Hey Everybody!

    It´s been an awesome week here!. We had an interexchange with our zone leaders and I learned a couple ways I can improve. We´ve been applying that in our sector and having success in that! One thing we´ve been improving on is just talking with everybody. I personally don´t like knocking on doors a whole lot, but when we see someone on the side of the street or in their window we just stop and talk to them and invite them to church. 

    Sometimes a missionary all of the elements combine against you at the most important time. This sunday in the morning my companion woke up super sick, it was raining super hard. Also, as a missionary, it sucks when there is a national holiday on a Sunday! This sunday was voting day, in which nobody has to work. That meant that EVERYBODY would want to sleep in and stay home all day. My companion decided he wanted to be a trooper and decided to tough through his sickeness until after church. We got out the umbrellas and went to go see who we could get to church. As we went to go bring them to church they used the excuse "It´s raining hard and we have to go to vote. I´ll go next sunday". I thought in my mind: voting takes probably an hour and it was open until 10 at night, while church was in the morning and they didn´t seem in to much of a hurry to go vote in the morning haha.  

   Oh well. We managed to get 7 investigators to church which I am super grateful for. We went home halfway through sacrament meeting as my companion had to use the restroom, to use the most proper terms. We´ve been staying in the apartment since. The members so nicely have brought us food, including a chicken noodle soup for my companion. Hoping he gets better soon! I´m looking forward to the fruit of all of our hard work, as we have some baptisms coming up now. I´ll make sure to send a bunch of pictures with the next email, as I´ve noticed a lack of pictures sent lately!

Love you all!

Elder Pollock

Happy Valentines Day

 Happy Valentines Day?

   It was Valentines day the other day here in Ecuador, not sure about the USA. We don´t really do anything for valentines day as missionaries though haha. We had a great week as normal here in Ecuador. We brought some new investigators to church this week and we`re going to be teaching them. We visited a less active family who came on Sunday which I was really happy about, as the Prophet has said we need to go to the rescue! Plus, one of the daughters of that family that came is not baptized yet! So we have an investigator to teach there. We`ve been teaching an investigator named Jesus, who is a reference of another investigator we have. He loves coming to church. We`re also teaching Elisabeth who has been coming to church for a while and we`re preparing here to be baptized.

    A small lesson I`ve learned on diligence this week: It was Sunday night and we were close to the apartment at 7:30PM (We have to be in the house at 9:00). We had already gone to church and gotten our investigators there and walked around going to appointments all day. It went through my head ¨It`s the end of the week. Our feet are a little tired. We already got the investigators to church which is one of the most important things. Our current investigators aren`t home to teach right now. 

   Why don`t we just go back home now and get some extra time to sleep?´¨

    It seemed logical at the time but out of a sense of obedience we decided to walk to the other side of our sector and teach a recent convert we knew would be home. In reality we didn`t get time to teach much. We more just talked with him for 15 minutes cause we had to leave. On the way walking back home I was thinking that we should have just gone home and gotten that extra sleep, when this 17 year old kid and his mom stopped us and asked us for help tying his tie for school the next day. I ¨messed up¨ tying the tie a couple of times while we talked to them and told them why we are here. They showed us to there house and said they would love to hear our message. They seem super nice and we have an appointment for Tuesday. A small blessing from God for a little obedience and diligence on our part.

    I know that through obedience to the commandments we receive blessings from God. This is the work of the Lord and I`m grateful to be here as a missionary. I know this is the Church of Jesus Christ and that he directs it.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Pollock

Mission log 409576

Awesome week in Ecuador! We had the baptism of William this week. He`s this 16 year old kid that studies and works selling plantain, papaya, etc. He is a great guy and I was super happy that he was able to be baptized. After he was baptized he wanted to swim in the baptismal font! We were dragging him out by the hair from the font haha. I`m always really happy to teach the teenage aged kids to help them avoid the many challenges and temptations that face the youth today. I know he has alot more protection and preparation for those temptations.

    We had meeting with the mission president this week which is always a spiritually uplifting experience. I got a ton out of it and will continue working harder and become a better missionary. We`ve been teaching a few new people but are looking for more. One is Jesus, a reference of an investigator that has been coming to church for half a year! We had a great lesson with him last night. We had 11 investigators in church which was a huge blessing! We`re going to teach those that came and see how receptive they are!

   In other news the president of Ecuador came by our sector in a parade type campaign thing. He saw us and he looked right at me and and pointed saying "Amigos". Apparently he recognizes the missionaries! haha kinda cool.

    The transfer period ends this week so we took some pictures as a zone. I don`t believe I`ll have transfers, but they`ll tell us by tomorrow.

    I`m super grateful to be here as a missionary and have this experience. This work brings us ALOT of happiness and I love seeing people changing their lives and accept the gospel. To those reading this preparing to come on their missions. My advice is to come! Don`t worry if you don`t feel prepared enough or that it might be a little hard. Come and the Lord will do the rest. I know this is the work of the Lord and the gospel brings happiness to all who live it.

Paz afuerra,

Elder Pollock
                                                              Love the photo bomb!          

 

 

                                                       Baptism of William

                                                          Zone Conference

 

Hey Everyone!

   We`re way excited this week that we had the baptism of Sandra! We have been working with her for a long time and she finally was able to be baptised this Saturday! She was having a few medical difficulties, but she persistent in that she was going to be baptised that day. She was super happy to be able to be baptised! It was way awesome because her husband was able to baptizee here. The service was great and she is super happy about the decision she took. She is 3 months pregnant with baby boy who she calls a future missionary. I`m super grateful I was able to be apart of her baptism. She is an awesome convert to the church. 

    I know it`s a huge blessing to be able to be here in Ecuador as a missionary. I love being here as a missionary! I know this is the work of the Lord. I know this is the church of Jesus Christ, and that living by the principles of the Gospel will bring happiness to the lives of all who live it. 

-Elder Pollock

PS Go Seahawks!!