Email 11/17/2014 View from a Archangel

This week went rather well here on the Volcano.

On Sunday we had a super old guy that we invited to church, thinking he wouldn't show. It was amazing because right then and there he said he wants to join our church because the Catholic church are a bunch of thieves..... I don't know about that part but we started to teach him.  

 Anyway for the most part this week was just alright. We had a missionary invasion in which we went to help out some Sister missionaries in their sector. While there we had some pretty amazing contacts. I contacted one guy and he tried arguing with me. He kept saying I was mistaken talking about God. Then he kept asking us which God I was talking about, whether it was Alla, the jewish God, the Catholic God or the Mormon God....They are literally all the same God. Anyways we ended up just walking away with the lasting words that, "Dios le mostrara el camino cuando esta listo a escuchar."<------ Translate it. 

 Then we visited the old lady Maria again and I got a picture. I had to tell her to stop cring for the picture. She is just always over joyed to see us, and she always tells us to return. 

 Then this p-day, today, we went to Ibarra (about 30 minutes in a bus) to visit the Archangel Michael. It was really cool and I'll send some pics.

 Anyways love ya all and hope you all take care of yourselves! 

Elder Rodriguez

P.S. Eat alot of turkey for me.....I won't be eating any! 

The Gringos

Selfie 

My companion & I 

Archangel Michael and I

Maria

Lunch

Email 11/10/2014 Party in the Park

Well HELLOOOOOO everyone. It seems like there is alot of things going on for everyone back home. This week has been full of.....meetings.

  So we started it off with some surprise interviews with the President of the mission. I was all good and for a plus he gave me some cookies. Then that same day his wife was checking our Area book (all of the work we have been doing while here in Iluman). And my companion was stoked for her to check itbecause he has been updating it everynight. And when she looked at it she just crushed us. It was a humbling experience for sure haha. But we´ll do better next time.

  Anyway the rest of the week was filled with other meetings that I always go to as the District Leader. Nothing fun there. Then one night all of us missionaries hosted a family history activity with all the wards in the area..........4 people showed up so you know it was a success. 

  The rest of the week was filled with me being a bit sick, due to allergies, and rain. Alot of Rain.

Oh and also the Waikis and Panigus have been parting it up here in the park. It's a celebration for the 125th anniversary of the Catholic church or something. The music that they have been playing is sooo cool, I'm missing the music of the states. But I'm a missionary!

  Then later in the week we made an old lady cry with our kindness. So the story is, we always visit this old lady that looks about 900 and she walks at a 90 degree angle. Its sad because she has no family that visit her and her son is literally her neighbor. But we shared a little message with her and she began to thank us with tears filling her eyes. Then she tried to pay us but we obviously denied. If you want to feel good in life, do good in life. That has been one of the best lessons I´ve learned here in the mission. 

  Well that brings us to P-day. We ended up playing more dodge ball but safely outside. It was a good time then we ate some pizza....I haven't had pizza for sooooo long. 

Well that's all for now folks.

Happy Birthday to my Waiki Jordan, I´ll send a package next Monday.

(I tried sending it today but the post office was out of stamps)

So be on the lookout for some good things! 

PEACE!

Have a nice day.

Elder Rodriguez

Here I am eating some delicious Cuyi (Guinie Pig) with Brother Alejandro and Sister Estella Tuqueres.

We live in their house upstairs on the 4th floor.

This is a rare Giant Blurry Beetle.

That's my hand next to it for scale.

Email 11/03/2014 Dayz of the Dead

Happy Halloween to all those ghouls reading this.

   This week went rather well for us here on the Volcano of Imbabura. While the weather is getting colder for all of you up there in the states, its getting hotter here. I actually like it. 

   So this week we are still working hard to bring the Lords work to the Lamanites once again hahaha. No but we are working really hard here. Right now we have some teenagers that are preparing for their baptismal dates ( and Iker). Also one of Tupok's friends who always goes to church came up to us and said he wants to be baptized too................. Ugh alright if you want pshhh. Anyway then this week while looking for a reference that we had we found a family of 7 who were almost baptized about 5 years ago. They weren't baptized then because they had their doubts whether or not Christ's church had Prophets and Apostles. I was so happy I knew what is in Ephesians 4:11-13 to respond to that question right away. So now we are working with them now. Its all good here.

   Oh update on my cooking skills... I learned how to make some Empanadas which I'll send some pics.

   Also this week we were able to invade a sector of some Sister missionaries which was legit. The whole zone came to help them find some new people to teach. During that invasion my companion and I found a guy who told us he died twice in his life and has no idea why he's still around. So we taught him the Plan of Salvation (which answers the time old questions: Where do we come from, What is our purpose in life, and Where do we go after this life).

   So that brings us to this monday P-DAY. So we decided to go to the church and play some broom hockey. Which by the way I decked out our broom to be the Nimbus 35 sponsered by Nike, Vans, Aki  (shopping center here), and  Deja (a detergent).......... It ended with one Elder almost killing me when he broke his broom, me almost breaking another Elders thumb and my companion body slamming a wall..... So we stopped doing that and played some dodge ball with taped up toilet paper rolls....... That ended with an Elder breaking a window in the church..... So we stopped that too. Then we ate some mexican food. 

 Well that all folks. 

Thanks for all the support

Love ya all.

PEACE! 

Elder Rodriguez 

PS: Shout out to my Brother Jordan who is about to have a birthday.

Kill it our there Waiki (brother in kitchua)

Cool Graffiti during the invasion. 

My world famous Empanadas.

Email 10/27/2014 A Walk into the Waters

  This week here on the volcano of Imbabura we were blessed to see one of our investigators enter into the waters of baptism and then recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost.  His name is Jhon and we had his friend Wilson baptize him. It was great and also the Zone leaders, who serve in our ward  had a baptism of 2 other kids. It's cool because they are all friends with each other and they are super excited to pass the sacrament. (I'll send pics). But the baptism was a tough one. So Elder Valentine and I went early to fill up the baptismal faunt. Then when we came back, the water was super low. And to make it worse the water pump wasn't working to pump more water into it...... So they were baptised really really close to the ground.

   This week we also found a young teenager named Tupoc De La Torre who we thought was a member. He has been attending church for over a year and we just recently gave him a baptismal date. He's  super awesome and really knows everything already. Only one problem, his parents are really against the church. But his older sister, who is about 22 or something, is a recent convert of the church so we are gonna work really hard and pray that the Lord softens the hearts of the parents. Cuz Tupoc really wants to be baptized....It's weird.  

    So then on Sunday we started out with a heart breaker.  One of our best Investagators, who we had the highest hopes for, dropped us........ So we were walking to the church all bummed when out of nowhere I find $5.... It was amazing cuz pretty much everysingle person that was walking to the church had to have walked past that bill. Lucky me. 

   This week we also found a super old lady. She looks about the same age as Yoda from Star Wars. She also walks about at a 90 degree angle due to hard labor her whole life. So we talked to her about prayer and she begins to tell us about one time when her grandson (Joey Diaz a return missionary) prayed and she didn't like it. He did one of those lazy missionary prayers where your on your bed praying in a fetil position. And then she showed us how, I mean she got on the ground and demonstrated. My companion and I could not stop laughing and I think she realized she is crazy because she started laughing too. 

    Well that's all of the things that happened this week. Hope all is well.

Love ya all PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

Double Rainbow on Volcano Imbabura

Jhon's Baptism 

Zone Leaders Baptism 

Email 10/20/2014 CH-CH-CHANGES

Well this week we had changes..... And nothing happened for us here in Iluman.

     Anyway I can't  say too much happened here this week. We are still here working very hard with our investagators and this coming Saturday we have a baptism of a young kid named Jhon.

So that's gonna be awesome to start my comp off with a baptism. He's an awesome kid who goes to seminary and church everyweek by himself.

    Then this week we had some divisions for the day. So I was working in my area with Elder Guild (Wyoming USA). I was so excited for that day because I had scheduled meeting all day, unfortunately just like during every single division I have ever had all the meetings failed.............

    Then to top that off our mamita practically gave us the volcano that we live on in the form of rice. After the lunch we were sharing some lesson and I just ran into the bathroom. (WARNING) This next part might get gross (WARNING) So I run in there and just fill the whole toilet bowl with the food that I just ate, in the form of puke...........Sorry about that. Anyway I felt better right after unloading a bit. 

     Okay but besides those parts that day was really fun and after all of the meetings failed we prayed together so that the Lord would show us where we were needed. So after praying we found a little old lady that told us her husband just died about 3 months ago. So as missionaries we talked to her about why we are all here and where are we going after. She was so over joyed that she began to cry. So that day was horrible but we felt great after being tools in the Lords hands.

     Then this week my companion and I had to go to Quito for his verifications and that was really boring for me because they insisted on teaching us stuff we already know and do everyday. 

Fortunately on the bus there we got to see the new Transformer (it was too long) and Guardians of the Galaxy (it was awesome but we didn't finish it). Then while we were in Quito we got caught in a terrible storm. It was hailing so hard, with lightning and we were all soaked. Fortunately while there I bought some church movies so on P-days I'll be enjoying those.

      Well that's all for now folks. Oh shout out to Grandma Bev and Aunt DeAnn for the package, I already eat everthing and I'm enjoying the cloths. THANKS

     THANKS to all of you viewers out there, just stay tuned for next weeks issue! 

PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

My minion from Esmeraldas with the matching hat. 

Email 10/13/2014 A little more than a Year

Helllllllloooooo here from valcano Imbabura Ecuador.

   Here it's rather wet due to the ridiculously cold rain but all is well. Oh and I don't know if you all know but I passed that one year mark. I know I know, I'm a stud. Thanks.

  Anyway this week was great. We had the opportunity of having an invasion in our sector. So all the missionaries came to our sector and just found people for an hour. It was a lot of fun just receiving names of people to go and teach. In that time we found a young kid named John who has been attending church and seminary for quite awhile. So at church he walks up to us and just asks, "When can I get baptized?" So now we got a baptism lined up for the 25th. So that was cool, especially when we asked, "what do you know about the book of mormon," and he responded, " only that its true". SWEET.

   So that was fun. Then the bad luck continued with my companion on one rainy day. So we were just walking back to the house at night in the rain and I feel like I should just stop walking, so I stopped. Unfortunetly he continued in front of me and falls in a huge hole, invisible to the eye because of the rain water flooded it. I laughed so hard, and he laughed, then I checked if he was alright........ He was.

   Just glad that somebody up there is looking out for me. 

  Then that brings us to today, well I lost my plak (name tag).  Then the zone leaders were on a bus and a little girl gave them my plak. So that was good. Then to celebrate the finding of my plak I made some cheese empanadas. 

  That's all for now kids. Thanks for listening.

PEACE! 

Elder Rodriguez

For my one year mark I burnt one of my messed up ties. Enjoy my hat and sweater, it's cold outside.

One Year Out in the Mission Field 10/09/2014

Email 10/06/2014 Being Sick Of it

So lets start this thing off with a bang........ Oh sorry I meant to write barf.

    My newbie of a companion got terribly sick.  It all started out with us eating some questionable food at one of our mamitas. She prepared us a plate full of river weed. Like you know when Nevel Longbottom gives Harry Potter the Gilly Weed.... That's what it looked like on our plates, and suprisingly it was good. I liked it alot. Then more in the afternoon I felt a terrible pain in my stomach and so did my companion Elder Valentine. 

     So we headed home at the nomal time which is about 9, and my companion just empties his stomach in the bathroom. Well I thought he emptied it out but he comes out and begins puking every-which-way. So I played nurse for that night helping him and cleaning up the nastiest stuff, but he's my companion. Then the day after he was feeling a bit better. Then BAM, right in the middle of a district meeting he pukes again. So that day we just stayed at home. He slept from 12 in the afternoon until the next day...... I thought he died.

     Well now he's all good and we are working hard. The day after we even found a huge family. It wasweird  because we just walked in a dark alley and found like 5 different houses and all of them are family.... Oh and they are all investigating the church now.

     So that brings us to conference. And for missionaries conference is like the Super Bowl, so it was a good time. Especially since our whole zone dressed like the Waiki´s (indigenous people here). Oh and Waiki means brother. I'll send some pics of that.

    Anyway so even though my companion might not have had the best week it was a good one for me. Plus I found a Coca-Cola with my name on it.

Well thats it for this week.  Hope I didn't scare you with the title! 

Welp Love ya all and hope for the best. 

PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

Elder Valentine & Elder Rodriguez dress as indigenous people.

Zone 

Coca-Cola with Elder Rodriguez name on it. 

Email 09/29/2014 When we GIVE, we GET

Let start this week out with the boring parts first.

   This week we had some meetings with the mission President. Well as a leader here I had to go to 2 full days of meetings but I feel like I learned alot. So that's the boring part. 

   So lets skip to Wednesday when my companion almost died. Our mamita gave us some rice, potatos and some fried eggs. They were deliciously covered in a peanut sauce too. My companion is allergic to peanuts.... Deathly. So yeah he had to use his epi pen again. That was the second time in 2 weeks, I don't know if I'm a good trainer if my companion is almost dying every week here hahaha. 

    So this past week as a zone we saw that we weren't going to have a baptism this month and it would have been the first time in this zone to end with no baptisms. So as a zone we prayed and fasted for a miracle. Well out of no where a man came in one of the other sectors asking if he could get baptized... Oh and he had all the requirements. Then on Saturday the day of his baptism hedidn't  show up..................................... But like all the underdog stories that we love so much he redeems himself by being baptized on Sunday. Miracles happen everyone. So we were all happy about that.

    My comp & I celebrated in our house by grilling some weenies in the fire. 

     Then on Sunday we went to a members house to congradulate him on being married. He wasn't there so we talked with his brother who is a cool guy. Well he served us up some dinner which was a soup of intestines, potatoes and rice. It was good. Then he gave us about 20 eggs and 6 liters of coca-cola to take home. Can I just say how much I love the people of Ecuador. Sometimes after giving all your energy and heart to the people, they give some back. I'll send picks everybody, don't worry.

     Well thats all for now Love ya ALL.

PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

Eggs & Coke-Cola.

Grilling some Weenies. In one of the pictures my hotdog just fell of the hanger...I was sad. 

In Quito with New Missionaries from the MTC

New missionaries with trainers and President & Hermana Richardson.

Elder Ivan Rodriguez is right behind Hermana Richardson. His new companion Elder Valentine is standing next to him.

Email 09/22/2014 Dog Days

  Well I think I have knocked on every door in Iluman this past week.... Twice. 

Elder Valentine and I are working like LOCOS here in the rain. But we are doing great. I have been leaving all the contacts to my companion so he can learn super fast. And for the most part he's doing great, I just step in when he doesn't know what to do. 

    This week we had the bright idea to pray then go to the church in hopes that someone would pass by to give them a tour. We stood there together in the rain and in the mountainous cold for 2 hours and nothing. So you can all imagine that we were feeling a bit discouraged. So we went to look for some one to teach. Then we ended up knocking on a door when this old lady answered. She invited us in to get out of the rain and we taught the plan of Salvation (which answers the questions, Where do we come from? What is our purpose? and Where do we go after this life?) It was an awesome lesson with all of her family. They told us how blessed they were that God sent us to them. Then they took pictures of the little diagram that I use to teach it because they were so impressed. It was interesting especially for my companion. 

  Oh and my companion  is super allergic to nuts so the other day he ate a cake ball that had absolutely no nuts but had a reaction. So we rushed back to the house for his Epi-pen. He almost died..... It was super cool. 

   Anyway this P-day we went as a zone to a lake near-by. It was cold and wet but we had fun together. 

Th-Th-Thats All Folks

Thanks for watching, tune in next week for more...

Love ya all

PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

Tarantula that just walks around here like no big deal. 

My sexy baby and I.

Weird fruit which you suck on the seeds. They are like apricot...Super Good.

Throwing me into the lake.

My companion Elder Valentine & I. 

On top of one of the members house. The edge was about a 7 story fall to the ground.

Oh I forgot to tell you what Cuiy (Guinea Pig) taste like. So this last Saturday 09/20/2014 I had some Cuiy in a soup. At first it was a little weird seeing its little paws but it wasn't half bad. To me it just tasted like a chicken with BBQ dry rub on it. It was actually delicious.

Thank you that is all continue with your day.

Email 09/15/2014 The Son of the Morning

   Well I went to Quito for my new companion who I will be training for the next month. When I got there I realized that there were about 24 new American missionaries and only 1 new latin missionary. so obviously I wanted the latin so that there would be no problems if I didn't understand anything.........

   It doesn't always work out how you plan it. I was paired up with an Elder Valentine (from  Sandy Utah). He's actually a really cool Elder and now I'm glad that i'm with him. He's horrible at spanish but I think he's better than I was. It truely is awesome how much success we are already having here in Iluman, Imbabura. And I'm actually surprising myself at how much spanish I actually know.

    For example I had an experience that I never had before. The owners of our house rented out the room below us to some hippies (the girl is from Austalia and the man is from Denmark). It turned out that they don't speak any spanish so I translated for them and the owner of the house. It was very impressive for me to be able to do that and kinda weird. These people are doing some kind of hippie diet were they only eat vegetables and fruits. So that was awkward to explain.

    So anyway my companion and I are working really hard to get a baptizm under his belt in his first change. So we have been proselyting like crazy and one of the days after alot of failures I see a dog. 

So I did a little prayer in my heart that the dog would guide us to sombody. So we follow the dog. It led us to a women and after a lesson, my companion did his first baptismal invitation. She now has a baptismal goal for the 11th of October.... And that is how it's done.....

I'll send pics of my zone and my new companion

Love ya all.

PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

New companion Elder Valentine from Sandy, Utah USA. 

My district consist of the two Elders in the back who are the Zone leaders. On the top left Elder Chub (from Guatamala). The top right Elder Guild (from Wyoming, USA). And also the two sister missionaries more towards the left. The red headed Sister Smith (from Washington, USA) and her companion to the right Sister Stevens (from Utah, USA)

Zone being funny! 

Zone being serious.

Elder Rodriguez wearing a hat he is sending to his little brother Beckham.

Email 09/08/2014 Bad News

       So this week we had changes........ I'm going to be in the same area as District leader still but this time I'm going to be training a newbie. I don't want to train another flippen missionary. In the mission when you train a missionary he becomes your son, so I have been telling everyone that my first son was great like Jesus Christ, so that means my second will be like satan.....................................

      Anyways that's the bad news. Now I'll tell you what happened in the week. At the beginning of the week the Zone leaders, who I was with for a long time, went to Quito for a meeting so I was stuck with 2 other missionaries for a while. I was with Elder Luque (who trained me in the mission) and Elder Garcia (from Honduras). The area that they work in is terrible.... It's the side of the volcano so its just nonstop uphill walking. Fortunately that only lasted for 3 days untill the Zone leaders came back. 

    Before the zone leaders where terrible to be with but when they came back they were all happy and easy going, weird.

     So then came the changes and everyone thought that I would become the new zone leader but I need to train some kid first. So right now I'm with Elder Garcia until Wednesday when we go to Quito to pick up the newbies. So that will be fun. Just hope he's not American so I don't have to teach him spanish. Anyways thats all folks.

Not much sorry, but I'll send a pic!

Love ya all and PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

Email 09/01/2014 Just a Little Lava

Well this will be short because honestly this week has been alot of nothing going on. 

   I have to say being in a trio of missionaries that don't get along whatsoever is a bit difficult. This week has been full of tension in the house and its not working.

   So let me tell you about some of the exciting stuff. So one day in the night while were walking we all look toward the volcano far off. And it just happened to be on fire........... The volcano was leaking out a bit of lava and it was a huge fire over there. I took a pic of it but because it was night it didn't come out so well. But luckly it lasted a bit into the next day as well so I have another pic during the day...........

Just hoping the volcano that we live on doesn't set off........................................

    And after that I bought some of the indigenous shoes they got here. They look ridiculous but I feel like a ninja. I don't have pics of the shoes, but don't worry. The following Sunday I'm gonna rock the traditional clothes to church.

   Well for this week that's all. Sorry there isn't more, but there are pics coming.

Love ya all. PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

Here is some cool graffiti too...with some indigenous ladies to the left