Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Week 15 - Cotacachi - El Poder del Libro de Mormón

Hello everyone!

This week has been slow and fast, as any missionary will know is normal. We haven't had many people follow through on the lessons we set up with them, but we are working on this. Here are some highlights from this week.

We have two people with a baptismal date, Lidia and Javier. Javier is really excited about his date! Lidia has many questions, but it is a new church and different from what she knows so this is expected. They both have attended church which is a huge step to conversion. 

Something really cool, at least for me, happened this week. We were out trying to find new investigators before our next appointment and happened upon this clump of houses. Turns out the whole family lives in this clump. We first talked to a lady, but when her father came out, she left the cluster. We then started talking to the Father of the family. He is a very wise man and had many questions for us about the name of this dispensation, the name of God, and other questions concerning prophets. We realized we weren't going to get anywhere with this guy. Just as we were about to leave empty handed, my companion brought up the Book of Mormon. For the first time in this entire conversation, he listened. He listened as we talked about the importance and teachings in the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith restored the church and translated this book. Once we shared this with him, he was just fine about meeting with us again. It made me think back to a section in chapter five of Preach My Gospel when it talks about Answering Questions Through the Book of Mormon. I learned the importance of this. 

For P-Day today, we visited a volcano that is so high up, it always has snow on it. The view was unbelievable and sadly my camera can't capture the sheer awesomeness of it all. But, I will send the pictures nonetheless! 

I hope everyone's Halloween was awesome and everyone is eating a lot of candy for me! 

--Elder Ogden--

(Elder Ogden did not send any pictures, but here are some from Facebook with Elder Fallabela and other church leaders at their special conference - see last weeks post :)








A tidbit after I asked Stanley if they celebrate the Day of the Dead:  The Day of the Dead is very interesting. It is basically a week long celebration. From when I asked Elder Alvarado about it he said, and I quote "They smoke with the dead. They drink with the dead. They dance with the dead. I have seen many people take a swig and then offer some to the dead and pour it on the grave." It got a little dangerous for us. We passed by a group that was smoking, and had obviously been drinking, and when we passed they spit after us. Not sure if it was because I am a Gringo or that we aren't Catholics. But it was all good! Very interesting to hear about.

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