This week seems to have gone by very fast. I'm on my third week which is halfway through what would be my first trasfer. However, President Murphy likes keeping trainers with trainees for two transfers so I'll be here in Cotacachi for at least three months.
We have two investigators that have a baptismal date. The first actually passed their entrevista (baptismal interview) this last Saturday and their baptism is the 23rd of this week! Even though I haven't been with them through the whole process, they have been such an awesome family to be with. It has been absolutely amazing to see how much faith they have and the knowledge that this is the true Gospel. For right now it will only be the husband and wife. Their daughter had taekwondo lessons so couldn't be at all the lessons. But, she will have the opportunity to be baptized by her father which is even better. Elder Alvarado was chosen to baptize the parents. The second (or I guess third) baptismal date we have if for Sami Tamayo. She is a cute, sweet, nine year old girl. She is very shy and sometimes doesn't pay attention, but she is excited and learning quickly.
My legs are continuing to get worked out with how much walking we do. I feel like I am also getting heavier because of how much food the Mamitas give us. I absolutely love our Mamitas! The food is always good, but usually the same: rice, beans, pork/chicken/beef.
I had such a spiritually uplifting experience this week. We went to go and teach Familia Muenella. Let me give you some background about them. The people we teach is the mother, son, and daughter. They all want to be baptized but the father won't let them. So we just teach them lessons and pray so when the time does come, they'll be ready. They attend church, read el Libro de Mormòn, and pray; all the things they need to be baptized. This lesson however went different. It started out with us seeing the son walking to go to an activity. He said he would only be a little bit so we continued on and went to see the mother and daughter. When we got there, the daughter was in tears. Apparently, the father had down graded and made feel bad the daughter, Eveline. I remembered her saying that she enjoyed music so I asked if she had a favorite song, and, of course, it was probably in Spanish because I didn't know it. So we asked if it would be alright if we sang himos. She said that it would be. We sang "How Firm a Foundation" and another hymn that a can't remember the name in English. We were able to get a smile and a couple laughs out of her. I think that may have helped but I am unsure. We then taught about faith. During my time here, I have wondered if I actually love the people or if I'm just here just to serve a mission. As I was testifying to them and expressing how much they mean to us, I could feel not only my love for them, but also the love of their Heavenly Father working through me. It was a very high Spirit moment, one I don't think I'll forget.
I am constantly amazed at how much the English culture has an infulence in other places. The T-Shirts here are mostly only in English, I hear American pop songs all the time, and there are many Eglish tourists here or many English people living here. I contacted three different people this week in English. One was a couple that thought we were lost. Another was locked out of her house and needed a phone. I offered ours but she couldn't remember the number so we were of no use. The third was actually a returned missionary, but didn't like organized churches. She did as God teaches (except for obviously attend church) and had Jesus in her heart.
This is my lesson to all of you. It was a lesson taught by Elder Bednar. In order for us to have spiritual experiences and not eventually fall away, we need to be converted to the Lord, not just have faith. Those of you that have returned from a mission and are still in the church, don't forget the experineces you had and keep growing that faith. If you don't, faith is a seed, it always needs nourishing and when it isn't nurished, it dies. For all that are preparing to go on a mission or aren't in the church, I would ask you to pray to God, ask if the Book of Mormon is true, remember the spiritual experiences you have had, and always remember God loves you and would literally anything to have you counted as on in his fold.
I love you all! Thank you for the many emails! I will try to respond to as many as I can.
--Elder Ogden--
The first two pictures are for those of you wondering what I eat. The first was given to us from the other American missionary that is here. The second was: hamburger, fries, Coca-cola, probably the most American thing I have ever eaten. The third is my new sweater that I got.
THIS WAS THE NEED FOR THE NEW SWEATER: I ended up getting robbed. Of the twenty dollars I had I had 70 taken. Of the 840 pasos I had I had 200 taken. This was during my time at the MTC. During my flight, someone went through all my luggage and I am now missing a part of my electric razor (which I can still use the other two heads of the razor thankfully), my two sweaters, all my T-Shirts, my jeans, shorts, and sweats. So it has been interesting. I bought a sweater and sweats to use. I'm not really sure what I need. My shoes are doing just fine. We haven't had rain at all while we have been here.
This is the route of music. For some reason they knew I was coming 
The second is the scene we saw up on a mountain.
The third is my district right before we did paintball today.
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