Family,
Again, Not a lot to talk about. This Tuesday, we had changes. I am still in Independencia living with Elder Curtis and Elder Cederquist but I got a new companion. His name is Elder Johnson. He is from LA. He has 6 months in his mission. Tomorrow I have 5 months. So we are both new. This is good for both of us though because we don’t have anyone to rely on to speak perfect Spanish for us. I don’t see us having any problems though. It’s funny because he is a little like me in the sense that he is not afraid to be frank with people. I absolutely know people can feel the power that we teach with.
New Year´s was spent playing soccer in the house. However this time, we didn’t just play the crossing game. We cleared everything out and played 2 on 2. Ecuador is humid. In the house is more humid. Add sprinting, diving, slide tackling and ripping shots to that... and you get the all-time sweatiest, hottest, and mustiest indoor soccer game ever. I played in bare feet so my feet were completely black and gross. My companion sweats more than any other human on earth. He was dripping wet. Elder Curtis and Elder Cederquist also were gross and sweaty. But all and all it was a great Saturday night. We all went to bed at 10 30 like obedient missionaries should, but of course we were all awake at 11 30 because of the sounds of bombs going off right outside our window. It was so loud there was literally no way anyone in the country could sleep. Fireworks were shot off and they burned the Muñecos all night. The city was covered in smoke. The streets all were on fire. It looked like we were in a war zone. Finally at about 1, the fireworks died out and it was just blaring music. We all passed out after church the next day.
At church, we started the sacrament meeting with 6 people. Two were me and E. Johnson, another was our investigator, the Bishop, his wife, and the first councilor. By the end of sacrament though there was about 12 or 15 people. My companion and I were called up to give the talks since no one else was there. I realized one of the gifts of the spirit that I have. The gift is not the gift of lounges because I absolutely cannot speak Spanish. But there is something about the way I talk that God has blessed me with… I’ve been blessed to speak with power. I talked about the atonement and the role we play in it. I talked about how if we really, truly claim to love Christ, the best thing we can do is help him by sharing the gospel. He had to suffer for every mistake that people would ever make. We have the privilege and the obligation to cry repentance unto the people of this world and lighten the pain that Christ had to go through. Even though I couldn’t use fancy words, or big analogies, or anything like that, I could still tell the people were understanding me and feeling the spirit. It reminded me of a part of my patriarchal blessing when it said, ¨You have the gift of bearing a strong testimony, your words will ring true in their ears, and it will lead them to change.¨ That is what I was feeling when I was talking. Just an assurance that, yes you can talk, and yes they are understanding you. The language barrier doesn’t change the fact that I can bear a strong testimony. So that was my favorite part of this week.
Everything sounds super fun in Arizona. When I think about how I used to live that life, I feel so weird. Everything normal is just a vague memory to me now. I always, before, talked about how I would not let my mission change me. And I am still the same person with the same personality and everything but I can tell I am changing. Things that used to be important to me are still things I love but I ponder on other deeper things now. Things that are really important. Anyways, I like that I am growing. Time is going be dangerously fast. I will be home in 19 very short months.
Love,
Elder McRae
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