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.

Week 9 - Cotacachi - New Church, New Converts, No pics

Hola mi familia y amigos!

The weeks seem to be going faster and faster. Today is my two month aniversary of being out in the mission field! But who's keeping track?

We have a brand new church here in Cotacachi! Almost. We were able to have our baptism in it last Saturday, but it isn't open quite yet. The dedication is the sixth of October, open house and cultural presentation on the seventh, and assist on the eighth. Just in time for my birthday and it is a great gift to recieve!

We had the baptism of our familia Rienoso! It was solo the parents that were baptized. Elder Alvarado had the privilege to do so. It so awesome and the Spirit was so strong. We also had a lot of the members show up which was absolutely awesome! 

If anyone knows anything about me is how much I like to watch sports. Here in Cotacachi, they have very different sports. The one that is really big during this month is Trompo. If anyone gets the chance to look it up, it is very interesting. I also realized that this is the place for me. The entire country is dedicated to music. They have two huge festivals, one in June and one in this month. They also have a lot of statues, drawings, and ads for different music stuff. A lot of the people here, also, either are, were, or have family that was a musician. I love it!

I had an interesting thought this week as the spouse of one of our investigators told us to never come back. The mission isn't just teaching people. The mission is pulling, lifting, and dragging people into a little bit of the light to hopefully have them see the light in it's plentitud. It is a battle against the darkness and against Satan. The hard part is that Satan has been around these people longer than we have. He has more experience than we, as missionaries, do. He is also very powerful and influenceful. But, as missionaries, we have the truth. We have the Spirit. And most importantly, we have the help of God. Missionary work is a lot different in this perspective. And it's not only something we deal with as missionaries, it is also personal. Stay in the light. Don't stray from the light. If you can, and I plead that you do, help others into the light as well. The time is soon at hand when Christ will come again. We need to do all we can as knowers of the truth to help our fellow brothers and sisters.

Sorry for no pictures, The computer snatched them all...again. I'll figure something out with that. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

--Elder Ogden--

Here is one picture my awesome companion sent me!​

Conferencia de las Zonas del Campo hoy!

Week 8 - Cotacachi - Contacting in English

¡Hola todas personas!

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.

Letter from President and Sister Murphy

Elder Ogden with President and Sister Murphey

September 2017

Dear Ogden Family,

We wanted to let you know how happy we are to have your son in our mission.  They arrived just a few short days ago and after a short training we were able to assign him to a marvelous trainer and they are now off to a new sector.  We know that wonderful things await them as they serve the Lord here in the Ecuador Quito North mission.

Our mission theme comes from 3 Nephi 5:13, “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life.”  As requested by President Russell M. Nelson, we discuss at each meeting what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and also the process of becoming consecrated in His work.  This will be a great life changing process while your missionary is here in the mission, and then will continue throughout the rest of his/her life…becoming completely dedicated and committed to discipleship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

In this mission, we follow the principles and instructions found in Missionary Handbook and Preach My Gospel. From the Missionary Handbook, we read about the commitment your missionary has made for the time he is a full-time missionary:

“In harmony with the inspired pattern described in the fifth article of faith, you have been called by a prophet of God and set apart to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. You have been called to ´invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end´ (Preach My Gospel, p. 1). How great is your calling!

“Strive to fulfill what the President of the Church expects of you, as expressed in your call letter: ´You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel. You will be an official representative of the Church. As such, you will be expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and appearance by keeping the commandments, living mission rules, and following the counsel of your mission president. You will also be expected to devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs. As you do these things, the Lord will bless you and you will become an effective advocate and messenger of the truth.´

“When you accepted your call, you promised to live by these standards. You are accountable to the Lord and to the leaders of the Church for how well you honor this promise. Always keep in mind the importance of your calling. Strive constantly to magnify it. As you obey with a willing heart, you will show the Lord your love for Him, earn the trust and confidence of members and nonmembers, and qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”

We know that this promise is true, and that your missionary will be blessed greatly if he/she magnifies his calling.

We have a fairly large geographic mission, with areas stretching from the west coast of Ecuador, to the northern border with Colombia, east to the jungle and the border of Perú, and centered in the magnificent city of Quito.  We have been told that President Gordon B. Hinckley counted Quito as one of his three favorite cities in the entire world!

We plan zone conferences every transfer period (six weeks), and President Murphy will also interview every missionary during that period.  Each missionary is also responsible for writing President Murphy every week and reporting to him on the challenges and successes in their area and in their personal lives.  Monday will be your missionary’s preparation day so we encourage you to write your missionary an uplifting, encouraging email before this day to ensure that they receive an email from home each week.  Please do not arrange for a time on p-day to “chat” with our missionaries by sending emails back and forth during their hour of computer time. This is not consistent with the principle of “dedicating devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs.”

If you choose to send packages to your missionary, you should be aware that when a package is sent through the US Postal Service, your missionary may be charged anywhere from $1 to $10 per package, based on the size and content, to retrieve the package from customs.  When a different private service is used (DHL, FedEx, etc.), there can be much higher fees, including one recently for $55 for a small package.  

We are so grateful for the opportunity to serve with these wonderful young people as we strive to preach His gospel in this amazing part of the world.  It is a grand privilege and a tremendous blessing. 

Con mucho amor,

Presidente Blake y Hermana Dana Murphy