Week 20

Bueno, I don`t even know where to begin.

   This last week was pretty cool! We went to the Zone Leaders' apartment and all 12 of the Elders from our zone were there for Christmas. We weren`t allowed to leave. I think it has something to do with the people and their partying and stuff. Anyway, we spent that day just laying around, watching Disney movies, and eating all of the food that members brought us all day. We also had pizza! I was super excited.

We were allowed to Skype our families for an hour, and go out to eat dinner for an hour. But apart from that, were inside all day. I wish we would have been able to work, but I must admit that it was nice to relax for a bit. I made another audio log, but I forgot to bring it with me to the Cyber.

I spent a lot of time reading on Christmas. I read Jesus The Christ. Super good book, I highly recommend it. I have been trying to learn more and more about Jesus this holiday season since I`ve been spending the last 20 weeks trying to get people to come closer to him :)

They have some interesting traditions here for Christmas and New Year`s. On Christmas day, They stick these bamboo sticks about 25 feet high, into the ground. They had previously been sanded down really nice, and buttered up. Then they put prizes at the top of them, and people try and climb them in whatever way they can, and if they can do it, they get whatever`s at the top. It reminded me of Mulan, haha. And for New Year`s they make these things kind of like piñatas, called manigotes. Some are small, and some are 50 feet high, and on New year`s they set them on fire!!

Anyway, I promise I`ll write more next week, I had quite a few emails to respond to this week, and If I didn`t respond to you yet, know that I will, and that I`m grateful for your letters! I hope you all had a great Christmas. And I hope that you all spent some time remembering our savior this holiday season.

Week 18- New Companion

We had our Christmas activity in Guayaquil this Wednesday. Elder Moore and I went down on Tuesday. Only, Elder Moore didn`t come back. We had an emergency transfer, and I returned from the activity with Elder Criddle, from Highland, Utah (I don`t know why all of my companions are white)!
Elder Criddle has been out in the field exactly as long as I have. He speaks Spanish pretty well, and we`re working together in amazing unity. We have been contacting like crazy, and working hard every day to the point where we are exhausted upon our return home.
I leared a lot from our visit to Guayaquil and our visit to the temple. And I am learning a lot day by day.
Love you all. My companion has a nifty recording machine, so here`s an audio recording from the both of us (But mostly him) Merry almost Christmas!

Elder Najera

Check out the Audio Here:  Eric Starts talking at the 4:15 mark.

Week 17 All is Well In Manta

All is well in Manta.

Lucy´s baptismal date fell, for like, the 3rd time. But it´s fine. She´ll get baptized when she is ready. She´s learning super quick, and hasn´t had any challenges with anything, so maybe church assistance(attendance) is it.

This week we told a couple that the missionaries have been seeing for five months that if they didn´t turn in a certain paper that they need to get married by this week, we would stop passing by. A church member said he would pick them up and take them to the city hall but when the day came, the member never passed by his house. So we are going to see this couple again and give them another opportunity. I really hope we don´t have to drop them, but Elder Moore says that we´ve been seeing them for too long, and that they´ve let us down a ton :( We´ll see how it goes.

This week I had exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Rostaing from Peru. I learned a lot. And he made me recognize some of my strengths :)

This week we´re supposed to be going to Guayaquil. Should be fun!

Love,
Elder Najera

Week 16- Rescued Christmas Tree

This week Elder Moore and I went on Exchanges with Elder Humphries and Elder Blanco. This is the third time that Elder Blanco and I have worked together in our area! He´s pretty much the third companion of Abdon Calderon.

We have been working with a new way of contacting called "He is the Gift". We have been handing out cards with the scripture John 3:16 on it, and we talk about Jesus Christ and how he is the ultimate gift from our Heavenly Father. There is also a cool video that we´ve been trying to watch with as many people as we can. http://www.mormon.org/christmas

There´s not much to report this week. Everything´s going well, but it´s just sad that we haven´t been able to visit Carlos and Gaby, or Lucy this week. And Lucy didn´t come to church. But we´re going to have a pretty dang awesome Family Home Evening with her and another family tonight :)

We found a Christmas Tree thrown away and we carried upstairs, and Elder Moore spent half an hour brushing pidgeon poop and feathers off of it while I worked out some issues in the bathroom from some funny meat that a member feed us. I was too sick to even plan that night, and I retired to bed at about nine. But we have a Christmas tree in our apartment, and I am super excited :)

On Sunday, for the third hour, instead of everyone splitting up, we were all in the same class. A class taught by the branch mission leader, Elder Moore, and I. We showed them how having a member present helps investigators. We asked for a volunteer to come up and bear their testimony after Elder Moore and I did a practice lesson on one of the members. No one raised their hand to volunteer to be our member present. After an eternity of silence, CARLOS. OUR INVESTIGATOR stood up!! He bore his testimony with us. It was super cool. I hope I´m here in Manta when he gets baptized.

Today, Elder Moore, Elder Blanco, Elder Humphries, and I went with the Chalacan family to the beach. It was super fun! I´ll send photos next week :)

P.s. They couldn´t repair my camera :( It still takes photos, but I can´t see how they´re going to turn out before I take them. I´ll send some next week hopefully.

Love,
Elder Najera