Elder Galloway--This Week in Atahualpa

25 Mar 2013 This Week in Atahualpa Hola, amigos y familia! Well, we´re working; you´re working. Things are going smoothly and I love missionary work! Here are some of my thoughts of the week: Investigator (Good and Bad) News of the Week: Well, we had quite a few investigators in church this Sunday. Because we´re preparing for General Conference (and because we teach Gospel Principles), we decided to show the biography of President Monson to our new converts/investigators. Martha loved it. Luis (and his wife Juanita) loved it. So did our fantastic new investigator, Soraya, who actually contacted us on the street and told us that after years of not going to church, she felt the urgency to return and get closer to God. She got right down to business and asked for a "blue bible" and "bible studies." We´re working on that. But we´re super thrilled for her -- she went on a tour of the chapel and has a baptismal date for the 13th of April. I think she lives in another ward´s boundaries, but she passed every day in her car wash in our sector, so we´ll teach her, then hand her off to the sisters so she can get baptized in the Solanda Ward. We´ll make things work; it´s Lord´s work, anyway, and things turn out a whole lot better when they start off right. We´ve learned that from experience. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, President Monson. We showed the first half of his biography this week, and will show the last half next week (talk about a tactic for getting people to church!). There was a new guy, Daniel, who was really interested in the movie. You could tell he was paying close attention because when we opened it up for questions, he asked, "What´s a stake?" Perfect! He attended church with his family, and wants to keep coming. We showed him the baptismal font and everything, which he said was all new to him, but he was willing to give it a try. They are a reference for another ward. We are also trying to work with the members more -- we had a FHE with the family P. (2nd counselor), and asked them to name 10 people with whom they could share the gospel. Then we narrowed it down to one family: Sister P´s sister. They drove us there last night. Talk about golden! We presented them "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." They loved it. We talked about baptism, and, at first, they were a little scared, but they were willing to meet with us and keep going. They know it´s a good thing. They belong to another ward. So things are a little down in our own sector, but we´re not losing hope. In fact, we´re super happy to find and help these marvelous people! Another good investigator story, Jenny, the mother of Augustin, a 10-year-old boy, is coming around very well. At first, when we contacted her on the street, she was interested in that we give classes to her son. We took him to church, but we focused on teaching her, and told her that if she wanted Augustin to learn, she had to give the example. We watched the movie of Joseph Smith with them; they liked it. We went on a tour of the church with Jenny and her mother (a 2-year convert and.... inactive). But Jenny loved it. She could feel the truthfulness of the Church and committed to come to church on Sunday. She did! It cost a little to persuade her to leave her 2-year-old Moses in the nursery, but she enjoyed it and will come every week. The only problem is that her husband is Catholic and doesn´t really like that she goes to church. But she said that she would always come to church because that´s the best thing she could do for her family. We had left Jenny a Liahona, and one day she told us that she was leafing through it. Her thoughts were something like this: "What am I doing with my life? I´m a stay at home mom, with two boys; I never finished my degree and watch TV all day long. I need to go back to school, finish my degree, and start working" (she studied to be a teacher). Way to go, Jenny! She´s already integrated into the ward (one sister arranged an appointment with her last night, after the first day of visiting the chapel -- now that´s a great example!) The ends of other stories aren´t so happy: María A is faltering in her desire to go to church. Which astonishes me because she was so energized on going after waiting more than a year to make contact with the Church. Ivette, too, isn´t so hot on making it to church. She went last week just because we woke up early to go with her. But we haven´t seen her since. We´ll keep trying... but you don´t win them all... Elder Galloway News of the Week: Well, I was talking with Elder Peterson in the offices today (he came in from Guaranda for a special conference) about the mission. Really, we´ve grown so much in our time here. One of the things we were really happy about is the love we feel for the country and the people here. I really love Ecuador, with all its quirks and frustrations, but it´s a really great place, with really good people. Take Jenny, for instance. Or the Vasquez family, from way back in Cumbaya (I ran into Hermano Rodriguez from Cumbaya in the offices, and he told me that they are super great -- Patricio is the 2nd counselor in the Sunday School presidency!). They are a people with pride for their country, who really do want a good life. As you said, dad, add Mormonism to any culture and it lights up. The other night my companion and I were talking about Ecuador and it´s quirks and decided to make a list of 10 things Uniquely Ecuadorian that went something like this: 1. Salchipapas, french fries mixed with deep-fried hotdogs (always with the ends cut open), smothered in mayonnaise and tomato sauce (it´s not quite ketchup). YUM. 2. Rice. 3. Mind-boggling patience when it comes to waiting in lines at banks, hospitals, and government installations (they are gigaaaaaantic). 4. Ridiculous impatience when it comes to lines for metrobuses and trolleys. They have a incredible capacity to fit 1,001 people on a metrobus. 5. Bailoterapia, or dance therapy for overweight women in the park. 6. Ecuadorianized KFC that comes with rice and lentils. 7. Sayings like, "It´s right over here" or "I´m arriving right now" or "Come another day," when they really mean to say is "It´s a few miles in the other direction" or "I´ll be there in at least a half-hour or "I really do not want to talk with you." 8. Sidewalks decorated with holes, poles, dips, and dog poo. 9. Garbage trucks that play national music when they come to collect your trash. How nice. 10. Being brainwashed into thinking that Pilsener is as Ecuadorian as Rafael Correa. It´s not. (JG - I think this is a reference to Pilsener beer. Don't know where he got this idea!) I hope you enjoy the list. We enjoyed making it. Well, have a great week! We ran into an agnostic man who used exactly the same arguments as Korihor. It´s so nice to know that Alma provides the perfect antidote to thinking that "seeing is believing": a humble heart, a desire to believe, and the willingness to do what God tells you to do. What an assurance it is to know that He lives, that His son lived and died for us and that we are forever indebted to his "great and last sacrifice" (Alma 34). May you always be thinking of the Savior this week and live to let his light shine through you. I´ll be doing that in Ecuador. With love, Elder Galloway P.S.: The apartment situation sounds great. I would love to take a spanish class. Congratulations to Curtis Merrill. How cool is that about Amanda Keating going to Dad´s old mission! I´m attaching some songs that you might use for your mission reunion (sorry there wasn´t enough time to send them last week).