Email 07/27/2015 Eternal Tiredness

Well like the title suggest, I'm really tired. At this point in the mission I no longer feel physically tired its more of a spiritual tiredness....Its hard to explain....

  Anyways this week was a bit tough. At this moment in my teaching and as a missionary I feel that I'm on the top of my game but we are having the hardest time finding people. Like at this very moment we only have that family that I mentioned last week and nobody else. But I'm working my butt off out here.

   So besides that nothing much has been going on. We did host an activity for the ward in which we just played a series of games.......Only 8 people showed up, not including the missionaries. So that was a huge success. 

  Oh and the funniest thing happened this week. So one of the less active member families in our ward just moved to the other ward...Well they moved across the street. So as the good missionary I am I showed the other missionaries where they live so they can visit them and help them to be firm in the church. Turns out these missionaries don't like to work, cuz they don't even visit the family. So I decided that my companion and I will, and we will tell them to attend the ward to which they should. Then my zone leaders yelled at me for it. They said I can recieve revelation for people out of my sector,(which is true because no missionary recieves revelation for others....only theirselves, but my ZLs don't know that cuz they don't study), so I said okay I won't visit them anymore if it bugs the other missionaries that I'm helping children of God. So I was really honest when I said I won't visit them anymore......This sunday the whole family came to our ward, and said they want to move cuz the other missionaries aren't visiting them. 

  I guess I'm a champ then. Hahahaha.

 Anyways its the final countdown till I come home.

Hope everyone is ready!

Love ya ALL

PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

I'm the KING! 

I was baptizing my baby boy (my companion). 

Email 07/20/2015 Apostasy!!!!

Well hello everyone. Well everything here in Ecuador is going great, especially since we had changes. So now I'm in the same sector, with the same companion but I'm no longer the District Leader. I'm soooo happy that I can just focus on my own sector now. But I do have to train the new District Leader to do his job right. So thats the most recent thing that happened.

    Anyway so this last Thursday we had our little zone conference and let me tell ya it was good. So they came out with a new rule for the mission that we can only write for an hour and a half instead of the 2 straight hours. But with the other half an hour we are to do family history, which is great.....for some. So in the meeting they talked about this new rule and asked us how we felt. And everything was good until the people who literally can't do Family History in the mission for the lack of resources. So it turns out during that time they are to just look at the computer of their companion and wait for a half an hour. Now I shared my opinion by saying it was a great idea to work on family history but that itwasn't  thought out well in its entirety. Like just imagine just sitting there looking like a doof for half an hour. I imagine that it would be more productive if they could just read talks or watch videos on the church´s website, but no. So my leaders said that in that moment i apostated from my leaders............I was furious because they said that infront of everybody, but then everybody stood up for me saying itwasn't  apostasy to say it wasn't thought out well. So it was an interesting meeting.

   Anyway my companion and I are working hard and at the moment we have 3 people with a baptismal date. 

 Oh and today we had an activity were we went to the real middle of the world...Pics to come.

Elder Rodriguez

A family made me a late 4th of July meal.....IT WAS SO GOOD!

The design of the T-shirt I'm making for the Zone.

A real shrunken head....a They do that here in the jungles.

Some nice paintings showing how they prepare the heads.

The snake was feeding me.

Totem pole.

Chilling with my homie.

Chicken form Llama's.

Being Trashy.

Email 07/13/2015 Nothing New

 Well sad to say that this week wasn't that exciting. I'm okay here in Calderon still with my small companion still. We are still working hard but it really seems that with such little time I have left, the work is getting harder. At the moment we are working with a family that is super awesome, they are reading the scriptures daily they are always praying, but just one problem. WE CANNOT GET THEM TO CHURCH!!!! Ugh I'm frustrated because for the past 3 weeks thay have said that they with go but everytime something comes up. Oh well I think I just need to pray a bit more for the guidance. We will see what happenes this Sunday.

  Anyway so today we had an activity as a zone, it was alright. We played volley ball with towels and waterballoons then we played indoor soccer and dodgeball. Man I love dodgeball. It was pretty much only my district and a couple of other gringos playing it but we had a blast. 

   So then after that I went to the mall. So about 3 weeks ago the wire to charge my camera broke so I went to radioshack last week to see if they had the wire. They told me that it would come in on thursday. So that was the reason that I went this week. ANNNNNNDDDD the guy tells me that they have never sold that type of wire...I felt like ragiing but I don't think Jesus Christ rages too much.

So thats all FOLKS.

PEACE!

love ya all

Elder Rodriguez

P.S. No pics this week

Email 07/06/2015 Independence Day

 Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, I know I didn't hahahahahahaha. No but in reality it was alright, as was this week.

  So at the beginning of this week I was honestly feeling a bit bummed because my companion wasn't   progressing much and it felt like a real wieght on my shoulders. 

 Luckly God answers our prayers and only desires our happiness. So after much suffering and much praying, my companion magically progressed alot within one day. Now thankfully he is striving alot more to teach and learn. <--------------------------------------------------------------(Testimony right there)

 So lets continue with the week. So Elder Flores 2.O and I have been working super hard to find new people so we have been trying to get creative. We even went to a city that has never seen missionaries, called Oyocoto, and it turns out that there are more dogs than people over there and the people that are there are super Catholic. So that ended only with a mean looking dog bit to my leg...... I'm okay, no rabis 

  Then it turns out the Pope came to Ecuador...................................SO NOBODY HAS BEEN HOME....

  But honestly I have felt the love of God this week. It has been really hard to see it but its always there. In the midst of a zone of 25 missionaries I'm leading the best district and they have already become like a family for me, the members are great and my companion is getting better. So I really can't complain.

 Oh and today I got an email from one of my old companions who finished his mission about a month ago... He send me a picture of him and his wife in the temple. So with 10 more weeks I think I'm going to work alot harder to have a super hot wife real fast. Honestly that companion was really ugly but he did well.

 

Okay Love ya all

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

Underwater pic with Elder Urquieta (from Bolivia). He recently ended his mission and was my first District Leader.

My old District.

My companion bought a sheep ones you and sleeps in it. He doesn't think it's weird.

This sign says if they catch a robber they will lynch him. It's not a joke here!