Week 14 - Cotacachi - El Poder del Espíritu Santo

¡Hola todas personas!

I hope you are all doing great! These past couple of weeks we haven't had many people that have followed through on their appointments which has been hard to help people progress. It also means I don't have a lot to say about this week. 

We did help out the spouse of one of our investigators. He just started listening to lessons last week for the first time. He is a carpinter and helped out refirbish (not spelled correctly) some cabinets for these people. They asked if we could help load and unload them. We agreed, however, it turned out to be more than that. We had to take these cabinets, shelves, etc. up two flights of stairs. Sadly, one was way to big to be able to move it up stairs. So, using the intelligence of rope and taking out windows, we lifted it up and into the upstair's window. The funny part is that they couldn't get it all to way so for about five minutes there was just this large cabinet hanging out of this opening in an apartment building. We ended up helping him install all of these different cabinets which took out the rest of our night. I don't have pictures right now but will hopefully this week. The wife was nice and offered us food and drink. She set out hot water and, a new thing I haven't seen, instant coffee. My companion and I looked at each other and agreed to just have sugar water. The Hermana that was with us was worried for us, but we informed her it wasn't our first time. The wife realized we wouldn't take the coffee and so offered some aromatic water. That is usually what people give us. 

I think you all might remember when I said it was rain season. It hadn't rained for at least two weeks so we hadn't been bringing waterproof anything. This tuesday was a mistake. It poured. Luckily, my companion knew that singing hymns would help us stay positive. The hymns we decided were Christmas songs. Many people don't like Christmas songs before Halloween, and apparently, neither does Mother Nature. We were walking in the pouring rain, in a lightning storm, being the tallest objects (many of you know, this isn't smart). We were singing when, all of the sudden, a lightning bolt hit just to the left of us. It was light and then a CRACK! We quilckly ran and hid under a tree (which also isn't smart but our only option). I'm not sure if it is because of the Christmas songs, or our lack of singing well.

We also had a baptism this last Saturday. It was a child whose name is Jesus Tuqueres. I had the priviledge to baptize him. My first baptism in Spanish! It started pretty crazy. We told people to be at the baptism at 4:30 because people here have a bad habit of showing up really late. This didn't change much. We ended up waiting until 6:00 for a member of the bishopbric to show up. He wasn't very happy because he had to leave his school to come. After that it went smoothly. When I went to baptize him, I showed what he was going to do and practiced what would happen. I guess he didn't think he was going to be completely emmerged because when he went under, he started wailing his arms and I had to hurry and pull him up. I looked up and the witnesses said it was okay. I then patted him on the back and said it was alright. It was actually funny and he was, in the end, okay. 

Yesterday we spent most of the day out contacting. We met a guy that he and his family were about to be baptized in the church until his family moved. This was a few years ago, so we saw an opportunity and set up an appointment. We'll see how things go. We also encountered this insect that kills taranchulas, or so my companion tells me. I asked if he knew what it does to humans and he said he didn't know. That's when the insect took flight right towards us. We slowly yet rapidly moved out of the way as it flew past. It was a very intense two seconds. We ended up laughing about it afterwards.

The reason for the title is because the Holy Ghost is the most important person for us personally. I realized this lesson strongly during our weekly planning session. My companion and I ended up getting into an arguement and got pretty heated. When the dust had settle I could feel the lack of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was a hard couple of minutes. We realized we had driven away the Spirit so resolved things. It was really my lack of patience that it happened, but we invited back the Spirit. He is so vital for us and our salvation. If we want to be guided back to God, we need to learn to listen to and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It takes work but is possible. I hope you will all look for the times you don't have the Spirit (and fix it) and also heed the promptings you will recieve. 

I love you all! Have a happy and safe Halloween!

--Elder Ogden--

A Day of no Waterproof nada

More water droplets, the cutier the wife (or so the saying goes) 

The awesome views of the mountains/volcanoes 

Pila bautismal!

Baptism!

The new me (not really. I asked for a three on the top but the guy messed up and so it is a two all the way around. luckily I will save money on shampoo and not have to get a haircut for quite a while. I think I look like Eminem now. Not sure if it is good or bad. It is also similar to the haircut Elder Fry, de la CCM, had.)

Week 13 - Cotacachi - New District, New Faces

Hello everyone!

This last Monday was our changes (I think that's the word in English). Elder Alvarado and I aren't going anywhere for the next six more weeks! However, my companion is now the District Leader of a newly formed district. He wasn't very excited about it and I can understand why. We now focus more on the missionaries in our district than our own investigators. That has been hard but change is how we grow. I've learned just how hard and upsetting it is when we have to drop an investigator. We had one that she would always ask questions which usually never related to our message. We eventually asked her if she wanted to know the truthfulness of our message. She said she didn't. So, we told her we couldn't have appointments anymore, but that we would stop by and see how she was doing and if she was reading. It was very hard but we both felt prompted to do so. It's something I'm afraid I'll have to get used to. 

I have gained so much confidence in Spanish. I still honestly don't understand everything and have a hard time following conversations, but I am not afraid to go up and talk to people in Spanish. I know that isn't me as well. It is all divine help. Even with that, I taught me first lesson in English. There is one of our new investigators who wants to learn English, so we decided the best way to do this is Elder Alvarado teaches the full part of the lesson and I teach that same part in English just a minute or two. It is actually very difficult because I can't use words I would use with an English speaker. It's helped me appreciate learning a new language. We also had a miracle this week. We were waiting for a bus to take us to Otavalo, a city thirty minutes away, so we could sleep overnight at our Zone Leaders house and head for Quito for a special conference. However, one of our lessons went longer than we were expecting and all the buses had ended. We were talking with a lady about this when we finally decided to take a taxi and possibly pay six dollars. As we were talking to the taxi driver about the possibility, a bus stopped and the lady made sure we were on it. That should not have happened. But it did. It was amazing. We just sat down and took a sigh of relief. 

Now for the good part. This was a special conference because of those that were attending: Elder Fallabela and his wife of the Quorum of the Seventy, Sister Eubank First Counselor in the General Relief Society, Sister McConkie and her husband First Counselor in the General Young Womens. It was such an awesome conference. They all talked a lot about the Spirit and importance of. I'll send a talk that Elder Bednar gave that I really loved that has been and will be the focus in these coming weeks here.

I love you all and hope everyone is doing good!

--Elder Ogden--

 Elder Bednar - Teach Them to Understand 1998.pdf

I hope the link works!

A birthday gift

The healthiest breakfast in my mission (It's a banana oreo milkshake, so good)

My poor pants...

We have been experiencing Wyoming wind all this week. With cattle passing and the wind blowing, I turned and looked at my companion and our Mission Leader and said, I'm back in Wyoming? It's already been two years? Time certainly has flown fast here. I heard it goes faster after training so we'll see if that's true. Two more days and it's my three month! 

Week 12 - Cotacachi - The Week of Excellence

Hello everyone!

The first six weeks of my mission have come to a close. It has certainly flown by many awesome things have happened within those. My first baptism, my first contacting, and many many other things.

This week was much better than last week. It started out with a miracle. We were walking to catch a bus for our district meeting and this lady stopped us. She told us that she had met the missonaries in the coast and already had a Book of Mormon and would love to meet with us. Being the smart missonaries we are we set up an appointment that day. She was super interested and was taking notes as we shared scriptures with her. We were also able to teach her son which was great! We set up a baptism for them in November. However, with the new investigators comes the new converts, and we found out something sad with our Familia Rienoso. Hermano Rienoso had a smoking problem before and apparently does now as well. This was evident when we visited him yesterday and saw a pack of cigarettes. We are praying to found out how to help him best because he hasn't opened up and told us about this problem. We are thinking that we will just have to be a Jeffery R. Holland and, "get in his face a little. Just enought to singe his eyebrows". 

We had a baptism this last weekend! Her name is Sami Tamayo and she is nine years old. She wasn't baptized when she was eight (which I will never understand) so we helped her prepare. It was so awesome to see how much her testimony and knowledge in the Gospel has grown as we have taught her. She was excited herself. She had the priviledge of having her father baptize her as well. We have another kid who is ten that will be batized on the 28th as well. 

A lot of crazy things have happened this week as well. We found out that Quito, the capital city, got snow. I asked if that was normal and they said no. We saw snow here on our volcanoes, Imbabura and Cotacachi. Guess it must be getting colder or something :). We had lunch at the stake presidents house. He actually works in the States. He sells jackets up there, so he had a lot of American tourist items in his house. It was very interesting to see. He also had many different pictures or engravings of different temples around the world. They were all so awesome.

This week I had my first intercambios (companion exchange). I went with Elder Fillmore, our zone leader, to his area while his companion went to mine with Elder Alvarado. It was actually kind of nice to speak English to someone and ask all my clarifying questions. We were able to teach a lot of families and meet some new people along the way. Come to find out, he is also from Logan, Utah. We actually went to the same high school. He was a senior when I was a sophmore so we actually didn't know each other, but he knew my dad! It was fun getting to talk about the people we both knew. He is such an awesome person and missionary.

My companion and I are "Excellent Missionaries". This may seem high-headed, but there is reasoning behind it. This last district meeting our zone set "Standards of Excellence". We planned goals that we wanted to achieve as a zone every week. My companion and I took it upon ourselves to make those our companionship goals as well. We were able to accomplish some and exceed others. It was awesome to see how we were able to receive opportunities to meet these goals. There is absolutely no way that we did not have divine help. 

I hope this week has gone as good for all of you as it has for me. If not, I hope this week goes better! Love you all!

--Elder Ogden--

This was our district celebration for my birthday. They try to shove your face in the cake, but I'm too smart for that

Lunch and Baptism: Tuna Sandwich Lunch from our American missionary with chips and German chocolate cake. And yes, your eyes do not decieve you, that is Grandma Sycamore bread. I only point that out for my family :)

Pictures from the baptism. That is not all of her family but a good pictures nonetheless. 

My new bracelet for my old District

 found the perfect way to make a PopTart now

Traintracks

Breakfast

Week 11 - Cotacachi - Capilla Abierta

Happy birthday to me!

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes and prayers. I hope everyone was able to have a great day today and find ways to serve others! This week was very different and honestly quite difficult.

We had very little lessons this week because we either were getting ready for our open house or people gave us a rain check. That made the work a lot slower than what it has been. This week has also tried my paciencia (en Español), a lot. But, all is good now and I feel we are ready to hit this week hard.

The open house was awesome! We were able to have eighteen different families want lessons from us. There was a lot of awesome music and dancing and really good food, but what else could you expect? My companion and I were in charge of explaining baptism: the example Christ set and the covenants we make. I also got to help out serving food, picking up trash, and meeting a bunch of awesome people. We had many people attend which was awesome!

I think we have hit rain season. It has either sprinkled or poured every day this week. It has been interesting hearing how it is starting to get cold in the States because it is still normal temperatures here. It was also very interesting attending the Priesthood Session when it was dark and seeing that at Temple Square it was still sunny. I'm always expecting it to be late when it is dark but it is actually 6:30.

Today was our first P-Day that we didn't have a Zone or District activity. So, Elder Alvarado and I were able to do a lot of things you should do on P-Day. We also went and visited some old investigators of Elder Alvarado. One Hermana just got her missionary call to Bolivia and leaves in February. It is weird to think that that was me just a couple months ago it feels like. 

I haven't celebrated much today but I'm sure I will celebrate more tomorrow during our district meeting. I hope all of you are doing well! I've enjoyed hearing from different people about what is going on in their lives and I feel I still have a connection with them. I hope and pray this week goes well for all of you!

--Elder Ogden--

P.S. I will try to respond to all the birthday wishes!

I really don't feel much older and haven't celebrated much. My companion set our alarm to the birthday song in English for me. It was a funny awakening. ¡Te amo! 

The Famous Angel in Quito Ecuador

Me and Quito (in the Southern Hemisphere might I add)

All the newbies!

The gringo room for General Conference

Our last P-Day

My Zone 

A new waterfall

Me in front of

Same as before

The rain season

How crazy our Zone activities get...

The fun that me and my companion have!

I'm finally caught up on pictures so that should be all from the last two weeks! Now I won't have to bombard you all with pictures!

Week 10 - Cotacachi

¡Buenas todas!

I hope every one is doing great! We had mainly a week of traveling this week. I hope everyone got a lot out of General Conference! I know I did. I was sad to not see President Monson and hear of the passing of Elder Hales. I loved that Elder Anderson had an opportunity to give us teachings from him for the last time. I hope every one will go back and read the talks another time. I thought a lot about the song Let Her Go by Passenger. I know it is a love song but I thought more about the lines "Well you only need the light when it`s burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow...only know you`ve been high when you`re feeling low, only hate the road when you`re missing home." I thought about this because it has been a full year since I have watched General Conference live. No one really truly misses something until they don`t have it. I love General Conference and I hope you all do too.

This week we had verfication which is basically making sure all of us new missionaries are progressing and are doing what we should be doing. I learned a lot about probably the most important questions we could ever ask, what, how, and why. I have always known that why is an important question but in missionary work, what and how is important as well. Their answers show how much they really understand about a doctrine, principle, or commandment. I ask all of you to ask yourselves those questions when studying scriptures and conference talks. I promise you will learn a lot more because you are showing your humbleness before the Lord. 

I have heard people want to hear more about Cotacachi so I will do my best to help you see what I constantly see. In Ecuador in general, there are no boundaries. What I mean by this is literally everyone could do literally anything and it´s okay. For example, many people when describing others will use fatness as an adjective. It is very different social norms here that have been interesting to learn about. No one drives. Well, actually few people drive. Most people take a bus or taxi, depending on which is cheaper or easier. Both are stickshift. NO ONE and I repeat NO ONE has an automatic. After doing some math I found that if me and my companion take a bus roundtrip to a place (30-35 cents one-way), which we do almost everyday, and took a bus home in the night ($1.25), which we do almost every night, we spend about ten dollars in just transportation. Now there are some unexpected transportation needs, as any adult will know there are always unexpected expenses. It´s been a good thing for me to learn. The food here is almost always the same, rice, beans, maybe a vegetable salad of some sort, and meat. Every. Meal. That will be coupled with a fruit juice of some sort. The culture is to start with soup, have the main dish, then the juice. I love the fruit that they have here. One fruit in particular, and not in the States, is tomate de arbol. Very delicious fruit juice. In Cotacachi we have sectors, or towns in a larger city. This is what makes our travels on the bus so high and daily. I have absolutely loved every minute here and if the computer allows, I will send pictures.

That´s all I have for this week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and serving others! Love you all!

--Elder Ogden--

Not sure how but I actually have all my pictures I thought I lost so here you go!

Pictures of Volcano Imbabura and Volcano Cotacachi, you might notice we are right in between both.

I couldn´t help it for the third

Our new church and me compa

THE BAPTISM!!!!

The missionaries for the baptism

The waterfall we visited last P-Day

Me and said waterfall with my pudge

Same as the first but hiding the pudge

Cotacachi road at night

Iltaqui/Topo/Imantag basically everywhere else but Cotacachi

Pebble road that is literally everywhere

4 week checkup by President Murphy - Panecillo

After the new missionaries have been in Ecuador for 4 weeks, President Murphy likes to check up on them.  These were posted by President Murphy this weekend while they were in a beautiful place called Panecillo, which is located between southern and central Quito.  He'll check on them again after 10 weeks too.