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

This week was awesome! Almost the entire family of Jesus (see past emails if you don't remember about that family) came to church! The Dad finally came! The only one left was the son this week, but he did come the week before. A friend of the daughter of that family also continues coming to church and is preparing to be baptized soon. We also found another family of inactives this week and they also came to church! It was a happy week for us to see them all there.

   Other than that we also had Christmas! We did a study in the house and took pictures. We also got some great food for christmas eve night! We ate alot of the treats our families sent us, and then were able to skype later in the day which was awesome! 

   

    In other news, I had changes! I am now in.... Piñas! I returned to my first sector! I started here and it's probable that I will end here which is funny (Be "born" and "die" in mission language). I just recently got off the bus to write here and haven't seen any familiar faces but will soon. It's gonna be interesting returning to a sector, as I haven't returned to any sectors so far in my mission! I'm happy to be here though as it's a great area, and the climate is definitely alot cooler haha. My companion is Elder Sorensen from Utah. I'll probably have some good stories and pictures next week!

Have a great New Year!

   Elder Pollock

Hope everyone has been having a Merry Christmas!

   This week we had the baptism of Marilyn! She is the daughter of Monica, sister of Scarlet and the Mom of Justin and Briana( the two littler kids in the photo I sent). I am very happy that we were able to be part of it as it was a great baptismal service! The Mom gave a great message in the baptism, and Marilyn bore an awesome testimony after being baptized. Marilyn used to go to church with her Mom when they were investigators 10 years ago. Now the only one left in the family of Monica to become a member of the church is another daughter, Angie, and her husband! We continue teaching and encouraging them with the help of Monica to go to church. We also taught The Restoration to Monica´s sister who came to visit for a day.

   My package from my family arrived for Christmas this week! Yes!!! I was wayyyy happy to see some AWESOME gifts inside like lindor truffles, beef jerky, chocolate christmas calenders, a USB with mission music, shirt, even a tree and a stocking! Plus a bunch more awesome stuff!

   We found actual cheddar cheese this week in the store(a little rare) instead of the usual mozarella that we always eat, so we couldn´t pass up the opportunity to make homemade mac and cheese. We´ll be eating VERY well this week as the members here are awesome about making sure we eat well for the holidays. I remember the feast we had last year for Christmas and think I might gain a couple pounds this week haha. I sent a picture of our Chocapic Christmas Display, the accumulation of the boxes of a couple months of Chocapic. My companion and I love that cereal.

   I´ve been having a very happy Christmas season and I hope you all do as well! I love being a missionary in the service of God, especially in this season celebrating the birth of the Savior.

Christmas.Mormon.Org

Merry Christmas!

Elder Pollock

P.S. The Monigotes are looking awesome! I´ll try to take some pictures of them throughout the week if I can. They are the paper mechet creations people make around here for new years eve that they put fireworks in and burn. I´ve seen a GIANT Goku, ¨Alien¨, and Ghost Rider

This week was great! We found an awesome family this week. There are a bunch of people living in the family: aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandkids, etc. and they are very receptive! We found them when we felt to come to their house and talk to them. Many commited to come to church next Sunday, and some have already accepted baptismal dates. We also have been teaching another partial member family we found. The mom of the family was baptized 20 years ago and hadn´t gone to church in a long while, while the daughter, Amy, is now 10 and recently came to know the church this week with her Mom. The Mom wants her kids to learn English so we include a little bit of English teaching in our lessons with them. We are also teaching her 14 year old son, Alexander, who doesn´t know the church, but he couldn´t come to church this week because he works to help support the family.

    Monica (the recent converts of about a month ago) has continued very well in the gospel, including taking family history classes! She attends church with her daughter Scarlet who is member, and her other daughter Marilyn who is not member with her two kids. We are currently teaching, along with Monica and Scarlet, Marilyn and another older daughter of Monica who hasn´t come to church because of work. The bishop has the vision of Monica as a seminary teacher for the ward very soon! So we are helping her strengthen her testimony and knowledge for that!

   As for food, today we had homemade macaroni and cheese thanks to my ¨son¨ Elder Brown. It turned out way good! (Though the only familiar cheese they really have here is mozarella so we used that) I continue eating Chocopic daily along with the other missionaries in the apartment. We have been saving the boxes to take a cool photo with out favorite cereal, which i´ll send next week!

   Hope you all have a great week and a Merry Christmas!

Elder Pollock 

   This was one of our busiest weekends in a while! We had the mission Christmas Devotional/Music Program on Friday which was awesome! We the missionaries sang I feel the Savior´s Love and I Stand All Amazed. There was also an entire music program prepared by the mission choir (almost all sisters) that was way good! Jesus´ family attended along with the recent convert Monica´s family. All of Friday was dedicated to that.

   There was also the Saturday´s sessions of conference and we spent that day inviting people to that session and Sunday´s. It was fast Sunday so when we got home at 9:00PM Saturday we did our planning, got ready and went to bed a little early, since our time after planning is usually used eating popcorn or cereal haha plus we were exhausted that day. On Sunday we had the main session of Stake conference. It was an awesome session that I liked alot! The stake had all of the return msisionaries sing in a choir. 

   On Sunday night we had the baptism of Jesus!! I was way happy to see him being baptised. He´s a way hyper and funny kid. The story of how we found him, though I think I´ve already told it in another email... While going to an appointment we felt the impression to turn into a street and knock on a door. We knocked on it and invited the lady that answered to church but she wasn´t interested, so we decided maybe we needed to knock on the next door. For illustrative purposes, that meant taking 5-6 steps since the houses are built right together. On the next door a lady came out and greeted us happily ¨Hermanos¨! She told us her name, Gardenia, and asked us how we came to her door as apparently nobody including missionaries had visited her for a long time. It turned out that she, with her 2 kids and their stepfather that lives there, are all members that haven´t gone to church for almost 10 years! We invited her to church and she came with her daughter! In that next week she introduced us to Jesus who is a nephew, but who she raised and who had been with another uncle for a couple weeks. We have been teaching that family and the Mom and daughter have come back to church! The daughter also has the goal of going on a mission, possibly in spring. We are trying to help the older son and Dad to come back as well. The baptism was a great experience and I´m thankful for the spirit guiding us to that family.

   As for food, this week we went to Carls Jr and had bbq burgers. Way good! Plus Chocopic as always.

  Hope all have a great Christmas this year! Visit Christmas.mormon.org to see a cool video.

Elder Justyn Pollock

This week we were concentrated on finding new investigators to teach. We went out to visit with a member who used to be branch president and he took us to a few inactive members who haven`t come to church in years. When we got to the house of one of them, we found his family which are almost all nonmembers. We taught them the restoration and they recieved it well. It is a cool family! Then we contacted next door and found they are also family of the inactive member, but have never talked to missionaries! Surprisingly, when we said hi through the door, they immediately said ¨pasen!¨ (come in) without even knowing who we are! We taught the restoration there with them as well. A few investigators that live there will be able to come to church this week (though a couple no for work), and they are also a great family!

   I continue to recieve a testimony of the importance of reteaching the 5 lessons to the recent converts and to keep passing by them as the first presidency indicates us to do as missionaries. We continue passing by Monica, who was baptized a couple weeks ago, and this week Marilyn (20), one of her older daughters , came to church! She recently moved back in with her Mom and wants to be baptized in the church as well, which should happen in this month of December!

   Jesus, a 10 year old investigator of a recently reactivating family, came to church with Melissa this week again! The Mom family was feeling sick so they didn`t come today. Jesus came with a small scar on his face from a fall learning how to BMX with his brother. When he first saw me at church the first thing he said was ¨look at this! I got it doing BMX yesterday¨ We are still working on helping the older brother and the Dad of that family to come back to church as well. Jesus should be baptized soon.

   Paul came to church again, and also should be baptized soon this month, though he may have problems with coming to church this month for having to go work with his Mom. 

  For thanksgiving we didn`t do a big dinner or anything as they don`t celebrate it really here haha. So my companion and I went and bought a popular snack here, salchipapa. It`s just french fries and cut up hot dog in a bowl with sauces. We don`t usually eat it because it`s not exactly healthy, but atleast we enjoyed for thanksgiving! haha

   I`m happy to be a missionary! Hope all have a great christmas month! 

Elder Justyn Pollock

 

Salchipapa

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias!

Hey!

    If I remember right, last year they didn´t celebrate thanksgiving here in Ecuador, but the mamita made us chicken, mashed potatos and gravy! We´ll see how thanksgiving is here this year! 

    This week has been great! We have continued teaching some of the investigators I mentioned last week including Paul and Jesus. Jesus came to church again this week with his Mom and sister, who have recently come back to church. Paul couldn´t come to church, though he is still preparing to be baptized within the next coming weeks. Vicente, who seems to be the great grandpa of Cesibel, did come to church this week! He loved it, and after church he offered us some watermelon to thank us for inviting him! He is pondering the invitation to be baptized. 

   This week we spent alot of time looking for new investigators and we talked with LOTS of people, but the majority we have needed to ¨filter¨ as they do not show a commitment to come to church which is vital to us being able to help them come unto Christ. We visited what we call an ¨eternal investigator¨ . She is the Mom of a member who recently came back to church. She was investigating the church a while while her son was active before. Her husband recently passed away, so we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was a very spiritual lesson, and I know it will help her towards the decision of being baptized (which at the moment she still does not accept). We also visited many recent converts and invited many of their non-member family members to church. 

   Despite all our finding efforts throughout the week, we hadn´t found anyone to accept a baptismal date. Our last hope for that was in a member´s aunt who came to church yesterday. We taught her and she accepted a baptismal date, along with her 14 year old son, in the last 30 minutes of proselyting time of the week. My companion and I were able to go home happy after our weeks effort!

   I´m thankful for the blessings the Lord gives us in his work. I´m thankful for the blessings of the gospel and the attonment of the Savior. I´m very thankful to have a great family. I´m thankful for the chance to be a missionary and help other´s families come closer unto Christ. Hope all have a great thanksgiving!

   Love,

Elder Pollock

This week we had the baptism of Ginger! She is the sister of Juliana who was baptized about a month ago (see the past photo I sent which has a picture with Ginger and her sister in Juliana´s baptism). She was very hesitant at first of being baptized or no but from the week before her baptism she became very decisive about being baptized. It was in good timing that she became so decided, as she actually moved to a new house inside of the ward boundries. The challenge came in that the owners of her new house are die-hard members of another religion. That created problems with being able to teach and visit that family efficiently to say the least. It didn´t prove to be a discouragment to her though! The moment of her baptism she was very happy. She bore a great testimony. Many members came in support of her (or maybe just to eat cake haha just kidding). It was awesome!

   Another awesome occurance was with one of the family of inactives we are ¨rescuing¨ (One of our duties our Mission President has giving to the missionaries here, according to President Monson´s talk a while back on ¨going to the rescue¨). We actually found this family a week and a half ago when we felt inspired to knock on a door (not something we casually do, only when the spirit indicates). When we knocked on the door, the Mom of the family happily began talking to us, and after conversing for a while we found out she has been inactive for years. Last sunday she came to church with her daughter. During this past week as we´ve been visitng them. One day the Mom introduced us to Jesus, a 10 year old kid who just recently moved in with her. She is his aunt and she had raised him since he was little, and now recently he moved in with her! She told us she wants him to be baptized, and we instantly set a date for the first week in December with him. Jesus came to church with his sister-cousin this week, as the Mom was sick on Sunday. We went to visit them after church on Sunday and found the Dad there as well with the older brother, Sam, who are also inactives and are hard to find in their home. We were able to talk to them and they commited to coming to church next week as well.

   The other invesitgator we have mostly been teaching is a 14 year old investigator Paul. He came to church again with his neighbor who is a counsler to the bishop, and loves it. He´s preparing to be baptized soon and is excited to do so. He came with a nonmember freind this week as well!

  Another random occurance, yesterday we contacted an old guy sitting on the street. He told us he´s from Piñas, which is my first sector, and I asked his last name he said Robles. I asked him if he knows Cesibel and he said he does, and we found that she is his great grandaughter. Small world! Cesibel was the first person I baptized here, and I met her great grandfather in another city!

   I´ve pretty much come to write mostly about the people we teach and the food we eat for P-days haha.

   As for food, so that I don´t break the tradition, we bought a roasted chicken and ate bbq chicken sandwiches which was delicious. I continue eating the great cereal here everyday as well, chocopic by Nestle. (product sponsor unintended)

Hope you all have a great week!

Love

Elder Justyn Pollock

This week we had the baptism of Monica! She is the investigator I had told about who used to go to church in another city but was never baptized. She was very content to be baptized and bore an awesome testimony after she was baptised. She always tells us that she has already felt a change in her life and that everyone in her home is happier in general. Those are the blessings of the gospel! While we had ward council meeting after church in the afternoon on Sunday, my companion and I noticed her coming to church for the Eternal Marriage class. It was very ironic, as I remembered she has the manual of that same class from 10 years ago when she used to go to church in Duran!

   This week we decided to do something a little different in the teaching and use the videos of the church alot. I´ve carried around a CD full of mormon messages, the restoration, and finding faith in Jesus Christ to show to our investigators. 

   As for invesigators we are teaching, we are still teaching Ginger, Juliana the recent converts sister. Also, we are teaching Diego and Paul, a couple of teenage freinds of members of the wards who try to look out for them and help them stay on a good path. This week we found another investigator, Jose, who is a 25 year old guy that we started to talk to walking to an appointment. To our surprise he started to talk in pretty good english! He told us he studied for a year in Harvard! We scheduled an appointment and taught him the restoration, and realized he studied in Hartford, not Harvard haha. While trying to find the address of Jose, we met another Jose, another young guy and married. We talked to him and have plans to teach him with his wife, grandma and cousins.

  That´s about all that happened of notice his week! I am happy to be a missionary! Hope you all have a great week.

Elder Justyn Pollock

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

    They don´t really celebrate halloween here, but we have gotten some way good food this week anyway so I´ll call it good haha. Speaking of food, we just got done eating one of our favorite easy lunches or night time snacks, hotdogs with mayonese (forgive me if I spelled that wrong, forgetting english), crushed up doritos and barbeque sauce. Not exactly healthy, but it´s tasty and fast!

   This week we had the baptism of Scarleth! She is the daughter of Monica, another investigator we are teaching. They attended church and listened to the missionaries in a city about 2 hours way more than 10 years ago. We found them asking directions for the hosue of Juliana when she came to church (who was baptized 2 weeks ago). They didn´t know where Juliana lived, but we invited them to church and they accepted. The next day we went by and taught a lesson, invited them to be baptized and they accepted. Scarleth came down pretty sick a few days before the baptism, but she got better in time for it and it was a great experience! My companion and I got a small cake and we went to the house of Monica with the bishop and a few members. They served us some Colada Morada which is a mix of a bunch of different fruits boiled together into a juice. Way good! 

    Their family loves the church and I´m happy to teach people like them. Monica and Scarlet come to church with the grandkids of Monica who she takes care of, Justin (7)and Melissa(4). Monica told us that Justin was walking the house the other day with a book of mormon pretending to be a missionary which was pretty funny.

   On sunday the mamita gave us homemade cream of mushroom and asparagus soup. It was the best soup I´ve had in Ecuador so far, as I love cream of mushroom soup!

That´s about all the news I have for this week. I love being a missionary and am grateful to preach the gospel. I hope all have an awesome week!

Elder Justyn Pollock

Baptism of Scarlet

 

The hot dogs we have made like 3-4 times already in the last couple weeks.

This week we had exchanges! My companion Elder Foerster went to another part of Ecuador called Loja, and I have another son! (A son in the mission is when you are the first companion of a brand new missionary and you train him) My new companion is Elder Brown from Utah. He´s a way awesome guy and picking up pretty fast on the spanish. It has been really cloudy and breezy this week actually, so he hasn´t quite got a taste of Ecuador heat yet! He likes all the food, even the rice, which is not bad but I don´t enjoy it that much haha. He ate one of the delicacies of Ecuador on his first day here! Ceviche de Camaron (A shrimp dish with an onion and tomato soup/Sauce. WAY good) He was also surprised today that the chips he were eating were fried bananas which was also hilarious. It has been fun learning and teaching with him. We have been finding alot of new investigators and getting a ton of teaching in!

   This week we also had the baptism of Juanita and Karolayne. The baptismal services turned out really nice! Alot of members came and supported, and the investigators being baptized were very happy. I was happy to see them take this decision and to be part of their experience of accepting the gospel. I am always very grateful for these experiences and pray that they continue.

   Other investigators we are teaching are Monica and Scarleth, Ginger,  and Jazmany who are all preparing to be baptized soon within the next few weeks. Diego, and Maritza are also preparing for baptism next month! 

   I´m loving the time I have here and working hard to make the most of it! I know this is the work of the Lord and that this gospel blesses lives!

Have a great week!

Elder Pollock

Baptism of Juanita, with a friend who is member who she has known since she was little

Baptism of Karolayne

 

Baptism of Karolayne with the bishop of Bananeros

Hey Everyone!

This week has been great! We had the baptism of one of the investigators we have been teaching, Juliana. She is 13 and has been coming with her cousin. She wasn´t sure about being baptized this week, but decided to and is very happy about her decision! She was baptized with her freind who has also been investigating the church who the other missionaries who live with us have been teaching. Her older sister also came to church for the first time this week and has a baptismal date for the 15th of November! Her family all supported her well! Her whole family came to the baptism; Her Mom, cousins, sister etc. (Like four 4-5 year old cousins! It was a little crazy after the baptism with them running around!)


We also have the baptism coming up of Juanita, the grandma of a family of less active member. She has been coming to church regularly. Out of all the people I have taught in my mission, she has probably been one of the most prepared. She accepts every commitment like church attendence, tithing, baptism, the word of wisdom, so quickly and willingly that it is actually hard to believe! It will be a great baptism! Karolayne may also be baptized this Saturday as well!

Other than that, not much more to tell this week! There might be changes this week but we don´t know yet.

Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Justyn Pollock

Baptism of Juliana with her freind Dorothy

Baptism of Juliana

This week has been great! We have met some new investigators who came to church and have a desire to be baptized. They are Omar and Jazmani, 17 and 15. They made friends in the church and loved it. Last night their family invited us to eat fried fish with rice and beans which was way good and we showed some mormon messages to all the family. We met Omar and Jazmani when they were walking their TINY dog around and we started talking to them. We are also teaching Monica and Scarlet who came to church again and loved it. We went and visited them in a group lesson with 4 members of the church. We went to the sector of Elder Hammond and Elder Johnson as well to meet their investigators and teach them. It was a great lesson and we felt the spirit strongly there.

   I´m happy to be here as a missionary! Not much more to tell this week! I love preaching the gospel and helping others come closer to Christ!

Elder Justyn Pollock

Conference

This week for conference we strived to bring as many investigators to conference as we could. Hearing from the apostles and the Prophet is an opportunity for those investigating the church to answer a question I have heard many times: ¨What is the difference between this church and the rest?¨ We believe in modern day revelation and this week the investigators got to see what that really means. One of our investigators, Karolayne, went to 3 of the sessions of conference! I also got to see Harold (Robofoco who was baptized in my last ward) in 3 of the sessions

    To help us out, the bishop rented a 28 person capacity school bus for Sunday morning. It helped us out ALOT and to the bishop´s and our happiness it filled up with investigators, recent converts and less actives. It was a fun and a different sunday experience than the usual bringing investigators by foot or public transportation. 

   Some of my favorite talks were Henry B. Eyring (if I remember right it was him) about Joseph Smith, Elder Carlos Gadoy and another seventy who both talked about decisions, and of course Elder Holland´s.

   We have a few baptisms scehduled within the next month inlcuding Karolayne who is a members girlfriend, Juliana who is the cousin of an investigator that invited her to church as well. 

   Also, a single mom named Monica who has known the church for a long time, but apparently didn´t know there was the same one around here as she attended church in another city. We found her asking for directions, taught the restoration, and to our surprise she brought out an institute book she already had on eternal marriage! She didn´t get baptized in the other city where she used to go to church becuase she was living with her husband but not married, but now she is a single Mom and can! We thought she was not going to go to conference when we passed by in the morning and she said she wasn´t going to be able to go, so we didn´t pass by her house in the rented bus. To our surprise 2 minutes after we had gotten to conference in the bus, she walked in the door with her kids! It was an awesome blessing to see them there and they loved the conference.  

   I´m loving it here and happy to be a missionary. I hope you all the best!

Elder Justyn Pollock

 This week we had companion exchanges. I haven´t been so good about putting where i´m at and with who and all that in my emails, but last week I was with Elder Saavedra in La Toma, a ward of the stake Puerto Nuevo. I´m now in Bananeros ward in the stake of Puerto Nuevo still in Guayaquil. My new companion is Elder Foerster! I´m finishing his in-field training of the first 12 weeks (I´m not zone leader anymore, Trainer), as Elder Zamorano, who was his trainer, just finished his mission and went back to Argentina. It´s awesome as we spent alot of time in this sector helping Elder Zamorano and Elder Foerster, who had grown to be good freinds, and now I´m Elder Foerster´s companion teaching investigators and converts who I´ve already met! It´s been alot different only having to focus on this sector and just the investigators and members here instead of a zone.

   Karla, Sulay and Rosa were baptized this week in our sector. I had met them about 3 weeks ago and am happy to be able to be in their baptisms and be part of that! Karla was baptized on Saturday and we made some ham sandwiches she asked for for the baptism, as she didn´t want cake. She is the neice of a the counsler of the ward, who baptized her. Sulay and Rosa are Mother and Daughter, and were baptized and confirmed Sunday night because they weren´t going to be able on Saturday. In that baptism we did have cake, and at the same time we celebrated Elder Foerster´s birthday! Their family, around 10 in the family, is very receptive to the gospel. Rosa and Sulay are the first to be baptized in that family, but all of them have gone to church except the Dad who is busy alot of the time. Another of the sons, Alexander, can be baptized soon depending on his decision!

   I also got to see the baptism or Wonderley, one of our investigators in La Toma, and a freind of Pedro, though it was not a baptism of my sector now. It was awesome to see him be baptized! He was very happy to do so and I was happy to be there.

   Some investigators we have are Carolayne and Juliana, who came to church with member freinds and are preparing for baptism. We are hoping that conference will help them to be more excited to be baptized very soon!

    This week to motivate ourselves to do more exercises we´ve been doing pushup competitions to decide who does what in the morning (1st place cooks, 2nd place irons shirts, 3rd place washes dishes, 4th place showers first in the colder water). Steal and apply the idea if you´d like haha. We have 3 rubix cubes in the house and we´ve all learned how to do it now. 

   I´m loving the mission and having a great time here in Ecuador! It´s an extremely special experience to be an instrument of the Lord in helping others accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. }

Elder Justyn Pollock

Union de Bananeros ward as a trainer with Elder Foerster

29 September 2014

 This week was awesome! We had the baptism of Pedro on Saturday which was an awesome experience. Photos coming soon, as we don´t have a way to connect the memory card today in the cyber. He was baptized by one of the members of the ward who always comes and does visits with us. A ton of members came and supported him in his baptism, around 30 or 40. His grandparents, who are members, came as well to support him. He bore his testimony afterwards as well! He was very happy to be baptized. He then came in his suit again on Sunday for the confirmation. The parents made us tacos as well which was an added bonus to pedro being baptized haha (tacos is a very uncommon but deliciously made dish here)
   Harold (Robofoco) came to the baptism as well and also went and did visits with us. Sweet! He blessed the sacrament on Sunday (with only one attempt, as he spent all week memorizing it haha. He seemed a little nervous which is normal).
   The member who brought his freinds to church last Sunday brought them again this Sunday! We have been teaching some of their families, one of who is a girl, her sister and her mom in the house who all came to church this Sunday! They have been passing for some family difficulties, but loved the church and are happy to accept the invitiations we make them.
   I am very happy to be here as a missionary of the Lord. I know this is his Church and his work.
Hasta la proxima,
Elder Pollock

This week we have been teaching Pedro (who´s 13) on a regular basis. This week we mostly taught him the plan of salvation and the commandments with his freinds who are also investigadors. He came in a suit this week again which is something I think I left out in the other email. Last week on fast sunday he came in his suit, bore his testimony as an investigator, and did home teaching with the deacons after church! The next day he went to a family night with Aaron to a membrs house. He loves the church! His dad is an inactive member who we are trying to teach as well. Pedro has a baptismal date for this Saturday which is exciting! His freind Aaron has come to church regularly as well and has a baptismal date for October.

    We also found 2 new investigators this week, Eunice and Anaí, who are twins! Their parents are both inactive since they were young. The Dad sells encebollado on Sundays (which is like an onion fish soup type like dish (WAY good)). That will be his challenge for getting back to church.We had a lesson with the twins and their parents this week and are working with them to get the back to church. The twins have baptismal dates for October. Apart from them, a member of the church preparing to go on a mission brought 3 investigators to church this Sunday! They are Brigit, Melisa and Jonathan. We have appointments with them today and hope to be able to teach those families.

   I guess I wasn´t able to tell completely how my birthday went last week cause I was still mid-birthday! haha. After we went teaching investigators, 3 future missionaries here that always come with us to teach investigators had made a cake. They gave some words which was hilarious, we sang happy birthday in english and spanish (which is actually the tradition here even for the birthdays of those tha tlive here) then we ate cake, after they pushed my face into it while I was trying to eat it haha (another tradition in south america) Atleast they let me take my glasses off. When we got home we bought pepperoni pizza and soda which was a good finish to everything.

   I got a birthday package from home as well which was awesome!! Yeaa beef jerky! Along with many other awesome things my family included in the package (tie, white shirt, etc.!) Thank you everyone!!

   I´m very grateful to be here in the mission as a missionary and to have the chance to spread the gospel. I´m loving it here and I know this is the work of the Lord!

Love,

Elder Justyn Pollock

21!!

Hey!

   Thanks for all of the birthday wishes everyone!!! I loved the slideshow with all of your pictures! It means alot! I´m having a happy birthday! I went over to spend pday with some other missionaries. We ate some interesting food for lunch that the mamita made haha i guess she didn´t know my favorite food. I can say this is the first birthday I´ve had eating Chicken liver and cooked plantians! (I actually love plantains though, thanks Ecuador!) Hahaha I laughed and thought it was funny though. I have a good dinner coming up soon though with some members, who say they have a surprise as well (I imagine cake). Yesterday some members cooked me hamburgers for dinner as well! Sweet! We played some chess and I bought some cookies too. I have some ice cream in the freezer waiting tonight as well and I might buy a slice of pizza on the way home haha.

   This Saturday we had the baptism of Harold!!! He finally decided to get baptized this Saturday and asked me to baptize him. That was an awesome birthday present (though he didn´t know my birthday was coming up) to be able to witness him being baptized. He is an awesome convert who loves the church, and the bishop is already talking about plans for a callling in the young men and melchezedik priesthood in December! Harold is 19 and we met him when I first got here. He studies in the university and learns SUPER fast. He had lots of doubts, the first of all if he feels the spirit, not feeling prepared yet, etc. We kept reading the book of mormon and having spiritual lessons with him and at last he felt strongly that he felt the spirit and decided to be baptized. It was an awesome baptism. Lots of members showed up and are very excited for the new member in the ward. 

  I´m super happy to be a missionary. I love what I do and I love helping people take decisions to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is the church of Jesus ChristThanks to everyone! Sorry if I don´t respond all the emails! Love you all!!

Elder Pollock

This week Pedro came to church again! Hey!! Exciting as it is another important step towards his baptism the 20th. We have been awhile without baptisms here and learned to be thankful for the small steps in the process of the investigator´s conversion. He loves the church and stayed for all 3 hours with his freinds again. He is 13 year old who´s grandparents are active members and Dad is less active. This week he had all sorts of "deep-doctrine" questions he wanted to know like "what type of fruit was the forbidden fruit?" and "Who is God's Dad?" "Jesus' Grandpa" I told him jokingly.

   We are still teaching Harol, though infrequently. I feel he is close to baptism and may any of these days make a decision. He attended church again this week all 3 hours.

   Today we had a leadership council with the President. We watched an inspired talk in an MTC address by Dieter Uchtdorf about preaching the gospel with courage. He talked about the transformation of the Apostle Peter in his testimony which I had read about alot recently. Before the ressurection of the Savior, Peter denied the Savior 3 times for fear of being recognized as one of his followers. After seeing the ressurected Christ, he becomes a courageous disciple who before threats of death and imprisonment etc. boldly testifies of the ressurected Savior. President Uchtdorf then turned that example to how we should boldly proclaim the gospel with as many people possible. 

   I´m super happy to be here as a missionary to preach the gospel. Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Pollock