encouraging to know that I’m not alone as we are all struggling with the language.  Elder Kaneen made a great comment that I will have to implement.  He said that he is trying to look at this as a chance to learn more by the Spirit.  When he doesn’t understand what is being said then he tries to listen to what the Spirit is teaching him and learn from that rather than from the spoken talks or lessons.  He hopes that by the time he goes home at the end of his mission maybe he will have learned more about being in tune to the Spirit then he has before.  Maybe I will, too.