January 28, 2017

thanks for the letter mom. ya its pretty fun to be in the car with them. This week we did interviews and because we had a world wide missionary conference that change missionary work a lot!! the brethren have decided to up  the anty!! They are giving a lot more liberty to he missionaries to choose what they do with their time.  That is awesome because they want to focus on 3 main changes in the missionary work. 1. Health, luckily our mission was already living a lot more healthier.  The brethren have decided to give missionaries 30 minutes more to exercise. but the funny part is, is that our prophet missionary president already knew that. The rule that was established before is that all missionaries have to be studying by 8, but our missionary president about a year ago said that that is not enough time. so he changed it to 830, so that we can exercise longer and eat a better breakfast.  The missionary department of the church just barely changed it.  2. Productivity.  The missionary department have decided that missionaries should be able to leave the house at 10 am.  the mornings are sometimes great opportunities to teach. Many families are at home in the morning but are not during the afternoon.  but its not going to take away from out study time either.  Everyday we have to find time for companionship study, language study, and if you are a new missionary the first 12 week program. but they can be smartly placed during the day, like at hours that are less productive, like here 2 pm is the worst hour to visit in Ecuador, everyone is asleep or don't care haha. But 4 and beyond are wonderful hours to visit!!! so we could possible study at 2 pm, visit families or participate in service projects during the morning if it is better for us.  3. Developing life habits that will help us after the mission.  The brethren are fully aware that we are not going to be able to study the scriptures at 8 am everyday after the mission so they are teaching us to plan our day intelligently. 

so after the world wide transmission. President planned zone conferences with all the missionaries so that way they dont take the changes wrong!! haha 

Well love you guys a tone and i always think about you i really happy to be a missionary at this time i love serving the lord and serving others. 

 

they don't take a siesta but after eating a giant lunch and then sitting in your hot un air conditioned house at temps of 90 and above and supper humidity, doesn't really make a pleasant visit haha

 

January 23, 2017

😀😀🕯🕯🍧🍨🍰🍩🍫 Well i cant find the birthday cake imogi so this will have to do.  

well mom i think you might be one of the greatest persons on the face of the planet!! I really love you alot and hope you had a really great birthday.  On your birthday i was in the car with president because we had interviews. president has to interview all the missionaries in the mission every 6 weeks. and has to inspect the houses every 12 so we combined the house inspection with one of the interviews and does it just with hermana Riggins and the other interview is a sit down interview with president, hermana Riggins, and us because we like to see the progress and teach and edify all the missionaries.  So we went with him to Quevedo and Vinces. It was a lot of fun, definetly the most sitting ive done on my mission but alot of training missionaries 😀.  But i got to think alot of how great you are as a mother.  I really dont know what the deal is but president and hermana Riggins really remind me of you and Dad.  haha  They both act like parents to me!! But i want to thank you for all the great influence you have given me and teaching me to be kind.  The biggest and most important thing i can think of that you have taught me, not the only thing cause you have taught me so much, but just the most important that has served me so much not only on the mission but even before is the little acts of charity that we can give to people. Colossians 3:14 it says that we should put on Charity. that really stands out to me because our natural man is not charitable.  It does not value the worth of others. therefore we should put it on!! it is not included in the package when we started this life haha. It is somthing that we must constantly devolop.  luckly i have a great mother that has provided a way that i can learn to put on this Charity.  Thank you so much for all that you do i know that you are always looking for the best for us and we are so lucky to have you as a mother.  I know that you are truely looking for the best in us. 

Love you mom

January 14, 2017

hey real quick what is Tjs email? do you know it? if you do, do you think you could pass it to me?

sorry i had to leave real quick. We are still contacting references so we are still really busy. 

thanks for getting me the email.

wow thanks dad for that letter. that really was motivating.  I really like what you said. the only thing that really matters is to serve. make a difference on the life of another. more valuable than money or anything else. Thank you for the way that you guys taught me. thanks to you i know what is wrong and i know how to discern for good and bad thanks to you wonderful influence.  

January 7, 2017

Hey family!! love you guys. my pdays today haha sorry i know its frustrating.  Normally they are on Saturday but sometimes i dont have time for them.  So they end up being on Monday.  

Well in the office its all good, the missionaries that are here are super funny!! I like being an assistant because i get to do interchanges with other missionaries!!  this week we had a zone conference in Milagro.  And after the zone conference we did a division with the zone leaders, It was a very fun experience 1 cause ive never worked in Milagro so it was something i had never seen before and 2 we had a very spiritual experience in a lesson.  It a lady named Carla.  She has been an investigator for a while and we had planned to teach the plan of salvation. We came in to the visit and started teaching and stuff and it was alright. she wasn't that open to our message. I could tell cause she was hardly paying attention. she kept playing with her hair and stuff. it was like ya she doesn't care to much about this, but i waited until the spirit told me what to say. I dont think the other 2 elders i was with caught on cause they just kept teaching and doing what dad calls kicking a dead horse haha. but one of the elders started teaching about life on the earth and our purpose. and while he talking about it he committed her to go to church which was awesome! cause that is what triggered it!! she got a big fat smile on her face and i was oh there it is!! So we talked about attending church!!  (by the way here in Ecuador there are a lot of people that believe in Christ to a certain extent. They believe in a Christ that doesn't require us to act) So that being said i knew that she was really showing her faith by going to church. I asked her how she felt in the church and we talked about why she felt that way.  She said that she feels that she is learning principles and teachings that will help her and the life of her baby girl.  And to me that sounded a lot like you mom!! We helped her realize for herself that those types of feeling come from God. And why would God send such strong feelings to a person if he didn't want them to follow them!! She realized that the church was true that day. and the best part is that we didn't tell her.  She felt it. I am just an instrument in the hands of God!! The holy Ghost is my boss not my tool!! God controls every lesson that we teach. if we pray for it and want to serve instead of being served!! 

I know this church is true because the Holy Ghost has done what he does best, confirmed!! I definitely feel the love of Christ in this church. I feel it when i pray and when i read the scriptures. especially the Book of Mormon.  I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore this holy church so that it could perfect us. (dont know if that is a word or not but its true) Truly this is preparing us for the second coming of our redeemer. So we can be clean in the presence of our Eternal Father.  Love you guys thanks for all of you prayers i really do feel them and i am very grateful for them!

January 2, 2017

Well i dont have too long to talk. weve been busy all week trying and honestly stressing about the 1000 references that we received from the activity for Christmas. The great spiritual experience that i had was a really nervous one too haha. So this past week we had a double zone conference in Quevedo and we watched the world training video in febuary of 2016.  President wants all the new missionaries to watch it too. I really loved it!! wow so many things i didnt understand before and now i do. Its not just the language too. Its my experiences. I felt the spirit way stronger. Also during the video i noticed that president Riggins stood up and walked to the back of the room and i also noticed that he was holding his back like he was in a lot of pain. After the video ended he told everyone to go to the other room where all the other missionaries were. (there were 2 rooms because the latins watched it in spanish and the north americans in english so we could understand it 100%). He told everyone to go except me and 3 other bigger elders. When everyone left he told us that he had a major pain in is back so he laid down on his back and told us to stretch his legs out. He did a few stretches and then stood up and asked for a priesthood blessing. That's when i think all 4 of us were like uhhh whos going to bless the president hahaha. I was kinda nervous. President couldnt sit down cause his pain was really bad so he stood up and he is a tall guy so one of the super tall elders anointed him and after the anointing I'm pretty sure we asked the same question haha, but i thought in my head I'm pretty sure it wasnt just me that said it either but i thought You have preisthood use it!! So i did. i put my hands on his head and i got to give President Riggins a blessing. I was pretty dang nervous and so i did it in spanish so i didnt have to think about the english word but even tho i was really nervous i didnt feel like the words were mine. I felt inspired and i felt the promise that my mouth would be filled of what i needed to say.  And ya i know hes not like the profet or anything but for me it was a dang cool experience.  He called this morning saying that he feels alot better and that it looks like the blessing worked so thats great! I love the priesthood! 

We think these are the 4 APs (Assistants to the President)

Caleb played Joseph in this Nativity scene.  His mission joined with the West Guayaquil Mission at the amphitheater (pictured below) and created these Nativity scenes with local families.  I guess all those Nativity re-enactments at Grandma Sandra's all those years really paid off.  He also played Joseph the Christmas of 2014 at the Blackhurst Christmas party, which was his last Christmas before his mission.

Looks like something other than rice to eat!

These two pictures are of the Amphitheater in Guayaquil.  It is huge even on Google Earth.

 

Looks like a mission Christmas party.

well there is a few of them for you guys!! Sorry ive been so bad at sending them! well i got to go now but i really love you guys a ton and always praying for you!!! Choa Familia Les amo

 

These are a couple of pictures from Duran and several more from Quevedo, the two areas before he went back to Guayaquil.

 

This is Caleb's last day in Duran.  This is Brother Silva's baptism (the one who had to be baptized sitting down because the water tower was broken and they had to barrels to get water into the font).

 

Saying a few goodbyes in Duran.

This is what a church chapel looks like in Quevedo (and most of South America).

Caleb is flat footed in this picture, his companion to his right, is on his toes.

This corn is in the middle of town in Quevedo.

Familiar Carl's Junior

President and Sister Riggins are in the middle of the front row.  Probably a zone conference in Quevedo.

This resembles a workout bench.