Elder Gonzalez's Adventures in the Ecuador, Quito Mission : August 15, 2016

Hey dad!!

When did that painting of grandpa get done? It's super cool!! It looks just like him!!

I am in 2nd Nephi in my personal reading and chapter 1 really caught my attention!! It talks about how if we are obedient we will prosper in the land just like you just mentioned. kinda funny haha.

How is everyone at home? Maya, Elias, Sarah and Mari? I haven't heard from them.

This week went by really fast. It's funny to think I've been here for almost 4 weeks now.

Anyways hope all is well at work and at church and at home.

Love

Elder Gonzalez

So This week has been pretty cool.

1st,Elder Welch and I have been on a protein diet and have been going hard in our morning exercises. We get up at 6:15 to work out till 7:00 everyday followed by a breakfast of 1 egg and 1/3 can of tuna and some avocado with a bowl of granola and milk. Then we have 2nd breakfast of 2 hard boiled eggs. Then we eat lunch (we eat with members so it is always rice with some meat and or beans and a glass of fruit juice), then we eat 2nd lunch usually a pack of 5 pieces of lunch meat (ham) and a piece of bread. Then dinner I have 1 fillet of tilapia, 1 egg without the yoke, a handful of broccoli and avocado. Then 2nd dinner is half of a chicken breast on bread or something.

Elder Welch worked out and trained and learned a lot about gaining muscle before the mission so he's already pretty buff even though he says he's skinny. It's going good so far, our plan is to do this this whole change to see if it works.

2nd, we have been working really hard this week and we were able to get a lot done with recent converts. We are focused on a man named Hugo. He is 81 years old and was baptized even though he probably shouldn't have. I say that because he doesn't understand anything about the church. He doesn't even know the name. He gets confused with catholic beliefs all the time so our goal is to get him to church every Sunday, find him a few friends, good friends because he lives alone in a small 15 by 10 ft apartment, and then to teach him and help him really understand all of the lessons or basics of the church and of the gospel. We got bishop to give him a ride on Sunday and it was good to have him there. We also had this young couple at church. They are investigators and they live together but are not married. They just decided this past week to get married and that's a really hard thing to get done as missionaries in Ecuador, to get a couple married. Most people just won't do it for fear or for money reasons, but they are gonna do it and have committed. The young man Alex is doing great!! He didn't come to church because his dad made him travel for their family avocado business but Sunday night he was back in town and went to a mission prep class with the young men and he got to be the missionary. Super cool!!!! He loved it!! He also is coming to mutual with the youth but his parents still wont receive us or let him get baptized.

3rd, I've been able to give two blessings this past week. The first one was a little crazy but super cool also. I'm not 100 percent confident in my ability to give blessings in Spanish so I usually let my companion do it. But this week we visited a man who is 82 and is bed ridden and has been for 30 days. 15 in a hospital and 15 at home. He recently had a surgery done in his chest and now he has a terrible case of pneumonia. Really bad. He is also on oxygen. Well, we were asked to visit him by Hermano Fousto who was a mission leader for 20 years and he's 81 now. So we went and we were asked to give a blessing and i just had this feeling like I should do it and some promptings came to me of what to say in the blessing of health. Well I didn't want to do it because what I was being prompted to say were kind of intense and I wasn't confident in my Spanish. So we asked him who he wanted to say the two parts. He told Hermano Fousto to do the first part and then we asked who he wanted to do the second part and he lifted his hand up and pointed at me.... and I just had to let go of my fear and do it. In the blessing I blessed him that he would receive that strength needed to be at church the following Sunday so that he could be an example to his family. I said a lot of other things too, but after the blessing I felt like I should invite him to try to walk after not walking for 30 days. My companion and I both took an arm with his approval and helped him to his feet and with a little help he walked across the room and back with little trouble. It was pretty incredible. His wife was in tears and I was just doing my best to follow the promptings but I was impressed as well. Then later in the afternoon I was asked to give one of the sister missionaries a blessing because she had a bad fever. That one wasn't as crazy but it was good. haha