28 Abril 2014

Hey Everyone!

    This week was very interesting! We were lucky enough to have a visit from a General Authority, Our Area President, Elder Ulceda and his wife(Over a Big Chunk of South America). On Wednesday we had an all day mutli zone training meeting in Machala with the missionaries, and another meeting right after with all ward council members invited (including us). Yesterday we had a leadership meeting wth him with all of the zone leaders and sister leaders in the mission. I paid very close attention and took good notes, as he recieves direct and specific revelation for our area, especially concerning how we should work as missionaries. 

  One thing he said that really stood out to me is that ¨The obedience is a principle of the perfection.¨ As we become obedient with more exactness, we our gradually improving ourselves towards perfection.

   Another thing he talked about are some simple important that people should always do. I liked this part because I`ve always thought that the improvement in the simple things brings the most progress, as the simple things are many times the most important. Elder Ulceda talked about 3 ways to help someone develop faith In Christ: Conversing with God (prayer), Reading the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon), and Church Attendance.

   Similar to how we use sunblock in this Ecuador sun, we can apply these 3 actions liberally. If we can see that our investigators are reading the Book of Mormon, Praying, and attending church, we know they are developing faith in Christ, which is the first part of our purpose as missionaries as stated in Preach My Gospel. We as members can apply this as we must all do those 3 things, and improve the manner that we do them constantly. 

   As for investigators, we are teaching an awesome family of 5! 2 in the family are recent converts, the Mom and Sister, and the other 2 have baptismal dates, the Dad and brother (the youngest sister is not of baptismal age). We are also teaching a 17 year old guy who is a nephew of some active members. There are many more but I am most excited for them.

   I´m loving being a missionary! Hope you are all doing great! Love you all!

Elder Pollock

 

 

 

Blast to the Past!

 This week I had a few back to the future moments.

    Number 1: I had transfers this last week and I`m back in the city of Santa Rosa! When I first started my mission I was in a city nearby, Piñas, which pertains to the Santa Rosa Zone. I`m remembering some of the past moments I had almost a year ago going to Santa Rosa for zone meetings, incluiding my favorite bread bakery! I buy bread there every time I go past it now. 

    Number 2: Stake conference! The last time I was in Piñas we had a stake conference, and this Sunday was a stake conference again! I got to see alot of the members a year later and see how they are doing. Inlcuding I got to see the sister, Janet, of one of my converts, Cesibel! Cesibel wasn`t able to make it as it is almost 2 hours away and she needed to help her mom, but it was awesome to see some old faces there in the stake conference! The stake conference was actually a Sattelite broadcast for all of Ecuador. The speakers by sattelite were Elder Holland, Elder Scott, and the General President of Primary. The mission President, President Torres, was present in our stake for it. I got to play piano for the Santa Rosa Stake as well as there wasn´t someone that knew how. They spoke about how to strengthen the families and our testimonies of the gospel. Elder Holland began to speak in Spanish, but stopped saying more or less ¨Ahora, no voy a seguir hablando en mi horrible español.¨ That was extremely funny. Elder Scott knows Spanish well. 

    Number 3: I`m back with Elder Saenz! He`s from Nicaragua and now has 21 months in the mission. I was with him 6 months ago in Huan Cavilca and Los Rios. We are the zone leaders now here in Santa Rosa North zone. I`m super excited to be back with him as he is a very good friend of mine. 

   We have some awesome investigators that we are teaching and I`m loving the mission. The sun is coming down on us still but I`m loving it here! I know this is the Church of Jesus Christ himself. Keep the commandments and do a good turn daily, the recompense will come in this life or the next! 

Love you all!

Elder Pollock

Just follow the map to a baptism!

Hey all!

   I`ll explain the title at the end, hold your horses. 

    Well I`ve had some super busy weeks and haven`t gotten to write much at all, but this week I have a little more calm PDay, so I´ll send some photos. We had changes last week. I stayed here in our current zone, and am now companions with Elder Lemich (who was my zone leader in my last zone!) He`s an awesome guy from Utah. We were apparently living one building away at BYU but we never meet eachother. 

    This week we had the opportunity to listen to General Conference. Always an awesome part of the mission, as we are always preaching about Prophets and the restored church, and listening to the modern day prophet is like seeing what I`m teaching everyone over again. We brought many investigators to the conference and I just felt the urge during the conference to tell them ¨This is what I was telling you about! He`s a prophet and they are apostles!!!¨

    As much as I loved conference, I never get tired of the feelingof having a baptism, and that was the most exciting thing that happened this week. This week we had the baptism of Monica. She`s the Mom of Koraima, Kleiner and Raul, three of my converts. She finally decided to be baptized! She came to conference Sunday Morning, and here baptism was planned for that night. After the conference we lost sight of her and she must have left before we could find her. We were a bit worried, as she has a small memory problem, and we wanted to remind her after the conference of the baptism at night. 

   We went to lunch at the mamita, and got the rest of the investigators and went to the afternoon conference session. Directly after we went to Monicas house, about 2 hours before the baptism, and we were sad to find that she hadn`t come home yet! We tried calling her and found her phone was there in the house. We decided she might come home before the baptism and so we went to the fill the font. 

  When we came back an hour later she was still not there. At that point we realized she must have forgotten or backed out of it. We tried thinking of everything we could just to get ahold of her. We saw if she was at a cousins house nearby. Koraima the daughter was in her house and told us Monica might be at a freinds house a little far away helping her move out. We asked for Monica´s phone she had left, and found the number of her friend. That was our last hope, and the phone was dead. At that point it was already 7:20PM and the baptism was scheduled for 7:00PM. We decided all we could do was pray in our hearts and wait there hoping God would get her to show up.

   It was already 7:30PM when Koraima told us that she knows how to get to her friends house if she might be there. We really wanted to get in contact with Monica, but obviously we weren`t going to take an 11 year old girl with us in a taxi. So, on the last sliver of hope that she might be on her friends house, we tried to get directions from an 11 year old girl to another part of the city.

-_-

   She explained and explained, but I was not picking up on the directions at all. The best we would be able to do was get to the bus stop, and she knew atleast what bus stop it was. She went and got a notebook and decided to draw a map. As she drew the map and tried to explain it I literally laughed saying to myself ¨There is no way!¨

   She finished the map and explained it me best she could, which was basically after the bus stop you gotta go to the tree, look straight, walk toward the benches, go to the right and straight until you get to a wall, go through a fence that`s either green or black to the right, go to the left, tell a dog ¨tico¨ or he`ll keep barking, go to a green house and ring 5 times or they won`t come out. 

    I looked at my companion and told him ¨This is crazy. What do you think, do we go? We might as well at this point, let`s go!¨ So we got a taxi and went to the bus station on the other side of the city . With map in hand feeling like little kids on a treasure hunt and saying a couple punny jokes we tried to go find this house. We took a giant pause at the first step, go to a big tree, as there were like 50 trees. We laughed and kept going. I can`t really explain how we got to the house. But as we came around one corner we saw a truck full of furniture. Without knowing how to explain I simply asked some guy in the truck ¨Hola, está Monica?¨He said, yep she`s inside.

    She was a little confused about how we got there and we asked if she remembered what was supposed to happen right now. She said ¨What time is it?!¨ It was already 8:00 and she explained she had just completely forgotten! We told her there was still time and so we got in a taxi, went to the church to a patient bishop waiting for us and she got baptized.

   Know that there is always a way. As the classic scripture in 1 Nephi 3:7, the Lord will always provide a way for us to do his will. This is the work of the Lord and his Church.

Love you all!

Elder Pollock

PS I`ll send a picture of the map next Pday

                                    Monica

       Abraham, who got baptized the other week!

 

 From the tall guy in the red shirt in back, in front of him is Monica who got baptized yesterday, to the views left of Monica is the head peeking out of her daughter Koraima, who drew the map.

   The kid making the heart on the left is a son of Monica

Hey!

   Well I`m already out of time in 2 minutes but just a short update. I`m doing great! Still in the same place and everything! I`ve been loving the mission and learning a ton! This week we didn`t have any baptisms but we do have plenty of investigators to teach!  An inspiring story we taught in a lesson this week was about Job (Read Job 1 in the Bible) 

Love you all!

Elder Pollock

Hola Buenas Tardes all!

    This week we had a great week. We had 3 more baptisms this week. One of whom is Abraham, who has been investigating the church for 5 years! 5 years ago one elder got him and his wife married in preparation for baptism, but the elder left and they didn`t get baptized. We have been teaching that family and the husband finally decided to get baptized! He has one 8 year old daughter. We are now hoping that his wife will soon get baptized. It was an awesome moment in the mission.  We also had the baptisms of the grandson of a member and the brother of 2 of the investigators we baptized last week. 

   We had a council of leaders today, which means i`m a little short on time to write haha. We learned alot from President Torres about how we need to be the examples for the other missionaries, and many other things on how we can help the zones we serve in. Some authorities from Peru came and talked about family history work, which is something we will be incoporating more in the mission now. 

   I`m grateful to be in this mission and be able to help others come unto Christ. I invite all to do temple work for their own ancestors, and share the spirit of Elías with others. It is a great way to share the gospel. I know this is the work of the Lord. I love being on my mission and enjoy a great happiness here spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Pollock

Hard work pays off!

Hola!

    This week I passed the 1 year mark in the mission! As I reflect back on this last year I`ve learned alot and grown alot more than I imagined I would have. Being here in the mission and dedicating my life to the Lord has helped me put my life in a different perspective. I`ve grown much closer to The Savior and to our Heavenly Father. Plus I learned spanish! It is an experience in which you learn to put behind your own needs to help the needs of others, and there is an incredible amount of people in need. 

   This week in particular we`ve been working very hard and putting everything we have. I came home tired in every sense: physically, spiritually, etc. But it has all been worth it, and all our hard work paid off! This saturday we baptized 13 of our investigators! We couldn`t get a photo all in white in, but I sent some pictures and everyone in the pictures got baptized on Saturday except for the older ladies, one of the teenagers who is member, and the littlest kids. I`m grateful to the Lord that I was able to be the means to bring that blessing to all of them. 

    After 1 year here asking my self if it has been worth it, there is no way I could deny that this experience was worth it. I`m grateful I have this opportunity. I know this is the work of the Lord and we are all instruments in his hands. I know this is the church of Jesus  Christ. All who come closer to the Lord recieve peace and comfort. 

   I glad I have a year more to continue serving the Lord! I encourage all to do what you can to advance the work of the Lord and serve him. 

I love you all!

Elder Pollock

 

Transfers!

Buenos Tardes familia y everybody!

   This week we had transfers, as a group of missionaries reached their 2 years and left for home.In the mission when you start someone´s in-field training, he is called your ¨son¨. So I had to say goodbye to my ¨son¨ Elder Chandler. I was transfered really nearby in the same city of Guayaquil to El Guasmo. I am now a zone leader with Elder Castro helping 12 other missionaries in encouraging them and setting the example as best as I can. I am really trying to push myself to magnify this assignment I´ve been given. I can say I´ve worked harder in this week than I have in probably my entire mission. I´m learning alot from Elder Castro from Peru, who 6 months ago was my zone leader, and has alot of experience. 

   We had 2 baptisms this week of Lady and Sandy (yes. like in spongebob). They are two girls that live next to a bunch of members. The baptism went smoothly and it was a good experience. We brought many investigators to their baptism to see how it was and that helps encourage them to be baptized alot! I have gotten home, I´ll admit, super tired every day! I was very grateful to have a baptism though, which makes it all worth it for me and is the fruit of our labor.

    I know this is the church of Jesus Christ and this is his work. The savior went through everything we´ve been through and will help us in times of need. As we are more obedient, we can come to know God more, as we see the blessings we recieve in exchange. As said in a great disney movie, Keep on swimming everyone!

Love,

Elder Pollock

 

There aren`t any ferris wheels in this Carnaval

Hey!

    We are currently in some national holiday they have here in Ecuador they call Carnaval. It`s three days of playing with water, and basically anything else you can throw. It started this Sunday in the morning, so as we went out to bring investigators to church it felt like a military operation, dodging around corners, blow up pools and changing direction wherever we saw someone with a painted face. I didn`t want one of my white shirts and my slacks to get stained! Luckily the people here don`t wake up on days like this until like 10:00 so we didn`t have too much trouble in the morning actually. It was super sketch on the way back home from church though; at church we planned out the streets we would use to avoid pools and little kids with paint. We got home without getting wet, and stayed inside all day, as our president told us to do until Wednesday. We left just to go to the internet cafe today (in our proselyting clothes). So far we haven`t gotten wet or painted at all, but right outside this cyber (the only one open around) are like 3 blow up pools and a bunch of kids, so we`re gonna sprint back home.

   We started our carnaval on Saturday with a little pool in the church, as we had a baptism! Angelino decided to follow his older brother`s (our recent convert`s) footsteps. He got baptized and was super happy to do so. The next day he brought 2 deacon aged freinds to church as well for the confirmation! We`ll see if we can get the families of his 2 freinds to church this week. He`s a cool, good kid, and I`m glad he can be part of the church with his brother, which will help him stay away from the many temptations there are at his age. 

   I love being here as a missionary. This is the Church of Jesus Christ. I feel the hand of the Lord in this work. As we put our trust in him he guides us, protects us, and provides for us when we need help. Wish me luck. Time to go get soaked!

Elder Pollock

 

PS one of our investigators, an old lady, did pour a cup of water on us actually haha that was pretty funny.

Other PS Shout out to my brother who is going on a mission to Chile in June!!! He`s gonna be an awesome missionary!

                                                      Baptism of Angelino

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!!

Rain

It has been raining like crazy here in Ecuador! 10 months of a hot sun of everday made me get caught off gaurd when it finally rained here. We walk around with umbrellas all day now in case of rain. I keep all my scriptures in a plastic bag in my backpack!

   We had a good week this week. We´ve been teaching some awesome people lately. One´s name is William. We´ve been teaching him for like 3 weeks and he has come to church a few times. Baptism soon! We´ve also been teaching Sandra, who is the wife of a member. She´ll be baptised soon as well. She´s pregnant so double baptism woohoo! haha ok fine it only counts as one. This sunday Marco´s younger sister came to church which was awesome! We´re gonna teach her now and see if she decides to be baptized as well. 

   I love being here as a missionary! I know this is the Lord´s work and that it is progressing very rapidl! I know this gospel will bring many blessings and much happiness to all those who listen to it and apply it to their lives. Any who have not had that opportunity should search for it! 

Elder Pollock

Hola from Ecuador,

    This week was a pretty good week for us. Elder Chandler and I have been looking for more people to teach and we`ve found some that are really awesome. We are teaching Sandra right now, who is the wife of a member that is investigating the church. We had a way awesome spiritual lesson on Saturday where we could feel the spirit very strongly and she accepted to be baptized, which will be coming soon! I`m loving it here in my sector! We are teaching our recent converts to the church and answering any questions they have. Through them we are always able to find more investigators to teach as well which is awesome. Another guy we are teaching is William. He`s way funny and loves the message of the gospel. I love being a missionary of the Lord and I know this is the church of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone is doing awesome over there in Washington!

-Elder Pollock

PS. GO SEAHAWKS!!

I am in Guayaquil in Guasmo Sur, Barrio Calderon

 We had an awesome week this week! This week we had the baptism of Dora and Faboricio. We are super happy that they took this decision to be baptized. The day of the baptism was a very awesome experience for us. We got their in the morning to make sure everything is all good for the baptism, and Dora answered the door. She explained to us that Faboricio had a fight with his siblings the night before, and before closing himself in his room, he said that he didn`t want to be baptized anymore. He wouldn`t leave his room for anything! We called him and did all we could. We decided to call our zone leaders and ask for advice.

   We went and met them at the chapel so they could come help us. On the way back to Dora and Faboricio`s house, this 13 year old kid that I had seen at the church before was outside and started following us. He asked us where we were going and I told him Dora`s house, and he said ¨vamos!¨ He followed us over there while we thought of what we were gonna do. We got there and tried to get faboricio to come out some more, calling him and what not for a while, but nothing was working.
    We were just about to leave when as a last resort we decided to send in the kid that followed us. As a last resort we decided to send in the kid who followed us, who responded ¨he has to come out for me, I`m his friend¨ We waited a little bit pondering how that kid just happening to be in the path there and following us was so obviously heaven sent. In a couple minutes Faboricio came out and explained that he felt he shouldn`t be baptized because he had yelled at his siblings and felt bad and felt his character will never change. We tried to calm his doubts but he felt the same and didn`t want to do it anymore. He went back inside and we were about to leave when the kid told us to wait. The other missionaries had to leave, but we waited there for another 20 minutes or so until the kid came out and said ¨job done¨.
    I don`t really know what he said or how he did it, but that night after the baptism I just had to thank the Lord so much for sending that kid to help Faboricio that day.  I am way happy that he can recieve all of the blessings that come from being baptized and being a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. I recieved a strong testimony this week that this is the work of the Lord, and we are just instruments in his hands. He knows what needs to be done, we just need to put our confidence in him. I love being a missionary and know the gospel brings many blessings to those that live it.

- Elder Pollock                       
 Elder Chandler
                                                                                             Faboricio and Dora

 

 

Happy New Year! I`ve had an awesome new year! I got a taste of the craziness that is Ecuador on New Years Eve. Our New Years Eve celebrations in the United States are like reading a phone book in comparison to what they do here. Here basically every single household has one of those paper mache mannequins. The fireworks started at around 9 or 10 I believe, and it was basically fireworks all across the sky until 1:00 in the morning (no way I could sleep with that haha). It was way awesome though. At like 11:50 they bring out the "Monigotes" which are those paper mannequins that are supposed to represent the old year, and if they didn`t like the old year they beat up their monigote before putting it in a pile of them. (I was pretty confused about why they were beating up their paper dolls at the moment though) Then they poured gasoline over them and at 12:00 burned them, then started throwing their fireworks into the monigotes!! From my window looking down the street, their were fires ALL down the streets, and the sky was full of fireworks! They would throw the fireworks in the fire and try run away which was super funny to watch. Outside of my window they had paper dolls of the flinstones in their car. This little kid tackled and beat up a 5 foot doll of the flinstones dog which was hilarious. The 28th Marco got baptized (one of those teenagers we`ve been teaching). Now we`re working on helping him get the priesthood. This week we had another baptism, of Jordy. He`s 16 and was super excited to get baptized. His baptism was actually scheduled for the 11th, but we shared a scripture in the bible about one guy who gets taught and baptized within less then a day in The Acts, and he asked if he could get baptized sooner! So the next day the zone leaders came to interview him and he was baptized! He`ll be the third priest in the ward right now! All the priests in the ward are recent converts within the last month. Pictures soon to follow! We`re now trying to help his older brother to accept to be baptized soon. This week if everything goes well, we will have the baptism of Dora and Favoricio. Two other teenagers we`ve been teaching. they`re 14 and 12 respectively. We were planning on the baptism of only Favoricio, but God answered our prayers yesterday! The other week Dora expressed to us she didn`t feel she should get baptized anymore. We did what we could to resolve her doubt but at the end we had to leave it to God and told her to ask him if she should get baptized. We prayed hard that she would do se and recieve an answer. She did so, and yesterday recieved the answer! She dreamed of being baptized and felt good about it and she felt very strongly it was her response from God. We`ve been teaching them for a little while and they`re awesome. Their parents support them alot. This week we also had transfers like I said last week. My new companion came from the MTC in Mexico. (Brand new to the mission!) He`s from Idaho and his name is Elder Chandler. He`s doing way awesome here and loves it. We get along way well. He performed the baptism of Jordy this saturday which I hope was an awesome impression of the mission. I`m doing my best here to be the best missionary I can be and help others as much as I can. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ and I loving being a missionary for him. - Elder Pollock

  Merry Christmas!

    Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! We had a great one! I got my package from my family, and I was super happy about that. Beef Jerky!!! All of my latin companions always me to ask my family for the "carne seco", and I think my companion was more excited then anyone when he saw that haha.We also had the baptism of Marco this saturday. He was super excited for his baptism, but pretty nervous for the confirmation in front of everybody! He`s super awesome and it was great to be able to teach him. 

    Right now I`m with other missionaries waiting for the new missionaries to arrive fresh out of the MTC. I`m going to train a new missionary here in this ward. Hopefully I can give him a good first impression of the mission and help him learn well. I love it here in the mission and in this ward! I`m doing well! I`ll send pictures and write you guys the next week!

Gracias,

Elder Pollock

Merry Christmas!

    This week I had transfers again!! It´s how mission life is alot of times and i´m pretty used to it. I was excited to see the baptism of Mariuksi and her daughter whose baptisms were for this Saturday, but the Lord knows where we should go and why so I don´t have any problems with it!

    My new ward is very small. We´ve met some young people who are awesome and want to get baptized. In that picture I sent with me, my companion and a bunch of teenagers, only 1 of them is a member already and almost all of the rest want to get baptized. We´ve got lots of work to do! We´re preparing them for that now here in this ward. I´m very excited because it´s awesome working with the teenagers. Here they can get caught up in a lot of bad stuff, but these have decided to follow the example of Jesus and avoid all of the things the world offers. As they come to church an take part of these ordinances they will have much more happiness in their lives and examples for others around them. Many of them want to go on missions as well! They are mostly the investigators we have for the moment.

   My new companion is awesome! He´s from Peru, has 6 months in the mission and is an awesome missionary. This weekend there was a ward christmas party, I played piano for that and a few of the photos I sent are from that. We were able to find some new investigators there as well. One we met there is the wife of a young guy who just got married recently. Someone told us she wasn´t a member and we basically ran to meet them. We taught her and she accepted to be baptized soon. She came to church on Sunday as well and loves the church!

   I love being here on a mission! I´m super grateful to have this opportunity. I know Christ is our Savior and it´s an awesome time to remember him. Hope everyone has a feliz Navidad!

Elder Pollock

   

  

 

Hola!

    We´ve been having a white Christmas in Ecuador! Not snow, that´s basically  impossible here, it´s like 80-90 degrees everyday. This week we had the baptism of an investigator we´ve been teaching, Roy. He´s a teenager that has loved the church and has been fellowshipped into a group of friends very quickly here. We´re super happy about that, because we know they´ll help him keep coming to church after his baptism alot! He´ll avoid alot of stuff the world might offer with this new group of friends and with becoming a member of the church. He absorbs the lessons like a sponge which is awesome! He has learned alot very quickly in the time we´ve taught him.

    The baptism was awesome! Roy´s Mom, brother, and niece came to support him. It all went well and the spirit was strong. At the end we gave him a new member package with new scriptures, a hymn book, etc. He was super happy to get that. We´re hoping the mom can get baptized as well, and that when the brother turns 8 he will follow the example of his brother!

   I´ve recieved a testimony lately that the when we put our part the Lord helps us in ways we don´t expect. This week we noticed a family in church that has been coming to church regularly, but we found out that the parents aren´t baptized. There was some complication with that the Dad needs to be divorced from a prior engagement in order to marry his current wife. If they´re living together and not married they can´t be baptized! 

    When we talked to them, they expressed to us a grand desire to be baptized. They´ve been coming to church for 5 years! For the dad to get divorced to his prior engagement from 15 years ago, the lawyer will be a big cost that is impossible for them to cover. The Mom of Roy happens to be a lawyer with lots of experience! We set up an appointment to for the family to meet with her. She veery generously offered to help them without charging any more than the base costs of the process, and in small payments (the laywer not recieving a salary for her). When that process is over they will finally be able to be married, baptized, and their goal is to as soon as possible be sealed in the temple.

   When we do all we can to do what the Lord commands, he´ll prepare the rest. We recieve many blessings for obeying the commandments. Sometimes it takes a while to see the results, but if we are dilligent we´ll recieve many blessings for our efforts. I´m super grateful to be a missionary in this work!

Gracias,

Elder Pollock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey!

    I´ve been very excited for the work lately. This saturday we had the baptism of an investigator we´ve been teaching, Selena. She is an awesome convert. It took her a while to decide to be baptized, but when she did she was super sure of it and nothing would have stopped her. We´re now working on helping her mom to be baptized. We had a few investigators come to the baptism as well. One will be baptized very soon. His name is Roy. We´ve been teaching him for a couple weeks. He picks up every thing we teach super fast, and puts it in practice. It gets me super excited to teach him. 

   This week we were walking to see if a member of the church could come visit a family with us because we needed member (man) for sure. We were basically at our last hope going to a member that we knew probably wasn´t home, but we decided to go anyway. On the way there a lady stopped us on the sidewalk. She told us she was a member and said "Just who I was hoping to find! I´m from out of town, but I´m on my way to visit my friend and I want you to come meet her!" We needed to go find a brother from the church to visit someone that was preparing to be baptized, but we felt strongly that we should go. We came to meet a single mom with 3 kids, a 10 year old girl, and a 9 year old and 5 year old boy. We found out her 9 year old boy was autistic (I believe is the term). 

    The next day we came and felt we should start out teaching the plan of salvation, which is a little out of the ordinary, as we usually start out teaching the restoration or the gospel of jesus christ. The day after she accepted to be baptized soon with her daughter, and came to church with all her kids to church yesterday! I´m super excited to continue teaching this family, and happy for the opportunity God has given us to teach them!

   I know God has a plan for all of us here on Earth. He wants us to be happy. I love being a missionary and being able to spread the happiness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone I can.

Elder Pollock