Week 21 - Cotacachi - Fandoms, Dinners, and Return of the CCM

¡Hola mi bonita familiares y amigos!

This week has started to get hot. Like really hot. Still waiting for a White Christmas! I don't have quite as funny things as what happened this week before, but some things happened that a lot of you that know me, well or only a little, will think, of course that happened to him.

This first is music. We had a Christmas Dinner with our president, his wife, our zone, and the zone in Ipiales. They always give a talent show of sorts and so our zone participated. We gave a play and a song. The play was really well thought out. It is a small story of a missionary who decides to read the Bible. The only problem is, he reads really weird stories that are in the Bible (a bald prophet sending beasts to kill young adults, David and Goliath (that turned out being us turning it into a WWE fight) and the splitting of the baby). Very weird. He eventually turns to the story of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I liked the idea a lot and feel it went well. Could have been better but we had little time to prepare. With little time comes a little stress.

I also talked about us singing a song. It took me back to the days of The Kool Peaps (our "band" in high school) when I needed to learn songs on the piano and fast. This week was no exception. I accompanied our zone in "Born is the Light of the World". What was easy before is that I had time to practice. As a missionary, I don't. I got the sheet music this last Monday, had Tuesday to practice, and performed Wednesday. I pulled it off. I believe that the gift of tongues applies in music as well. I didn't care if I played perfect, just well enough to invite the Spirit. It felt good to have that stress however. It was like an old feeling came back into my life for a brief moment. 

During the Dinner/Zone Conference I also saw my papa, Elder Alvarado. We quickly talked but didn't see each other much during that time. I was able to sneak a picture before we left.

The other story I have is in relation to my fandoms, Batman and StarWars. If I remember correctly, the new movie came out this last weekend. I'm afraid to check my mail from all of you. During the Christmas Dinner, we also had a white elephant exchange. I was fortunate enough to get a package that was only wrapped in tape, and lots of it. Lucky me. However what was inside was a lot of candy that no person should eat all at once, and a Batman doll. It was the perfect gift. However, I needed to honor my fandom of StarWars as well. So I bought a four dollar mini lightsaber. The lightsaber itself wasn't four dollars but the cereal it came in was. I didn't need the cereal; I just wanted the lightsaber.

I went back to the CCM days this last Saturday as our stake had a mini-CCM. We took future missionaries to our sector and taught and contacted with them. It was actually a lot of fun just getting to talk to them and relive the experiences before I came out to the mission field. I also realized just how far I have come in my knowledge. I had to explain a lot of things that are really basic, but that are taught in the CCM and during your first 12-weeks in the field. I really have come a long way, knowledge and language wise. 

We have a baptism this week of a mother and her son! We, and they, are very excited for this new and amazing experience! I will send pictures this next Tuesday. Speaking of, for those of you that are not in my immediate family, or will not be joining us for this Skype home, I will be writting the 26th of December. So, no need to worry, I'm still alive, hopefully.

Love you all and Merry Christmas!!!!

--Elder Ogden--

Mi Papí!!!!

My XXL Hamburger

The New Hair (not normal yet, but I'm waiting)

Thank you so much!

Love, 

The Ecuador Quito Norte Misión 

Everyone sends their thanks and well wishes to our family and all those that donated. Attached are pictures of what that money was used for. My companion also thanks you for the packages he recieved and the card, which I had to translate for him xD. Thanks, all of you, for the cards and the yummy food. I know you wrote it was needs and wants you sent, but I think about all of it was wants. I haven't opened any of the wrapped gifts. I have to wait till Christmas day too. If everything could be ready to chat this week, that will make things go smoother this upcoming Sunday/Monday.  We will figure stuff out on our end as well. Love you all and have a Merry Christmas!

Week 20 - Cotacachi - Working, But Laughing

¡Hola mis amado amigos y familiares!

This week has been interesting, funny, and work. Just about the normal that a missionary can expect.

My companion hit his one year mark this week. We had a lot of new investigators, so I hope that was a good gift to him! We also had cake, but that's not important. Things have started getting so much better with my companion. I found that if you just talk with someone that you are having a hard time getting a long with, things get better faster. It sounds really simple and it is. Just having a normal conversation and getting the other to talk helped a lot. We were able to have better lessons this week because of it. We also have started to be more direct with people. We have found we are able to find if people are really interested or not.

I was also talking with one of our recent converts, José Reinoso, and he told me that someone that was in Spain recognized me in a photo of his daughters baptism. He looked for the name and said, Hunter Ballam (sorry if I spelled that wrong). It was awesome. Turns out, he baptized a member in the spouses family and had a connection in that way. José even had a picture of Hunter on his mission with this member. It was really cool to see.

We had a few experiences that were comical, but I will tell of two that stood out. One is when we were out contacting. Some houses have an intercom as a doorbell, so they don't have to leave the house. We had just rang one when a person answered. As we explained that we just wanted to present ourselves and share a message about Christmas, the person responed "Nobody's home". Yes, we were talking to a spirit. My companion and I just looked at each other and I had said we wanted to talk to her. She then told us she couldn't get up at this moment. To explain more about this intercom system, there is a conventional phone that is connected to this intercom. A person has to get up and answer it in order to talk to someone. After leaving and before knocking on the next door, I had to take a moment and just let out the laugh I had been holding in. It was very interesting.

The second, was even more interesting. We were walking to a community when we saw a lone cow. My companion before, Elder Alvarado, had been able to talk to cows, so I decided to try. I called, or mooed, twice when the cow turned and looked at us. I mooed again and the cow started to move, towards us! We quickly, very quickly, started walking in the other direction. The cow, however, was not going to give up and started following us. Now, I want you to picture this. Two men, a gringo and latino in white shirts and ties, are walking very quickly and looking back with a cow following right behind. I'm sure it was quite the sight to see. The cow started mooing back at us, I think to tell us to stop. I turned and looked at my companion and said, "I don't know what I said, but I think she liked it."

I hope all of you are doing great and can find comedy in the small things. Love you all!

--Elder Ogden--

One Year! for my companion

Mini Temple Square. I'll get a better picture this week.

Week 19 - Cotacachi - Week One as a Normal Missionary

I am no longer a "greenie" and it has been a stressful first week. With our referance activity, we are supposed to give numbers, and my companion before didn't tell me what those numbers are. So, you could say it has been a fun week.

I've also gotten to know my new companion a little bit more. He is from Ipiales, Columbia (which is in our mission...not sure how that happened). He hasn't stayed long in a lot of sectors, so it'll be interesting how long he stays in this area. I have had my times of impatience with him, as I have realized is a fault of mine. Really, it is just new ideas and new ways of doing things. We are both learning and growing as he comes to a close of his first year in the mission field.

I hope all of you have been able to start your 25 Days of Service! The very first day, Elder Parades and I had a service opportunity with an investigator we were worried was going to move to a new area. We ended up helping her move tires. I don't have a picture of how big the tires were, but they were big. It was enjoyable and we were able to verify that an investigator is staying in our area. It was complete inspiration to call her. I felt that I should, so I did and that is how she told us about this help she needed and that she was moving just down the street from our house. It is cool to look back on and see how I was guided through the Holy Ghost.

I had an interesting thought today. I was reading the books of Omni and Jarom (two of the smallest books in the Book of Mormon) and had the thought of how to look at the Book of Mormon in a new perspective. I thought, since the Book of Mormon is a story, what if it was a parable of sorts? A parable similar to parables Jesus used during his ministry on the earth. As I read these two books in that perspective, it opened up a new world of ideas. If you get the chance, read a chapter, a book, or the entire Book of Mormon in the aspect of a parable that relates to, and is, our lives.

I hope everyone is enjoying snow, whatever that is, and the #IlumnaElMundo campaign!

Love you all!

--Elder Ogden--

This is right after our service activity. You can kind of see how dirty we are.

I had to squat fairly low to get that shot as well.

Week 18 - Cotacachi - Cambios

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you all ate lots of food for me! My companion and I ended up going to a Chifa restaurant because our mamita couldn't feed us. It was really good, and felt very full afterwards, so it was almost the same. 

Things are in full navidad here. Everyone has lights, trees, and Santa Clauses. The best is the new videos for the initiative #LightTheWorld are available to the public. If you haven't had the chance to see the new video, I would go and watch it right now. It is so good. I always feel the spirit when I watch it. I hope all of you can find opportunities to serve those around you in 25 ways during 25 days!

We had my last verificaciones, where they see if I can teach the first three lessons. I did really well. Everyone has things to work on and the suggestions I was given, I was working on at that point as well. Our ward had their primary program yesterday which was really good. Different in Spanish.

We also had a new baptism this last Friday! Her name is Emily Reinoso and she is the daughter of the Reinoso family that we baptized my first month in the mission field. It was such an awesome experience. The entire family has such a strong testimony and I feel that their relatives that showed up, that aren't members, and hearing the tesimony of their granddaughter helped them feel the Spirit. 

Today, my first companion, mi papi, has left Cotacachi to go to Ipiales, Columbia and be a Zone Leader. He is such a great leader and I know he will do good in Ipiales. He and I did a lot of good work here, but now, I have to keep that up. He left a big legacy that I hope I can fill. But, I have a lot of work this next week and am ready to go to work!

We have had a lot of Noches de Hogar (FHE) with many of our investigators and less-actives. It has been awesome and interesting to see how different families do FHE's differently. One family we were with, has everyone share something they learned rather than having one person give a lesson. It was awesome and a new idea I kind of like. If you haven't been having your Family Home Evenings, do it! It'll help strengthen your relationship with the members in your family and also invite other families to join you. It is a nice, simple way to invite people to listen to the Gospel.

I love you all! Hope you are getting ready for Christmas like we are. Find opportunities to serve like our Savior did!

--Elder Ogden--

Baptism

New shirts

Shadows and fog

Thanksgiving Lunch

When a new shipment of Books of Mormon comes in

Week 17 - Cotacachi - CaraACara y Primeras Cosas

Hello everyone!

This week wasn't quite as eventful so there isn't that much this week, but we continue in la Obra Misiònal. I hope that all of you were, or are, able to hear the FaceToFace event. If you heard it live, I hope you listened to it in Spanish, because I know I did. Our mission President gave us permission to watch, but we were a little late so we missed quite a bit. I also tried to understand but will definitely go back and listen in English.

I got robbed my first time. It was actually kind of funny. We ride buses a lot because our sector is very large. We were riding a bus to Imantag, a community just thirty minutes away from Cotacachi, and we decided to sleep, because what else is there to do. I have/had a filtered water bottle on my wrist as we were travelling. I was woken up by someone tapping my leg, figured it was my companion, and we left. My companion went to go and buy a water bottle, and that is when I realized I did not have mine. So we ran to the bus, looked at where we were sitting, and could not find it. As we began contacting, I had to ask my companion if he touched my leg when we arrived. He said no. I told him I got robbed. As I thought about it, I realized it was my own arm hitting my leg that had woken me up. Someone had slid off the water bottle and just let my arm drop into my lap. When I did wake up, the first person I saw was this guy looking back at me. I thought it was odd at the time, but now know that it was because he wanted to make sure I didn't realized it was him or that I was robbed. And now, I drink water from the tap.

Not really. My companion and I just buy 6 litres of water, per person, and just reuse the plastic water bottles we have. Fun experience. I thought of the advice my teacher gave me in the CCM. He said "Whenever I was robbed in the mission, I just thought, I'm sure that they need it more than I do". It was great advice and that was actually my first thought when I realized I was robbed.

Imantag is actually a really interesting place. It is so high up in the mountains that it rains just about every time we go up there. With rain, comes lightning sometimes. Ecuador is no different. We have had some pretty cool and frighting experiences. One in Imantag is we were out contacting. We had just knocked on the door when we heard a click of the lightning bolt making connection accompanied with a bright white flash. Soon after was a shaking thunder. The dogs that were just outside, that were friendly, turned hostile really quick. We figured it was a way of telling us, don't contact that house. Another was during companion exchanges this last week. Elder Torres (our latino Zone Leader) and I were conversing with the mother of an investigator we hadn't seen in a while. All of the sudden there was this white flash and crack of thunder. We just stood looking at each other, and then continued our conversation. Not sure why we have cool experiences, but they are frighting in the moment.

I just finished my hard-core studies of Jacob 5. There are so many cool things that we can learn from in that amazing chapter. One of my new favorite scriptures is from this chapter. It is Jacob 5: 61-62. This is the first time in this allegory the Lord of the Vineyard uses the word, we. He works with us. The lesson we can learn is that we are to work diligently, always. My other new favorite scripture is found in D&C 75:1. I like this scripture because it is about love and chastisement. I find it funny just how often God says, I love you. He does love us. And those he loves, he chastens. But he does it with love. I feel that is a lesson for all of us. When we need to correct someone, do it with love.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Elder Alvarado will be celebrating it with hamburgers, real hamburgers, that I am making for him, since it is also our last week together. Eat a lot of food for me and be thankful for all of your blessings!

--Elder Ogden--

We ate at a place called Sports food. So good.

Part of Imantag

When in Ecuador

Week 16 - Cotacachi - Rápido Semana

Buenas!

This week just absolutely flew past. We have been working very hard so it makes sense. We were able to contact 35 different people, and a lot of them have real potential. We also have a lot of work cut out for us. Hermano Javier isn't able to have his date because he hasn't attended church this past two weeks. But, we were able to help the daughter in the Reinoso Family to have a baptismal date. Things have been going better with them because we shared scriptures. Scriptures really are powerful. So study them and apply. Like Elder David A. Bednar has taught, "If we don't apply what we study, the scriptures and just another book with markings". So practice what you read. It helps your love of the scriptures increase. 

We were able to give a tour of the church to one of our investigators. We, at the end, invite them to pray and ask if the church is true. He did and he felt a stong feeling that it is true. I know it is true as well. We have spent a lot of time in a community here called Imantag. It is very high up in the mountains and is about a half an hour drive from Cotacachi. It is so pretty up there. I'll have to take pictures to send to all of you. We have been traveling to a lot of different communities of Cotacachi that I nor mi compañero has been to. 

Two Sundays ago, we had an activity for obtaining references from the members in our ward. This worked really well. We were able to recieve about 90 different people and the majority of them live in our area which is great! Help out the missionaries! The only difference between us missionaries and you missionaries is we have a plaque and are full-time. I liked one of the teachings of Elder Enrique Falabella. He said, missionary work doesn't have to be, what doctrine am I going to teach. It is simply "Invita a..." (Invite to...). That is all you all need to do. Invite someone to something. The worst thing that could happen is they say no. I also liked how you can then share them to listen to missionaries. Usually a lot of people have questions about the chruch, the principles, etc. So, all you as members need to do is say "I have two really good friends that can answer all of your questions. Would you like me to give them your name and number?" That is literally all. It sounds and is easy. So help us out! 

We had two really cool experiences this week. The first is this last Sunday we were invited to attend the birthday of a member's grandmother. The member wanted us to share a message about the family. So that is exactly what we did. There were probably 30 people that weren't members (that number is not included in the 35 new investigators). The cool part was I think that was the first time I was applauded for giving a spiritual thought. The other is my companion and I decided to fast twice this week (because we forgot the last two months). I firmly believe the success we have had this week was from this time of fasting. There are blessings from fasting. One has been very important to me. For those of you that don't know, I have low blood sugar. Like, really low blood sugar. This makes it hard to go long periods of time without eating. However, every time I do a 24 hour fast, it has never, NEVER, been a problem. I know that there are blessings in fasting. 

Today for P-Day we played fútbol (notice the difference in spelling). We usually always play in the morning with members in a ward in Rumiñahue, in Otavalo (I needed help from my companion to spell it). This day was no different. The only difference is we then joined our zone and two other zones to play a tournament of fútbol. It ended up not being to big of a competition, thankfully, and we all ended up playing football (this might help with the spelling beforehand). It was so weird to hold a football again. 

I hope you are all doing well! People have jumped right into Christmas here. We sang a Christmas song this last Sunday. But, enjoy your Thanksgiving first!

With love,

--Elder Ogden--

Old Pics, lo siento

I had fun with my panoramic

A service opportunity, and the view

Me eating a WaWa (a child in bread form. sounds weird but is

tradition the week of Halloween/The Day of the Dead

I was Slim Shady (Eminem) for a little bit for Halloween. Here's the picture

The computer last week didn't want to accept my photos, so here all photos from last P-Day

The view

Me being...me

Me and Elder Perez. The tongue sticking out is from my father

The top with ice/snow (it actually started snowing)

Me and snow

Us eating snow (don't do it at home kids)

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.