Email 06/08/2015 What Week?

Well Hello there everyone who is in the states!!!! Hope everyone is good out there and always thinking about me (WHATTTT??). I'm okay here in Ecuador, this week I caught a bit of a cold but for the most part I'm still alive.

  So this week was a bit tough for me here in Calderon. Every single night we had meetings at church and most of our investigators are only at home during the night, so that made it really hard to work. Sobecause  of that I was a bit bumbed, but then I decided that I needed to find more people who are at home during the day. And thats exactly what I did. I got out there and when to a street called California street, and found a lady who didn't want anytrhing to do with us, and I told her that we want to share a message, to which she replied, "no!". Then I said we are coming back tomorrow and you better be here. The next day we went back, she was there, and she listened to our message. The next appointment we have with her is this Tuesday. AND THAT IS HOW ITS DONE!!!!!!

   Okay, so besides that nothing more happened except I think I might kill my companion. I don't know what he does in there, the bathroom but when I go in there is always pee on the floor and on the seat. So if on the news you hear that a missionary was killed in Ecuador......You all know who did it.

  Oh and I have to tell you all about Sunday. So this last Sunday at church was fast Sunday (for those nonmormon: during the first meeting of the month whatever person can go up and share there testimonies and experiences) so this sunday I felt prompted to go up and share my testimony about missionary work (original right?)  Anyway in our sector recently we have been guided alot to people who really need us, and in almost in every lesson the families are crying because they feel the spirit so much. So I shared that in my testimony but with a little joke to keep everyone on there toes, which went a little like this, "when most of the time we visit all of you, you cry. Now I don't know if our messages are really bad or if its the spirit but seeing that none of you have thrown us out, I think its the spirit." Now with that I hit a home run, everyone was laughing but the spirit was felt really strong. So I end and go back to my seat. Then my companion goes us and shares the same testimony with the same joke. I MEAN WORD FOR WORD, and the other missionaries there were thinking the same thing as I was, What the HECK.

    So my companion is a freak......

Have a nice WEEK!

LOVE ya all

CHOI

Elder Rodriguez

 P.S.  I taught my companion how to tie a tie.... He failed  

I forgot to tell everyone that this last week as missionaries we did an activity to say thanks to the bishopric so we drew them some posters. Aaaanndd of course I was the one drawing so I made it fun and made the bishop punching satan right in the mouth it was awesome. 

Email 06/01/2015 Cold Waters

Hello there Everybody, how was your week? Well mine was alright, really stressful but good.

   First things first, we had a baptism. So after months and months Mishell finally accepted to be baptized and everything was great. She has always had a fear of being baptized but she finally felt an answer from our Heavenly Father. She is an 18 year old girl who has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever seen. So I'll tell ya about the baptism. Anyway her baptism was scheduled at 11 in the morning so I woke up early to go to the church to fill up the baptismal faunt. Previously the church washaving  problems getting hot water so I thought ahead and brought some pots to heat up water and throw in. Then when we get there the faucet to turn on the water in the faunt didn't work...................So three hours later and a million buckets of water we finally filled up the faunt by hand. And after some time everyone started to show up so we began. It was awesome because earlier I called President Richardson to ask permision so that my old companion Elder Roberts could come and see the baptism too. Anyway the baptism went great, even though the water was arctic cold and one little girl was crying because she thought Mishelle was going to drown in the water.

But it was a success!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   Anyways besides that my week was pretty normal. On Tuesday I did have divisions with Elder Wright (he's from my group) and we were pretty much talking about video games all day while working. Oh and on Saturday my companion was whining about his kidneys so we ended the day early. And it turned out that he really did have pain in his kidneys because later on he was peeing blood............Fun stuff! 

  So that brings us to today. We went bowling as a District. Oh and Elder Mott (he's a huge guy) made the craziest shot I have ever seen. So while he plays he just chucks the bowling ball with all his might. And one time there was only one pin left right in the middle so he just chucks the ball and it goes straight into the gutter....But then while the ball got closer to the end it just flies out of the gutter and strikes the pin out. It was very impresive.

So thats all I got for ya all.

LOVE YA ALL

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

My eye.

The new note book I made. Jesus is saying "that's how I saved the world". 

My dirty desk.

One of our investigators with a wig on.

These are pictures of the baptism we just had, her name is Mishelle Cuaran and she's a trooper.

This is Marcela, the niece of Mishelle. She told me not to leave the sector because she likes me.

Elder Wright. He's from my group.

Email 05/25/2015 He's Just A Wee Little Lad

Well HELLO everyone out there in the states, I hope eveything is going good out there!

 Oh and I would like to start this email by giving a SHOUT OUT to my Mom for her Birthday. LOVE YA MA!!

 This last week was filled with excitement. For the first three days of the week I ws with an Elder Mott (from Texas, and he doesn't have any relation to the other Elder Mott) And we had alot of success together. Oh and he got bit by a dog. It was flippen awesome. I have no idea how the dog jumped high enough to bite his arm cuz he's a giant. But we took care of things. Anyways I was only with him up until we both got our new companions.

  Okay now to get down to the needy greedy. Well I got my new companion. He's a tiny little Peruvian named Elder Flores. And he's kinda wierd.....He wears jeans to sleep....Oh well. So I as I was talking to him I found out that he was Baptized into the church about a year and 2 months ago....Wait a second I was in the mission a year and 2 months ago.....(I´ve been a missionary longer that he's been a member of the church). So he practically knows nothing concerning the gospel and has never read the Book of Mormon in its entirety but he has a Heart that is ready to serve. So its gonna be tough but I know he's  gonna do a great job with a trainer as good as me (if I don't say so myself). 

   Anyways at the moment I am teaching everything but he's getting there.

Oh and we gotta baptism lined up for this Saturday. So I guess my new son is starting off his mission right.

So that's about all I got to report this week. Pics to come.

Love ya ALL 

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

The NEWBIES 

My companion is the Hobbit next to me.

Elder Mott and his dog bite.

Email 05/18/2015 Rise of the Second Son

Well this week was exciting. Oh and we had changes...........

   So for this last week Elder Roberts and I were working really hard to find some new people and fortunately we found in the process a new family. Its really amazing because the mom in the family just showed up at church on sunday....And I was like, who invited you (hahah no I'm kidding of course). so besides that she has told us that she believes everything we have taught without any doubts....So we are going to try to baptize her. Hopefully she accepts. 

   Yeah so now with changes. So I already knew going into changes that my companion Elder Roberts would be going, which he did. But what I didn't expect nor did I want was to train again. I figure that the first son was my "Beloved Son" so now I'm just waiting for the "Son of Perdition". So I'm going to have to go into Quito this following Thursday to get my new companion, (which as I was thinking,I'm  going to have less weeks left in the mission than he will have months....Oh that's nice). Yeah so in the mean time I am here with an Elder Mott who will be training also. He's from Texas and he is Huge. 

Anyways I'll let ya all know about my new companion next week. 

Love ya all 

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

P.S. Happy Birthday SHOUTOUT my cousin to Sophia (CHIPS) Sanders! 

Email 05/11/2015 Mother's Day

  Well HAPPY MOTHER'S Day to all those Mothers, Grandmothers and future Mothers out there. Hope you had a good one. Anyway it was good to talk to the family yesterday but I feel really trunkie (homesick) now hahaha. Only 18 weeks to go...........................

  Okay well here goes the update for this week. So Tuesday, and Wednesday were filled with traveling to the Hospital in Quito for my companion to have some check-ups. So that was rather boring....But the rest of the week we actually worked. This week consisted of us contacting most of the time so that wasn't too much fun, especially when we got rained on in the middle of nowhere, but its all apart of the adventure. And I truly think the Lord saw our efforts this week because we had so many investigators at church. We had 5 investigators who attended, 4 of which was a surprise so I figure we are doing something right. 

   And I had a really cool experience at church this week. So as I was sitting in our priesthood class, I got a call. Well I was in church so I figured it could wait. Well then they called again, and again. So I thought okay this has to be important so I stepped outside to take the call. It was the Cortez Familyfrom my  last sector and they called me to visit me at church. Its like a 2 hour drive and they came all that way just to see me. And plus I have no idea how they got my number (creepy). But it was awesome that they did that for me.

 Well thats all folks

LOVE YA BUNCHES

CHOI 

Elder Rodriguez

New placs! One in Spanish and One in Kitchwa (my mission just recently band making these placs but I was the last one to get it)

Meet the Mormons comes to Ecuador.

Email 05/04/2015 Too Much Time Not To Do Anything

   Well sorry for a boring email this week but we really didn't have time to do very much. 

   Honestly this week mostly consisted of my companion and I traveling around meeting with other missionaries to help them out. 

   Unfortunately the district leader in the other district of our zone did a backflip and spranned his ankle really bad....So we don't know if he's going home or not but since he can't move around I'm doing the work of 2 district leaders. FUN STUFF!!!!

    But we did have something exciting happen to us this week. So our Bishop decided to take us and give us a tour of our sector to know the limits really well. And thanks to that tour we know know that we don't even live in our zone...Oh and about 75% of the people who we were working with don't even belong in our ward, so now we get to start from scratch again hahaha. It was a bummer and my companion was super bummed but I know that God has his reasons and I believe that our help is needed elsewhere.

   So that was the big excitement of the week. Oh and today we had an awsome P-day activity. So somehow I got ahold of the movie Meet the Mormon (the only one in all of south america) and we had ourselves a little movie and a lunch. Then after the movie (it was really good by the way, and you should see it) we played some hardcore dodgeball. 

Well thats all for now folks, hope to see ya this Mother Day for my last skype call of the mission.

PEACE 

LOVE YA ALL!

Elder Rodriguez

Our last Activity in the house of the Benacazar Family (they are super wealthy)

It's like being back home.

Well it's good message that we share.

Email 04/27/2015 No More POOP!

  Well I have to say this week I don't have another story about pooping, sorry. But we did walk past the same area and they are now building a house in that same spot......I felt so embarrassed, because they had to have seen it and thought,"that's was no dog." Oh well that's life, sometimes you build your house in  poopy location. Anyways besides that this week was pretty good.

    My companion and I have been working really hard to find some new people and its going slow but I know the Lord has something prepared for us. Oh and my companion and I got hit by the giggles....... You know, when you start to laugh uncontrollably and can't stop, ya now you remember. So we were in a lesson with this one guy who recently had a serious eye surgery and we just bust out laughing....... AT NOTHING........My companion was laughing so hard that he had to leave the room for a while, then after a short time he came back. Unfortunately when he came back, he started back up again and had to leave the room once again. So in that lesson I pretty much taught the whole thing by myself but thats alright. That whole experience made me think of the times I was in church with my brother and we would start laughing uncontrollably. 

    Well honestly that's about all that has happened this week. Oh today as a district we went to hang out at this one members house. Man let me tell you this man is so rich. We were all playing pool, fusball, and we played soccer in his soccer field.....Yeah he has his own soccer field. It was fun.

Well thats all for this week folks.

Love ya bunches.

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

P.S: Had an experience with the 3 Nephites this week, but I'll let ya all know next week.....

My Zone....I'm short.

Email 04/20/2015 Here's a Poop Story for ya

    Well first off, I'm all good here. My companion and I are working very hard here in the sector and we are seeing alot of progress. Luckly my companion is a really good guy and we are always laughing while we are working. So that's all good.

    Okay so as embarrassing as it is I would like to share a ppo story with everyone. So the other day my companion and I went contacting and we were contacting well, with 2 new people and we were still going. Then suddenly as we were contacting one old man something just dropped in my stomach. A severe pain emerged from the darkest depths of my stomach and I instantly thought, "I need to poop NOW"... but unfortunately we were contacting a man and getting to know him the very first time so I knew I couldn't ask him for his bathroom. so I cut it short and started to walk as fast as I could. The distance from our house was about 20 minutes away sprinting....I thought about it, but decided I couldn't run at this crucial time or something would creep its way out. I looked frantically as I walked if there was any hope of a bathroom nearby..........There wasn't. So I yelled at my companion to hold on and wait as I jumped into a nearby cornfield.....Then I did my business and lets just say that World War 3 went down. Then while i was finishing up the thought entered in my mind. I DONT HAVE ANY PAPER!!!!!!!! So once again I looked around frantically, nothing but cornstock leaves and they have a bunch of splinters on them so that was a clear NO. I decided that I have to face the facts and use my hand.......No no that was a joke I would never use my hand hahahahah. But I did pull up my pants and waddled home with shame....

   Well tuat was my true story, sorry if it grossed you out but life is filled with ugly truths.

Anyway besides that everything is all good here. I'll send some picks.

LOVE YA ALL!!!!!!!

Elder Rodriguez 

P.S. We went bowling today...It was fun! 

Well I hope you can see but there is another Volcano in the distance, it's not the same one as the last time.   

Lunch time at a restaurant with my Companion.

Underwater shot with some of my district. 

Email 04/13/2015 Where am I?

   Well I'm here now in a place called Calderon, its about a half an hour away from my last sector but it's super different. Here our sector it huge and it's all dirt.....Fun stuff...Well my companion is Elder Roberts (he's from Minnesota) He's an alright guy with only 2 months in the mission so he needs alot of my help. Luckly in my district I have Elder Leong (he used to be my companion in Imbabura), and Elder Urqueta (he was my first District leader but now I'm his leader). The district is pretty cool and the ward for the most part is pretty cool also. So now I'm getting used to everything here but I still miss my old sector a bunch. 

   Well I have to say that this week was filled with adventures.....First of one of the companionships had a baptism this week so we went over to the chapel to fill up the baptismal font. Now all of the baptismal fonts I have filled up before have a certain point were the water just stops.....Well this one didn't, and we left the water going for 4 hours. So when we returned with an hour left until the baptism we returned to a flooded church building.....Whoops! Anyway somehow we got the flooded church cleaned up just in time for the baptism and everything went according to plan. So now all the missionaries are joking around that that day we had 2 baptisms, one was a little old lady and the other was the church. 

   And as I got to my sector my companion expressed to me how he was really sad that they hadn't had anyone attending church for over 3 weeks and had nobody progressing toward a baptismal date. Well this week we found 11 new investigators, 8 of which attended church and 2 of which have a baptismal date for the 2nd of May. DOING WORK.

  Anyways I feel a little bit better now. So thanks for all the support. I'll send some pics.

LOVE YA ALL

PEACE

Elder Rodriguez

Volcano in the distance. On a clear day in my sector we can see 3 Volcanos.

My new companion Elder Roberts and I. 

Email 04/06/2015 It's Been a While, and There Were Changes

    Well first of all I want to say sorry I haven't been able to write for a while. The first time I didn't write was because I went to visit a little girl in the hospital that was asking for us. I'll send pics. She had a really bad infection and was in the hospital for over a week but now she's back home and healthy. Oh and the second week I wasn't able to write because I had no money. Between my companion and I we had 1 dollar.......It was a fun time being poor ;). 

    Well in the weeks that have past everything was going really well, except the money situation, but everything was all good. I got a cool package from my Dad (Thanks POP). And we had 5 people progressing toward their baptismal date........But then everything all changed.

On Saturday and Sunday we watched conference and it was so good. But on Sunday night we received the changes. About a week before changes I talked with the Mission president expressing to him that I really wanted to stay in my sector and with my companion to see all the fruits of our hard work. Then on Sunday night we received the call that they would close our sector, leaving all the people who were progressing in the dust and that they would reunite the 2 zones to make one giant zone.....When the members found out a whole bunch of them came to our house crying there eyes out and begging us not to go.....And as they joined the 2 zones together  the mission isn't in need of as much zone leaders so I got dropped to be a district leader again with a new companion. His name is Elder Roberts and all they told me about him is that I need alot of patience......I have never felt like crying so much in my whole mission....It truely sucks right now, but I know the Lord will make everything alright and that he truely has the eternal perspective. 

   Well Ill send some picks of our new adventures.

Until next time

PEACE! 

Elder Rodriguez

Package!!!!!

My New Suit.

My Restaurant. 

Visiting Nicole in Hospital (10 yrs old). 

It's pronounced Fosh....I don't know what it means.

The Family that cried for us.

And they came to see us Sunday night after they heard we were leaving.

One of our BEST Mamitas. 

The BEST Ward Mission Leader ever! Brother Luis Simbana. 

The last Zone picture of Zona Ofelia. 

Bond. James Bond (I had to sneak one in there)

Email 03/30/2015 I'm Good...just really poor.

Last Monday 3/23/15 I couldn't write because we went to visit a little girl who asked for us to visit. She was in the hospital for 5 days and was only asking for us to visit. And this week I'm only writing you, Mom because I don't have any money to write for more that 5 minutes. Tell everyone that I'm good just really poor. Bye until next Monday. Oh and yes I'm excited for conference.

Love ya

Peace! 

Elder Rodriguez

Email 03/16/2015 Spidersenses Tingling

   Well Hello eveyone, i hope that everyone had a fine week.

   Oh and Happy Saint Patricks Day......I think, I don't really know to be telling the truth, but shout out to my Uncle John, and also to my Uncle Ruben who just had theirs Birthdays. Have a good one.

  Well this week wasn't the best but we are working. For 2 days straight we didn't work at all. One day we went to the hospital for my companion cuz he has bad acne but he's working on it. The other day my companion was sick all day so that was fun......I guess. 

    So then one day at the end of the day we returned back to our house at 9. Now I went straight for the bathroom cuz some lady gave us a bunch of empanadas. So then I finished up in the bathroom and was leaving the room when I saw the biggest spider on the floor right in the middle of our bedroom..............It wasn't cool. So we killed that sucker with my shoe. The worst part about it is wedon't  know how it got in....Oh and also we live in the city, there shouldn't be giant freaken spiders!

    Anyways besides that we have a family that we are working with who have a baptismal date for the 28th of this month. They are a super powerful family that was truely prepared by the Lord. And this family always invites us to eat, I swear I can't eat anymore. It's delicious but it's just too much hahaha.

   Yeah so that is really about it. I don't have pics of my new suit this week cuz my pants are still being hemmed but I did buy some new shoes today that I desperatly needed, so I'll send some pics.

Love ya all Choi Choi un abrazo!

PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

Our GIANT freaked spider

My companion colored his hair again with a marker but it wasn't the right shade of black.

My Zone.

At the Hospital.

My new kicks. 

Me just goofing around. 

Well my companion thought it was too good to pass up.