Email 02/23/2015 Changes!!!!!!!!

   Well changes came and went. But I'll leave that until the end to keep ya all on your toes.

   Anyway this week was pretty good I guess. Well the last P-day we didn't do much but I did buy a new Ecuador futbol shirt. I bought it from marathon sports and it usually costs $30 but I bought it for $6...... Good deal if I do say so myself haha.  Then for the majority of the week we were contacting doors left and right. I was seriously sick and tired of it but sometimes ya just gotta do it. Then on Wednesday we had our normal meetings but with a twist. So normally during our reunions we learn something then we do some practices. But when it was my turn to practice some random guy decides to walk in and ask about the church. So instead of doing just another practice I taught the guy infront of all the other missionaries.....I'm just a beast to teach I have to say its like watching a puppy being born, pure majic hahaha. But it was cool and he was a cool guy. So that was fun............................

    So that brings us to Friday. Well Friday I did some divisions with an elder in my zone named Elder Pinto (he's from Honduras). It was really fun actually because he served in one of the sectors that I served in, on the coast. He was telling me about all the people that I baptized there and some of the people that I helped return to the church. It was awesome to hear how well all of them were doing. Then  Saturday came and I went to my house. And I went with excitment in my heart to shower becuase I had'nt been able to shower in the other house. Then when we get to the house my companion tells me that he doesn't have the keys................We live on the second floor and the only other people that live in the house come home at night. So after 3 hours of doing everything possible to get in the owner of the house comes with some keys....They were the WRONG KEYS. So another hour passed and I just decide to climb the roof of one of the neighbors and and jump from there house to the roof of ours. My mom would be mad if she saw the distance in between the houses but I was desperate to shower. So I solved the problem. 

   Then that night we helped some missionaries with a baptism and I was asked by the bishopric to sing a solo during that...Not fun.

   Then sunday came, and not much happened on sunday.

   Then that brings us to the Changes. Well I didn't get changed anywere but my companion got changed and I'm so happy. Now my companion is Elder Garcia from Chile, and he's a pretty cool guy. So we are going to work super hard this change, thats the plan at least. 

  Oh and one of my old companions in this zone. Elder Cahaujaman got sent to the jungles with one of my other old companions, my beloved son Elder Valentine. I told Cahaujaman to not ruin Elder Valentine cuz he's a good missionary. Well thats all folks.

Love ya

PEACE! 

Elder Rodriguez

View from the Top! 

In the distance in that Valley is the middle of the World, longitude & latitude 0'0. 

Email 02/16/2015 Only a Matter of Time

   Well hello everyone. i hope this week was all fun and games for y'all up there in the states. So as I was thinking alot about when I should come home I finally got an answer......and it came directly from the prophet but I'll tell ya about that towards the end.

    Anyway for the most part this week has been really boring, we weren't able to go outside for about 4 days because of Carnival. Here during Carnival they run around with squirt guns, guns that shoot out foam, and throw water balloons...it would be really fun if we could participate in all the games but we are confined in our houses...And we found out that here in Quito the law prohibided all these games so we were practically in our houses for nothing. Fun stuff. Well with that I caught up on my sleep.

    Then this week we had interviews with the mission President. It was really awkward for me. My companion had his interview first then I went in. Now during the interview President said something that was really weird. He said, "Elder I feel like telling you that in this mission we don't return home after lunch to take naps. In this mission we are working as muich as we can". No to that I felt super clueless, cuz I don't do that. Haha so I said to him, "President from what you just told me I'm in question to the revelation in which you recieve, because I don't do that". Well to that he was just silent. I think my companion was telling lies during his interview, but whatever. I'm here to serve the Lord not my mission President or my companions.

     Oh and during the interview one of the missionaries in our zone got super sick. His name is Elder Cahajuaman (he used to be my companion) and we found him in the bathroom just crying out in pain, and he said his head was about to explode and he couldn't feel his arm...I thought he was having a heartattack. So we called the nurse and she tells us for him to drink some water.....Thanks......Anyway so in the moment we gave him a blessing and everything passed. So that was cool cuz seriously I have never seen someone look as bad as he did.

     Okay now for my decision. So as I prayed and prayed as to what date I should go home. I got a call from the offices. It turned out that my ministers card (gives me the official right to preach) just arrived, which I should have had my whole mission. So I went to the offices and picked it up. Well on this card it has the signeture of President Thomas S. Monson and 2 dates. The date in which I started my mission and the date when I finish. The 22nd of September.

Thats all folks!

Love ya.

Peace,

Elder Rodriguez

Official Ministers card.

Donkey in the Streets.

I'm so famous it's crazy!

Email 02/09/2015 The Goober Gang

Well this week was good. I hope all of you had a splendid week over there in the States or wherever you are.

    Lets start this thing from the beginning. Monday, well it was our P-day and we did a small activity that I talked about last week so nothing new on that one. Then Tuesday we had another Mission council with all the leaders of the mission. I have a pic I'll send but right now practically all of the missionaries from my group are leaders. It's awesome because it's almost like a family reunion to go to these councils. Oh then President gathered up only those missionaries in my group and gave us an ultimatum. He told us our choices to go home is either the 22nd of September or the 3rd of November and told us we need to decide by the 23rd of this month. As of yet I have no idea but I'm gonna talk to him this Friday. So anyway with that I have nothing more.

     So this month in the mission we have been all asked to sacrifice something so see greater miracles. So as I was thinking of sacrificing a dog (thats a joke) in our house the lights go out. So now I think I'm gonna sacrifice using electricity. This whole week has passed without electricity. And honestly it wouldn't be that bad if our shower wasn't heated by electricity, or if everything in our kitchen worked by electricity.......So we are living it up like the pilgrams here in Quito, the big city.

Well that's all for now I have to go.

Love ya all,

Elder Rodriguez

Council of Leaders (we have a meeting once a month)

The Leaders from my MTC  group who came out into the mission field with me. 

Studying by candle light.

Email 02/02/2015 Among the Elect

Well this week was all good in Zion.

First off this week was a bit tough. This week consisted of many planned meetings that just didn't go so well. At the beginning of this week I had some divisions with an Elder Kimball (from Texas) and I had the best day planned and within the first hour of our divisions everything that I planned went to the dump. But being a Zone leader I had to come up with something fast. We went contacting ahh yeahh from door to door from rejection to rejection we had a long day hahah. No but we found a girl, we contacted her, she was interested and she accepted a baptismal date, so now we are working with that. Then in another missionaries sector we did an invasion (we went there to find people for them to teach) and it  was awful. During that time I did some more divisions with an Elder Perry (from Utah). And let me tell you he is a weird guy. Before the mission he used to live in Korea for 3 months every year to study. So he speaks Korean, English and Spanish now..... I need to step up my game a little bit haha. Anyway with him in the matter of 2 hours we talked with 48 people and not one wanted to listen to us. But we had fun and the spirit was there so I can't quite complain can I?  But after all the hard work of the week I think the Lord felt sorry for us because this sunday at church everysingle less active member came to church. #TenderMercies Then at church the weirdest thing happened. So during Sunday school I teach a class for all the new people, getting to know the church, known as Gospel Principles. The theme of the week was Charity and how we should love our neighbor. Well in the middle of the lesson one old guy raised his hand, so accordingly I let him talk. Bad Idea. He then stood up and pointed to the guy next to him and said, "For the past 10 years I have been the worst friend to this man right here and I would like to ask him for his forgiveness". Then  he gets down on one knee infront of the other old man and begs for his forgiveness with tears rolling down his face. I looked around me and everyone was crying and or with tears in there eyes. During that whole time I was just thinking, "What the heck is going on".

So that was my wierd experience for the week.

  Well this week I had a pretty cool experience. I got to spend an hour with Elder Craig Christenson of the Presidency of the Seventy. He came down here to Ecuador to talk to us, only for an hour but I learned alot. And he spoke really good spanish so that was a bonus.

 Now the last part worthy to note for this week is today. For P-day as a zone we had a huge waterballoon fight... Fun stuff, Oh and we ordered a bunch of pizzas again!.

Well love ya all

thats it 

PEACE

P.S. no pics this week sorry

Elder Rodriguez