Email 11/24/2014 Fighting the Lord of the Flies

Well this week was good. How was it for you all?

First off I wanna give a shoutout to my Papa Jim and baby Daphne for birthdays.

  Anyway I'll go ahead and talk about this week. It was good. This week the stake had a huge mini mission experience for the youth. We got a young Brother Chisa. And it was so funny. We just went to go knock on some doors and I told him to do the first one. He freaked out with fear. So we taught him how it's done. Then later that day we contacted this lady who had a Jesus shrine with a whole bunch of paintings. So we added to her little collection with another Jesus painting we just had. She was so happy she jumped and hugged our little newbie. For the rest of the day we just teased him a bit about his oldtimer girlfriends. Anyway it was a good day and He said he learned alot. 

  At church we also held a movie night as missionaries. So we invited 3 different wards and a whole bunch of people showed up. My companion and I ended of buying 3 kilos of popcorn to feed everyone.  Also my companion and I and another Elder from the states named Elder Guild were incharge of the popcorn and sodas. It was an awesome night and all the members were super thankful. They all said it was a miracle that 10 missionaries did all that for all those people.  It was a good week to help people here in Iluman.

  My companion and I also experienced another miracle with one of our investagators. so we haven't met with this lady for a long time and we were planning on what we should teach. We both decided that we should teach about the Godhead so we planned that, studied it and went to the lesson. As we were walking we both felt that it wasn't a good idea so we decided together to talk about prayer. When we get there we start the lesson with a prayer as usual. Then as we were asking her if she read the things we gave her to read, she answered yes but with question in her voice, so we ask her if she had a question. She did and it was about prayer. We had a real breakthrough that lesson with the Spirit working through us. 

Well thats it.

Love ya all

Hope for the best and keep the faith! 

Enjoy the Turkey

PEACE 

Elder Rodriguez

Here are the funniest little girls here in Iluman.

From the smallest to the biggest - Sijuri, Eva & Nusta

Here is a picture in one of the little girls school books. 

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.