October 3, 2016

I have to agree about conference, it was incredible!! I had a ton of questions answered and the spirit has been working in me ever since!

I had the opportunity to listen in Spanish this time and had no problem keeping up when I was focused on listening. I got a lot out of it and my heart was touched. 

The gospel has been changing me quite a bit lately or at least I feel like it has. I've been seeing a lot of really awesome blessings.

First my companion is amazing! He's really touched my heart with his service, patience and desire to serve the Lord. 

The other day we taught a new guy whose name is Gustavo. He's married and has a 3 year old girl. He found out recently that he might have cancer and has been depressed ever since since his mother recently passed away because of cancer. He's really awesome and I felt the spirit tell me he was ready to hear the gospel. So we taught him, we began with lesson one, then both me and my companion felt the spirit take a step back and my companion began to teach a little of lesson two until the spirit took a step back again and then a little of lesson three. My companion had talked most of the time and I just sat there praying for him and praying for guidance from the spirit but felt nothing... I just sat and listened to my companion, I felt him get desperate as he tried and tried to find guidance then a knock at the door and Gustavo got up to answer it. My companion looked at me with pleading eyes and said "I feel lost" I thought to myself as I kinda laughed "yea me too.." but I replied to him with a simple "just follow the spirit". Gustavo came back and sat down. We just sat there for about a minute, and I just looked at Gustavo and thought "Heavenly Father what should I say, what does he need?" Gustavo originally called us because his friend, a member, told him we could give blessings.. I began to talk, I testified of everything my companion had said and of the testimony of the member that had accompanied us. I explained understanding that we had touched a lot of topics and ideas and testified that in time it would all make sense. I testified that we hold the authority to act in God's name to give blessings and expressed my understanding that he must feel very stressed and sad and discouraged at the knowledge he might have cancer and offered him the option of receiving a blessing. His face exploded with joy and accepted. We gave him a blessing and then we prayed on our knees together and he offered it. We ended and we went home to eat dinner. 

On our arrival my companion sat down and began to tear up, he began to express gratitude to me for showing him so much patience, he told me how he knew he needed to get better at following the promptings of the Spirit and apologized for going all over the place in the lesson. He told me about his first companion who was very cold and never showed much love, how everyday he wondered if his companion hated him and how he tried so hard to serve him and love him. and he told me he was grateful for how loving and humble I am haha which I'm sure many people would say he's crazy for saying that. My eyes filled with tears as he cried and thanked me. I told him he didn't need to be sorry that I was just as lost in that lesson as he was and that every missionary struggles with patience and with finding the spirit. I thanked him for seeking the Spirit even when it was hard to find and I thanked him for thanking me and for having patience and love for me. 

My companion is awesome, we usually teach really well with the Spirit, haha, that's why this experience was so hard to take in. It's incredible the spirit I feel when I teach with him and when we testify. We did a practice in a district meeting the other day and our zone leader was our investigator and he thought he had come up with a pretty good iceberg. We asked inspired questions and then we taught, testified and motivated and ended with compromisos. The room filled with the Spirit and our zone leader was blown away... He told us we had just reconverted him to the Gospel and had inspired him as a missionary to be better, everyone just laughed, unsure of what to say after a practice so full of the spirit. 

haha, my companion is awesome, the spirit is awesome and this Gospel is awesome!!! I love It!!! I won't say it's easy, but I love it. 

Love Elder Gonzalez

September 26, 2016

So cool story of this past week is I got to teach my companion how to cook a chicken!! 

It all started on a Tuesday... we went to a lesson, to teach a 21 year old kid named Cesar and he didn't have time. He lives in the country a little bit and they have about 50 chickens roaming around and about 15 turkeys! 

Well so we were there just chatting for a moment with Cesar's mom who we don't know very well and out of the blue my companion leans over with a huge grin on his face and says "hey, do you want to buy a chicken?" and I responded with a bit of shock "haha no.." and he just kept looking at me smiling waiting for a better response. I looked at him, then at the chickens, then at Cesar's mom and started to laugh!! I looked back at my companion, still a huge grin on his face and said "why not!!" Cesar's mom then reached down and grabbed a plump white chicken and said with a big smile "this one!?" I just laughed, haha, and said "yea why not!!"

So we handed Cesar's mom 10 dollars and she took the chicken into the house put it between her knees and cut its neck and bled it into a 5 gallon bucket. She then boiled a pot of water and proceeded to dip it into the pot and pluck all the feathers. When she finished that she gutted it, kept the guts for herself and handed us the now very dead, featherless, gutless chicken, haha, and we went on our way. 

I think I looked a bit ridiculous walking down the streets for the 15 minutes it takes to get home with a dead chicken in my hand, but at least we had dinner. 
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So we dropped it off at the house and worked the rest of the day. When we finished our day I took the chicken out and cut all the meat off the bones. 

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Then I cooked it and we ate it and my companion did the dishes haha!! It turned out pretty good!!

Mama Negra

Well you might be surprised by the title of this letter but don't be too shocked, I promise I'm not racist! 

Here in South America everyone is very catholic, most just because it's tradition. And they love to throw parties and do all kinds of crazy things. Each city has different folklore that the Catholic church stands behind and supports to keep traditions alive. Specifically here in Latacunga they have what they call The Mama Negra.... 

The story goes, or well one of the stories is, that a long time ago there was a huge earthquake and everyone thought they were going to die and this black lady walked out into the street and calmed the earth, and the earthquake stopped.

Another story goes that the mama negra was a lady who took in all kinds of neglected black children and she took care of them and fed them and gave them what they needed. 

So now when they celebrate her, they close down almost all of central Latacunga and there are parades all day for two days. Then come a few more in a week or so, but these aren't any old parades with cupcakes and flowers... no, haha, they literally sacrifice animals and hang them on posts and parade these dead animals that represent the food the mama negra gave to the children, all around the streets. They look like shrines. Usually a pig hung on a cross as the center piece with chickens and rabbits and cuy strung to the legs and stuff and usually there are a few bottles of alcohol included. 

But as they parade down the streets there are huge bands and lots of dancers and lots and lots of alcohol... lots and lots of drunk people. Its not necessarily the best for missionaries so we avoid it, haha. 

When Christmas comes it gets even worse and we as missionaries have to leave the city for our own safety. 

As my companion and I have talked about it, it's all just for the traditions of their fathers... no one really knows why, but its an excuse to drink and go crazy in the streets. It's basically like Lamanite tradition still alive today. 

I honestly don't know a lot about the festivities, but members are telling us all about it haha so I guess you guys can look it up and learn more about the background. I don't know the real original story of what the mama negra is but its crazy. 

Anyways, haha, this week has been a lot of fun, my companion and I cleaned up our carpeta de area and it is absolutely beautiful and we have been working really hard in it to get everything up to date and correct. We are also helping with our ward directory trying to get in contact with the 700 or so listed menos activos haha to help the ward get organized in their records. 

Things are a bit disorganized in our ward and it's our goal to get it all up and running before our time here runs out. The goal also is for our ward to separate from the stake in order to become a district.. I'm not sure what all the rules are with that but the stake presidency has expressed that as a goal. Out of the 800+ listed members we have about 100 to 130 attending every week so you can say our numbers are not that great, but there is huge potential here and as my companion and I are having success more and more I'm loving it here more and more!! 

The mission is awesome and I'm enjoying it a ton!!! Everyday is a new adventure!!

Love Elder Gonzalez

September 19, 2016

Hey Guys!! 

Sounds like you had an awesome time in Mexico, I'm really jealous about all the Mexican food, I could really go for some tacos a vapor right now!!! or some tamales. Or a quesadilla, haha. It's interesting as I've been thinking about food and different parts of the world I've noticed some interesting things. When I think of food in america I think of flavor, if it tastes good then its good. But as I pay attention to people and food here and comments that are made about food, the most desired food is the food that will fill you up. I personally like to eat food that tastes good and then fill myself up with that, but here in Ecuador they pay more attention to what will fill you up and then they worry about flavor later. I can't complain, haha, I never leave a members house not ready to puke my guts out because it was so much food, but I do occasionally leave with an unsatisfied tongue. Idk, I just thought that was interesting. I'm not sure what Argentina might be like or Mexico. Mexico just makes good food all around, haha, and its incredibly filling, maybe that's why everyone loves it, because it's the best of both worlds. 

Ecuador is cold and wet right now. The rain here is heavy and icey, always accompanied by wind. My companion was in Tena before he got here and in Tena it's just hot. It's jungle there, and when I say jungle I mean it's jungle, haha. Hot, humid and even the rain is hot. You just can't get away from the heat or humidity there. Well now he's here in Latacunga with me where it's just cold all the time. Like 30 at night and 60 during the day and now when it's raining it feels even colder. It makes contacting interesting, haha. Chasing people down streets to talk to them in the rain, I always hope the rain will make people more willing to let us in, but that's not really the case, haha. 

This past weekend was Stake Conference and our mission president was there as well as a member of the Seventy, Elder Alveres. It was really cool. The temple president was there as well as his wife, and the temple president's wife gave a pretty direct and straight forward talk to the youth of the stake. She spoke of modesty and of the importance of marriage in the temple and the preparation that comes and is necessary in the early years of our life. Her words were pretty strict and harsh but also good, the whole congregation began to whisper in astonishment at how harsh her words were. But she spoke truth, it's important for youth and young adults to take commandments, modesty, temple preparation all seriously. It's important when the time comes to be able to marry in the temple worthily. Any misunderstanding of that can and could lead to us not being able to partake of the blessing in the temple. 

I've been studying the atonement a lot in my mind recently as I've been preparing for General Conference. I have a few questions in mind I'm looking to find answers for and I'd encourage everyone else to maybe do the same. It's pretty crazy how the atonement works, as I spoke with my mission president, as we had interviews with him also this past weekend, he told me a story of a bishop who had been working with a young man for a long time on a few things. The young man was preparing to take a young lady to the temple, but asked his bishop beforehand "how do I know I've been forgiven before I look this girl in the eyes across the alter and marry her for all time and eternity?" The bishop wasn't sure how to answer, so later that week he spoke with who is now one of the apostles but then a Stake President or something, how he should answer the young man. The stake president or I'm not sure what his calling was, began to ask questions "is he active in church?" "yes" "where does he sit?" " umm front to the left a little" "is he actively engaged min his calling?" " yes" and the questions went on. At the end, the president said to the bishop, "well that's your answer" 

I hope that all made sense, I guess there are a lot of things that someone could take from that story and that answer. For me, I've been learning that repentance isn't a one time deal, OK I'm forgiven kind of a thing. It's not really a moment or a thing that we just do to be clean again, but rather repentance and forgiveness is a way of life. As I've been thinking about all this I've also thought about Heavenly Father's plan, how we each have a potential to be God's like him, but we have to comply with certain things in this life in order to do so, Or rather we have to learn to align our lives with those guidelines and regulations/commandments he's given us. The way we do that is by changing and getting better, it's a constant process of repentance. I feel like sometimes the word repentance is associated with wrong or bad or disobedient, but I think it's more associated with the word obedience. Sometimes it's easy to judge others and even easier to judge ourselves if a mistake is made, its good to recognize a mistake is made to feel like the process of recovering after that mistake is made is a bad thing isn't really the right attitude. 

It's like if a body builder were to get mad at himself every time he was sore, haha. That would be just dumb, lol.  

Anyways I'm still learning just like everyone else, but I love that we have the gospel of Jesus Christ and his atonement in our lives. I'm grateful for living prophets, apostles, and for the Book of Mormon that teaches me something every time I read it or hold it in my hands. The words written inside are true. They are the words of ancient prophets who spoke with God. I'm grateful for the priesthood that we have again on the earth because our Father in Heaven loves us and has sent prophets to the earth once again, specifically restoring his gospel through Joseph Smith. 

I love you guys and miss you all a ton!! 

Elder Gonzalez

September 12, 2016

Hey mom! 

Thanks for your letter, it's super comforting! 

This week has been really cool! We were able to "rescue" a menos activo member who is super old but super cool! and we had 4 baptisms! 2 of them from the Hermanas and 2 of our own! I was able to baptize 2 of them and I got to confirm one of them on Sunday!! The baptism was really cool, short and sweet, all of them got up and bore their testimonies of the atonement and of the change they have seen in their lives. I'm excited to continue to work with them and help them grow!! 

We had changes today and my companion went to Chillogallo to be a zone leader and I received a Latino who is pretty new to the mission. His name is Elder Arevalo and he's from San Salvador!! He just barely finished his training and this will be his 3rd change. I'm still here in good old Latacunga and now I'm the District leader which is both exciting and a little crazy since I'm still so new, but I think I'll be able to learn a lot this change. 

I think this change will be awesome, we have been finding a lot of people these past few weeks and a lot of them have great potential to progress!! I'm really hoping we will be able to help them all! 

The mission is lots of fun, there are always new things to learn and to do and to improve on! Plus there are always unexpected things that pop up here and there! So life in the mission is always exciting, haha, you always have to be on your toes!!! 

I'm really hoping my Spanish will get really good during this change and that's my goal!! haha, so we will see in a few weeks if I've improved at all, Lol.

Anyways I love you guys and miss you all a ton!!! 

Con mucho amor

Elder Gonzalez

Gramma & Grampa,

Haha, that's awesome that you guys got the lawnmower working and the weed whacker!!! That's pretty awesome!! Did Elias come over and do your yard or did Grandpa get on the lawnmower and do it? 

Thats pretty cool that aunt Jen is in England, I've always wanted to go there, I can't say I share the same excitements for Mr Darcy, but that still sounds really cool!!!  Haha. 

We had changes today and my companion went to a zone called Chillogallo as a zone leader so that's pretty cool and I received a new elder from San Salvador, he just finished his training but he's really cool. I've been called as District Leader which is exciting and crazy at the same time since I'm so new, haha. But it will be cool to learn new things and now that my companion is Latino we will only speak Spanish so my Spanish should start to get better!

We had 4 baptisms this past week , the sister missionaries had 2 and we had 2 and I got to baptize two of them! It was really cool to see all of them come out of the font and then go share their testimonies. They all have seen a huge change in their lives and I'm super excited for them all!! Now we get to start prepping them for the temple! Super cool!! 

This past week my companion and I were walking down a street and we heard someone yell "Hola!!" so I looked around and didn't see anyone, but then I heard it again, but coming from a tree! I started looking through the branches and there was a green parrot in the tree and it was talking to us !!! haha, it was sooo cool and random haha! We tried talking to it, but it only knew a few words! Little things like that just make the mission tons of fun!!! 

Miss you a ton and I always keep you in my prayers!!

Love,

Elder Gonzalez

September 12, 2016

Hey mom! 

Thanks for your letter, it's super comforting! 

This week has been really cool! We were able to "rescue" a menos activo member who is super old but super cool! and we had 4 baptisms! 2 of them from the Hermanas and 2 of our own! I was able to baptize 2 of them and I got to confirm one of them on Sunday!! The baptism was really cool, short and sweet, all of them got up and bore their testimonies of the atonement and of the change they have seen in their lives. I'm excited to continue to work with them and help them grow!! 

We had changes today and my companion went to Chillogallo to be a zone leader and I received a Latino who is pretty new to the mission. His name is Elder Arevalo and he's from San Salvador!! He just barely finished his training and this will be his 3rd change. I'm still here in good old Latacunga and now I'm the District leader which is both exciting and a little crazy since I'm still so new, but I think I'll be able to learn a lot this change. 

I think this change will be awesome, we have been finding a lot of people these past few weeks and a lot of them have great potential to progress!! I'm really hoping we will be able to help them all! 

The mission is lots of fun, there are always new things to learn and to do and to improve on! Plus there are always unexpected things that pop up here and there! So life in the mission is always exciting, haha, you always have to be on your toes!!! 

I'm really hoping my Spanish will get really good during this change and that's my goal!! haha, so we will see in a few weeks if I've improved at all, Lol.

Anyways I love you guys and miss you all a ton!!! 

Con mucho amor

Elder Gonzalez

Gramma & Grampa,

Haha, that's awesome that you guys got the lawnmower working and the weed whacker!!! That's pretty awesome!! Did Elias come over and do your yard or did Grandpa get on the lawnmower and do it? 

Thats pretty cool that aunt Jen is in England, I've always wanted to go there, I can't say I share the same excitements for Mr Darcy, but that still sounds really cool!!!  Haha. 

We had changes today and my companion went to a zone called Chillogallo as a zone leader so that's pretty cool and I received a new elder from San Salvador, he just finished his training but he's really cool. I've been called as District Leader which is exciting and crazy at the same time since I'm so new, haha. But it will be cool to learn new things and now that my companion is Latino we will only speak Spanish so my Spanish should start to get better!

We had 4 baptisms this past week , the sister missionaries had 2 and we had 2 and I got to baptize two of them! It was really cool to see all of them come out of the font and then go share their testimonies. They all have seen a huge change in their lives and I'm super excited for them all!! Now we get to start prepping them for the temple! Super cool!! 

This past week my companion and I were walking down a street and we heard someone yell "Hola!!" so I looked around and didn't see anyone, but then I heard it again, but coming from a tree! I started looking through the branches and there was a green parrot in the tree and it was talking to us !!! haha, it was sooo cool and random haha! We tried talking to it, but it only knew a few words! Little things like that just make the mission tons of fun!!! 

Miss you a ton and I always keep you in my prayers!!

Love,

Elder Gonzalez

September 5, 2016

Hey mom, 

I just wrote Dad a good long letter and I'll try to give you one too, but we will see if I have enough to say!!

I guess mostly I have questions; How has school been for everyone? Any cool classes? Sports? How's the Subaru?How's Amber?  What have you guys been up to!! Who all went to Main Event, lol that picture of Dad is pretty awesome!!! Has anyone else moved out of the ward? I probably won't recognize it when I get home. 

We are having a member of the 70 come for Stake Conference the 17th and 18th. I'm super excited for that, it's always cool to have church leaders visit and teach!!

Lol, I really am not sure what else to write this week. I put everything in Dad's letter.

I love you mom and miss you a ton!! I've been doing a lot of cooking and I always want to call your name and ask you a quick question but you're not here, haha. I'm eating a lot of chicken and ground beef, and all I do to season it is salt, garlic powder and oregano and I'm not sure what else would be good to cook into it or what those spices would be called in Spanish, haha. I have developed a love for broccoli topped with salt, lol, a must at dinner, haha. I'm staring to eat more lettuce and spinach too!!I I guess it's time to fall in love with salad. 

Anyways I'll take some more pictures this week and I'll let you guys know what happens with changes next week. 

Love you tons mom!! Have an awesome week

Elder Gonzalez

Hey Dad, 

That's cool you went down to Mexico again, its always super tranquillo. I think you would really enjoy the markets down here. Every time I'm in a market or a little square I always think "man Dad would love to just walk around and look at all this cool stuff!!" I really like the indigenous stuff they sell, its all similar to the colorful Mexican blankets, but more Ecuadorian with pictures of llamas and volcanoes. I specifically think you would really enjoy walking down the streets of downtown Latacunga where I am now. I love it too. Everything is just so cool. It's a very old town, all the streets are hand laid cobblestone and fairly narrow one way roads. 

It's honestly been strange to be back in the mission again,  Sometimes it just feels like a dream, and when I think about being back at home that seems like a dream too. It's a bit strange. My thoughts are very clear though, IDK, it's like life is lighter than it used to be which makes smaller things clearer. 

We have had some cool things happen this past week. This single mom of two kids (8 and 4) from Guyaquil moved into our sector last week, and she was listening to the missionaries there and received all the lessons along with her baptismal interview, but had an emergency and now is living here. So we did her interview on Saturday and she is getting baptized on the 10th along with her son Tiger!! They are both super smart and understand everything. In Tiger's interview our zone leader asked him if he knew what a prophet was and he said "well Joseph Smith was the first new one but I can't remember who the second one is," haha. Then on Sunday the mother, Tatiana, got up and bore an awesome testimony!! It's pretty cool to see them and their happy faces. The coolest part is Tatiana's mom was baptized about a year ago, almost a year, but never told her daughter in what religion. She has just been praying and praying that her daughter could find the church and then a few weeks ago they were chatting on Skype  and Tatiana said "mom I'm gonna get baptized".  Jenny (the mom) said "oh wow, that's awesome, just make sure to pray! what church is it?" and Tatiana said "I'm not sure its name, I can't remember, but they gave me this book" (book of Mormon) and Jenny began to cry and now they are both here in Latacunga and the zone leader that baptized Jenny did Tatiana's interview this past Saturday and the zone leaders will be here for the baptism for this next Saturday! Super cool! Also a testimony of how prayer works and that Heavenly Father really works in mysterious ways. 

Our ward is cool. I can't complain, we have about 115 every week in sacrament. It's rough though because our bishop is a little crazy and prideful, but there's not really anyone else that would be suitable as bishop. He took the rights away from a returned missionary and his wife because the wife visited a family without being assigned to and when confronted about in consejo she argued that it was ok to do it... haha.  All just a bit silly, but she got kicked out of consejo and her rights were taken away and she got her calling taken away and she cried so the returned missionary asked the bishop to apologize for making his wife cry and bishop took his rights away too and said he's never offended anyone in 10 years... the Stake Presidency was there the following Sunday and gave them their rights back...and I guess fixed everything.. Then last week bishop kicked the missionaries out of consejo because we didn't put our weekly numbers  on our paper that shows all the people we visited and what they need.... that was a little crazy too... but there's not much we can do but just take it, haha, We are still working really hard doing the best with what we've got. Most menos activos refuse to go to church because the bishop offended them in one way or another.  I'm sure it's not easy to be a bishop, but he's not making our job any easier haha. Oh well, it's Ecuador and the Stake Presidency has the keys for all that. All we can do is inform our zone leaders what goes on each week and they meet with the stake president and talk to him. He's a good man and he's got a good heart, just a hard character to be around. 

Our area is huge, haha.  It's the biggest one in the mission, we stretch from the coats all the way to the jungle lol. It's huge but we mostly stay in Latacunga where we live trying to strengthen what is already here or what is close by.

Food is pretty good, we eat with a different members each day for lunch and the same set of members each week. The usual occasional soup followed by a plate of rice and a small piece of beef or a piece of chicken. Ecuadorians love their rice. I'll try to take some food pictures this week. I'm dedicating myself to a four meal a day diet consisting of lots of protein and lots of greens, unplanned snacks and sugary treats or junk food is getting taken out of the picture. My exercises are getting better and I'm thinning out my belly. My plan is to get really lean and then start bulking on muscle. My companion has taught me a lot and I feel like if I dedicate myself I'll learn to be dedicated at anything and to be dedicated to the end. So this is more than just getting more muscle or looking good. I really want to teach myself to be diligent and dedicated hasta el fin always adapting and becoming more efficient, in workouts and diet along with money and saving and in missionary work or studying. 

I'm almost positive this is my companion's last week in Latacunga, but we will find out on Sunday, We have changes. I'm hoping I get a Latino so I can get better Spanish!! I really want to get better at Spanish. Being with a gringo is cool, but I want to speak better and gringos are not that great for getting good Spanish lol. 

Anyways I've wasted almost all my time on you and grandma and mom needs a good letter to so I'll write her right now too. 

I hope you guys had a great labor day and I hope you guys are enjoying life!! 

lots of love 

Elder Gonzalez 

August 29, 2016

I've got to go soon, but I'll send something short!!

I'm pretty sure I have defeated the stomach infection. I am feeling much better!!! Thanks Grandma I'll have to use it!! 

This past week we barely even got to work in our sector, Tuesday evening we had to travel to Ambato and then Elder Welch went to Quito for a district leader meeting and I stayed in Ambato with an Elder Ruiz. Wednesday night Elder Welch came back from Quito and we stayed the night in the zone leaders house in Ambato because Thursday we had district and zone meetings in Ambato. Then we did divisions with the zone leaders for most of the day, then we had to sleep in an old house that the mission isn't using at the moment because there aren't many missionaries and our house had no electricity so if you look in the pictures I sent, there is one of a candle. Well we borrowed a flashlight from the dweno and I found a candle and lit it and set it in a bottle cap and that was our light, haha.  Then Friday we had a zone conference with the mission president and then we got home to Latacunga late that night. 

So it's been a lot of traveling but, also good. Today we had a zone activity in Ambato with zone T-shirts. We had a mini Olympics, it was lots of fun!!

Anyways I've gotta go, we have to shower and then travel to Quito again because Elder Welch has to renew his visa, haha, but we will be back in Latacunga again tomorrow evening.

Love 

Elder Gonzalez