Week 68 -Transferred

No Letter this week. From what I can tell, Elder Najera was transferred to the Office.

With Elder Torres at the Terminal

With Elder Pat at the Terminal

Goodbye Pictures

Dunkin donuts

Week 67 - Christmas Conference

This week definitely had its ups and its downs.

With the ups, we had a baptism! Jostin was baptized and confirmed. That family´s doing fantastic. Also, we bumped into Jefferson at stake conference. I almost died of joy. He´s doing super well. He received the Melchizedek Priesthood! He said that as soon as he completes one year of being a member, he´s going on a mission :)

We had a lovely Christmas Conference with the whole mission. President Dennis focused on Family History Work. We are now teaching Family History and Eternal Marriage as a part of EVERY lesson and EVERY contact.

Also, today´s my companion´s birthday! We woke him up early and sang to him while he blew out his candle. I had Elder Herrera secretly buy a cake and a Coke for later tonight (My comp still has no clue) So yeah.

And well, with the downs, we had NO ONE at Stake Conference. So that was a bummer. We had to drop a lot of investigator this week, but that means that this week we´re going to find new people :)

So yeah. Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Najera

Our Christmas conference

Jostin´s baptism

Stake Conference with Jefferson

Elder Arratia´s Birthday

Week 66

Saludos From Monte Sinaí,

So this week´s going to be our Christmas Conference, and because of that we are having our little pday today from 9 to 11. So yeah.

 This week we have a baptism! Jostin, the son of a single mother whom we reactivated, is going to be baptized and confirmed on Friday =) He has to be confirmed at the baptismal service because this week is also stake conference.

 The Zambrano Family, a family of three, is preparing to be baptized on December 5th! They had a date for the 28th, but it fell through because yesterday they left at 5 in the morning to Bastion Popular because Their grandmother had an accident. But, they accepted their new baptismal date very well, and they´re reading in their Book of Mormon and experiencing changes in their family =)

The Castilla Family (Less actives) are going to be rescued this Sunday, and Their 9 year old son, Jared should also have his baptismal interview. Juan, our recent convert, recieved the Aaronic priesthood yesterday! He´s doing fantastic. We´re working with his sister now.

 We also had an amazing investigator go to church yesterday. Luis. We´re going to extend a baptismal date with him for December 5th.

 And yeah. I´m stoked for the Christmas conference. We´re probably going to the temple. Next pday is my comp´s birthday, so that should be fun too.

Elder Najera

Week 64

Happy Halloween! I´d honestly completely forgot about that until somebody reminded me today.

This Saturday we got to go to a Multi-stake activity celebrating the 50th anniversary of the church in Ecuador! It was cool. There were a TON of people. We sang I am a Child of God as the Ecuatorian pioneers came in. It was all recorded. Not sure where that footage went, but Elder Arratia and I are definitely in it!

Juan´s baptism was miraculous. We didn´t start filling the font until 4:30, and the font takes 5 to six hours to fill. When it was 7:30, Juan and some other people showed up, and the water wasn´t even up to our knees. When it was 8:00, we thought he was going to have to do the baptism sitting down or something, but somehow the font had filled up enough for the baptism to be done normally! And we had Elder Torres come and sing a special number (He was on The Voice of Peru right before the mission), so it all just turned out really nice. Sadly, we had some baptismal dates fall through because people went away to visit their dead this Sunday. So yeah.

We had something called Colada Morada. It´s this purple liquid with a ton of random fruits in it. It´s really good. Aaaand, that´s about all for this week.

Elder Arratia says hi.

Elder Najera

Week 63

So basically I´m in the same area, just the other half, haha.

Elder Arratia and I are doing great. We were able to set a baptismal date with Juan for this week! He had his interview, and everything´s good to go! Another investigator, Fatima also attended and we were able to extend a date for the 14th of November. He accepted :) We found a less active member who hadn´t gone to church in forever. We visited her, and she went this Sunday. Along with her 8 year old son, who also wants to be baptized. So yeah. A lot of good things are happening here.

ALSO, Jefferson and Moroni (From my old ward) Were baptized this week :D It was awesome. They felt so good, and both of them bore their testimony.

This Saturday there is a multi-stake conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the church in Ecuador! We´re allowed to go to that, and we´re super excited. So because of that, Juan´s baptism is going to be on Friday.

That´s pretty much all for now. I´m doing great. The water in our house went out twice this week and I shaved without any water or shaving cream for the first time in my life. So that was fun.

 Love you all!

Elder Arratia and I

Yes, that´s a pink chicken.

Jefferson got baptized :D Future missionary!

Moroni got baptized, too!

Week 62 - Transferred 2 Blocks Away

So yeah. Carla was baptized and confirmed! She´s doing fantastic. Jefferson´s going to be baptized this week, and Moroni´s going to be baptized on the 31st, and Katherine on November 7th :)

 Sadly, I will only be able to attend Jefferson´s baptism because I have been transfered. I´m now with Elder Arratia from Bolivia. He´s cool. He used to be in my old area with Elder Criddle who trained him (My old comp). I´m still in Monte Sinaí, just in a different ward. My current house is literally two blocks down from my old house, haha. But yeah.

Things are great. The phenomenom of "El Niño" is supposed to be pretty intense this year, so that should be fun. We´ve been feeling light earthquakes every now and then. So that´s nice. Aaaand, we killed a mouse in our apartment. So yeah. That´s all for now :)

Elder Najera

Week 60 - General Conference was Amazing

Welp, General Conference was amazing. I loved like, every single talk.

It was nice to hear from the new apostles as well. I think my favorite talk was Elder Neil L. Andersen's about how faith is a choice.

We were able to take Carla and Carmen to three of the sessions, and they absolutely loved it. They´re way converted. We´re going to ask permission on Sunday so that we can take them to the temple at the end of this month so that Carla can do some baptisms for her ancestors :)

Jefferson´s doing super well, too. He wasn´t able to go to general conference, but he´s still progressing. We talked with his parents, and they´re really nice people. They agreed to letting us watch Meet The Mormons with them on Thursday night.

Alexandra´s no longer progressing. She now has a job on Sundays, and she´s not putting in her part. We´re going to see if we stop visiting her this week.

I´m doing fantastic. Last Pday we bought a family size Hawaiian pizza and watched movies at the house. So yeah. That´s our life. I love you all!

Elder Najera