Elder Caleb Blackhurst - Ecuador Guayaquil North: January 2016

Monday, January 25, 2016

January 25, 2016

This week was Great Froilan is going to be babtised next week and im super pumped for him. Ive been studing a tone in preach my gospel about love and it has really blessed me aton. the amout of love and charity that Jesus and heavanly father have for us is insane. They both know us so well and knows our stenghths and weaknesses and they both know what is best for us. I know that it is all because of Jesus Chist´s atonment for us that we can feel the love for us. As ive been studing i just couldnt help but think of my family and my freinds and for all the great things they have done for me and after that i just wanted to share it with others and it really improved my teaching because i really have the desire to help these people. and im really gratful for all the triales that i have had and am going to have because i know that everyone just makes my stronger. I also know without them we wouldnt be able to feel the joy in life. If we dont know the bitter we cant know the sweet. I know this gospel is true and i know that everyday i feel like im growing closer to god and i know this gospel is where i find the sweet and i love that.

i dont have pics but it rained a butt load haha this week the streets are starting to flud and i miss driving in puddles haha

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

January 18, 2016

Alright first i need to mention that it is my mom´s birthday on tuesday so everyone needs to say happy birthday to her when they get the chance!!!

This week was really cool. We have an investigador preparing to be baptized named froilan and he is super pumped too!!! he really understands why we need to repent and be baptized and super pumped to do it this saturday!!! we only have been visiting him for like 3 weeks haha and he is just so pumped up in the church and there is a ton of kids his age and he´s a super dope dood!!!

Also i really realized the power of God this week!!! He is insanely powerful and has lent us his power to perform miracles!!! One of the ways we can preform miracles is through the blessings of houses!! We found 4 new families in one hour just offering blessings house to house!!! and we showed them the power of God in everyone!!! Everyone of these families is special in there own ways but they all have one thing in common and that is that they are all sons and daughters of the one true living God and he loves them so much that he sent his only begotten (and the missionaries) to them!!!

I need to keep this short cause i dont have too much time but i know God lives and blesses us and im super pumped for everyone of you because all of you have the potential to do good in every day and all we have to do is listen for what God wants you to do thru the holy ghost!!!

ya i hope you guys like the pics this place is super pretty and the people and really cool and accepting.

I asked about his companion and house mates:

Elder Oyler is from Utah and Elder Agueta my companion is from Guatamala and Elder Alvarado is from Peru.

(Referring to the picture below. Rob said Caleb looked more like he was supervising than actually digging.) Haha ya we were just moving dirt and yes this guy that we found is a inactive but a returned missionary and still has a testimony kinda but his family is a different religon so its hard for him to leave his family and come back to the church so he wants us to come and teach his family and stuff too!! But ya he loves to talk and i was talking to him a ton so ya i kinda was just supervising. haha

but i was on a intercambio when i took those pics so thats the explanation

happy birthay i love you all

January 11, 2016

I got your (Christmas) packages!!!!!! haha i got all four and ate all the beef jerky and most of the peanut butter and i finally found some rope so im sleeping in the hammock tonight!!! im super pumped and it still smells like camp fire haha and it made me really happy!!!

I asked if he had received the book of family testimonies and he said, "yes it is super cool i already read all the letters it was super sweet!!!"

Not much this week but he got some back and forth time with Dallin, so that works too.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Jaunary 4, 2016

“Well this week was actually kinda insane cause it was new years and im in a new sector so i was doing my best to remember names of members and investigadors and where they live and stuff its a little tricky but i think i know just about everyone now maybe haha

New years is nuts here haha they make this giant paper mache doll things that are huge then on new years they burn them in a huge fire and its super funny cause they also pack them with fire works so when they go up they just explode haha i filmed like a 15 minute video but i cant send anything that big but ya it was pretty dope and not that many countries do it either only Ecuador and Peru is all i heard that actually do it. They spend like 6 months making these super huge detailed projects and then in one night they burn them all up and go crazy haha

Also on new years eve there are a bunch of guys dressed up in dresses begigng for money and some of them are kinda violent one guy was asking for money and i told him i didnt have any and he started touching me all over my body and for my pockets and i almost lost my temper but im trying to be more Christ like so i pretended to laugh but deep down i wanted to punch him in the face. I was actually kinda mad at myself after that i didnt but i just had to keep telling myself what Christ would have done if it happened to him plus if i did i know Satan would make the situation so much bigger and the whole town would be talking about how the mormons punch people and pray to Joseph Smith ugh.

Other than that we have 4 baptismal dates right now and most of them are promising so thats cool. One thing that i noticed about Babahoyo is that the people here are alot more open to hear what youve got to say but in Guayaquil it was a little tougher and the people there are a little more prideful.

Well that is just about what happened this week and i hope everyone is reading the book of mormon cause i know that it is proof and evidence that this church is the church of god and that is why we have the book is for proof that it is. It is undeniable evidence that the kingdom of god IS on the earth today and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to restore the church of Christ but God knew that if Joseph Smith were just to start a church it would look just like all the others so he called him to translate the book so that we could hold it in our hands and read it and really know that this truely is the church of God so if your not reading it, it means you are taking everything that Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ did here on the earth in vain. So it is the start of a new year and i challenge everyone of you to start with 1 Nephi 1:1 and finish it before the end of the year so this i leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

oh i forgot to mention that we had to be in the house by 8 o clock (on New Year’s Eve) but we live on a three story building and live on the second floor and the 3rd floor is all like a big patio with a tin roof so we watched the maddness from up there it was super funny. the food is pretty much the same. half plate of rice and half plate chicken”