Hey!

   We had a good week this week! We have continued going to a small city near Pinneaples called Portovelo. It is the mining center of Ecuador and pretty much everyone that lives there is a miner. Arturo came to church this week with his brother. Arturo is preparing to be baptized for the 14th of February. He´s way excited and has expressed to us that he is sure he has found the true church. I´m very excited for him and happy that we were able to find him! 

   We found another family who asked for English classes and so we went, taught english and invited them to church. They said they are willing to go to church next week if they don´t have to go on a trip to Cuenca.  

   The young couple Mario and Maria we have been teaching that know English and are WAY awesome couldn´t come to church this week, which we knew they wouldn´t be able to because they had to go to Guayaquil for the husbands drivers license. They are very receptive and willing to learn do the commitments. The husband is excited to be baptized and we are encouraging the wife! They are preparing to do so in February!

   Not much else to tell about this week! I´ve been loving the mission as always and way happy to be here! Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Justyn Pollock

Zone December 2015

No time to really write this week cause I needed to work on BYU stuff. Just a quick update:

Im still in pinneaples with the same companion.

This week we found an awesome investigator Arturo who lives in that small town Portovelo outside Pinneaples. He has a kid that had brain damage.Arturo is 60 and came to church this week. He loved the church and agreed to a baptismal date in february.

  The other young couple that I talked about who speak English well came to church this week as well! They are preparing for baptism for February as well. They are way awesome and it is fun to teach them!

   I have had a great week this week. I´m thankful for the spirit that guides us to know what to do and for the chance to be a missionary!

Have a great week!

Elder Justyn Pollock

 This week was awesome! We have been teaching that younger couple of which the husband came last week. They couldn´t come this week because of something they had to do for work this week in Guayaquil, but are very excited to come next week. They actually both talk English, so we are teaching some of the lesson in English as well haha. They are very receptive to the Gospel. We have been preaching some in the small town they live in 20 minutes away from the city of Pinneaples. There are some nice people there and we are seeing who can become future investigators.

   Janet also came with her sister to church again. Their family invited us over to eat at their house and were very hopsitable. They all still remembered me after a year and a half! haha. We are planning on doing service for one of the older siblings of the family this week; painting their house! Awesome! We are hoping to get more of the family to church, especially one of the older brothers and the Mom. 

  As for food... We found a pretty good hamburger place and have eaten there a couple times this week. We also bought pizza on Saturday which was way delicious. I made some no bake cookies which turned out way good. We are 4 gringos in the apartment so there is still no shortage of peanut butter after Christmas haha. 

   Apparently between the time I started the mission and now, a very strong LDS family moved from Guayaquil to a small town about an hour from Pinneaples which pertains to our branch (This one sector is GIGANTIC! Apart from the actual city of Pinneaples, it corresponds to a bunch of small towns where missionaries haven't been to much. Reminds me that there are still some corners of the world where the gospel is still being newly introduced!) We're going to go see how that small town is this week. 

   I'm loving being a missionary and still going strong! Happy to be here! I know this is the work of the Lord and the gospel blesses the lives of those that live it.

Love,

Elder Pollock

It has been an interesting experience back here in Pinneaples again! I have been happy to be able to see one of the converts I baptized here, Cesibel, and many of the people I got to know here. The work here is a little slower than Guayaquil as the people are a little different, but we have been working and finding some awesome people! The perk here is definitely the climate. I am sooo happy to finally be somewhere cold/not hot! It rained down pretty hard almost every day this week which I was very excited about. The environment is a whole lot nicer here in Pinneaples as well, due to it being a little isolated in the mountains. I'm definitely enjoying the experience!

   This week we found great investigators! One is Cesibel's sister, Janet, who is now 14 ( she was only 12 when I was here last time). She came to church with Cesibel, who everyone says does usually comes which I'm very happy about! We also went to one of my old investigators, Nikolas who is 15, and he went to church! 

   It was funny because I was half jokingly saying to my companion earlier that Pinneaples would be perfect if the more open people from Guayaquil lived here and that I'm looking for poeple from Guayaquil here. To our pleasent surprise, during Fast and Testimony Meeting at church on Sunday, an investigator walked in without having been invited! When we saw him we immediately went and sat by him and talked with him. Sure enough, he has recently moved here with his wife from Guayaquil! He's a 32 year old man who was married 4 months ago to his wife. He has had some contact with missionaries before, to what extent I'm not sure, but he even knew what "tronky" means (missionary talk to describe a missionary that thinks alot about going home). He had been asking the day before what time our church was to random people near the church and could only get that it is in the morning, explaining why he came a little late not knowing the exact time. We had a great lesson with him and his wife in his house after church, and they are coming together to church next Sunday. They seem like extremely promising investigators and I'm super excited for that! They actually live in a smaller town outside of Pinneaples about 20 minutes away, so we are now going to be working a little in that area.

   In terms of food.... We ate Pizza! Chinese rice with shrimp. Fried shrimp. More chinese rice with shrimp (there's a good chinese place here). Spiced cider Elder Smith who lives with us gave me. Hamburgers and fried chicken from a member (Awesome!) Chocolate ice cream for new years eve. Yea our new years eve was pretty quiet, we just played chess, the members brought us roasted chicken rice and french fries, ate some chocolate ice cream and went to bed at 10:30PM like normal. 

   That's what's going on in my neck of the woods. (Something like that the news guy always says)

Loving being a missionary and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Justyn Pollock