4.9.12 Cuenca, Ecuador

Family,

You wanted to know about Cuenca.  As far as I see it, it is basically the same as Guayaquil but richer.  The difference is the people who want to listen, listen, and the people who don’t want to listen, slam the door in your face.  I don’t really have a problem with that.  It makes it a lot easier to focus on the people who are actually going to progress.  It rains every day.  It hails about once a week.  It is freezing cold when it rains and the sun burns you immediately when you leave the house.  The people are a little smarter but still don’t pay attention to logical thinking :)

The Church in Cuenca is the same as in Guayaquil.  The members are head and shoulders above everyone else.  I haven’t really had much time to get to know a lot of members though.  I am so busy, there isn’t anytime to stop and think. Let me guess the order of the churches in Ecuador. 1. The Catholic Church. (95%) 2. Evangelic Church. (3%)  3. Jehovah’s Witness (1.5%) 4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (.5%)  I don’t think there are other churches that exist.

My companion is Elder Monroy.  His name is Nefi (Nephi).  He is from Mexico.  He is great.  I don’t know what else to say about him. 

This past Saturday we had 2 baptisms.  Bryan and Genesis Tapia got baptized.  This week their mom will get baptized.  This is the best family in the world.  They are from Esmeraldas.  It is way up north and basically all the black people live there.  So obviously this family is the nicest family in the world. 

I don’t really have any crazy experiences.  Just work.  We work and work and work.  There is never a minute where you can stop to breath.  There are way too many things to do.  If my sector is fine, one of the other sectors I am district leader over needs help.  There is a lot of demand for success in this mission and so all our time and attention has to be devoted to this. 

Remember to beware of pride.  It is the mother of all sin and drives away the spirit.  This week we taught a lesson and I let pride get to me.  We were teaching a man who basically wanted to prove us wrong.  He was using scriptures and things to prove us wrong to his family.  He would look over at his family as if to say, “Look at me proving them wrong. Aren’t I so smart?”  We try to stay away from arguing or getting into a bible bashing session but this guy was just starting to bug me.  So instead of just leaving I let my pride get to me.  I pulled out the Bible and first proved everything he was saying wrong.  I made him answer his own questions that proved his church wrong.  I even went as far as to ask him a question I knew he wouldn’t know the answer to and then I would look at the rest of his family as if I was saying, looks like your dad is a moron.  So after the session of cutting him down and probably totally embarrassing him in front of his family we left.  I learned a couple things from this. 

1. I felt terrible afterwards.  I felt the spirit completely leave.  The sprit will run away as fast as possible from PRIDE.

2. Is this how Christ would have taught this man?

3. Facts, Evidence, and Proofs will never convince anyone.  Only the spirit converts.

4.  These people don’t believe in their own doctrine.  They believe in their religion.  They say they are Catholic but they don’t accept the Catholic doctrine.  They realize that the doctrine of Christ is the doctrine that we teach.  However, they don’t want to join or accept the religion.  Obviously if you know me, you know that there might be nothing that makes me more angry than thinking illogically. 

However, :) I am here to change.  I realize my mistake and I need to change.  Its obvious that I need to remember my days in La Colmena and be humble.  I need to learn more patience.  I am so thankful to be here and have this opportunity to become more like the Savior.

Love,

Elder McRae

4.2.12 Cuenca, Ecuador

Family,

Okay- well, my wonderful companion took over an hour and a half to write.  But it is okay.  Technically, I have no time to write since we both should have been done 15 minutes ago.  But since I didn´t write a lot last week, I will fill you in a little.

To be honest, I didn´t get to see much of conference.  Saturday we worked all day, but managed to catch a bit of Priesthood session.
Sunday, we ran around like animals to get our investigators to go to Conference.  We caught pretty much all of the first session Sunday and the second half of the 2nd session.  There were a lot of great talks.  Bednar´s talk in Priesthood session was my favorite.

The most important thing though is that the investigators got to feel the spirit of conference.  I am hoping this secures their choice to be baptized.

There is a lot of work to be done.  We have 2 baptisms this weekend and a lot more to plan for in the later weeks.  I really can´t think of anything to talk about besides that we work all day and night as hard as we can.  The days keep speeding up.  8 months tomorrow.

Love,
Elder McRae

3.26.12 Cuenca, Ecuador

Family,

It was the longest week of my life.  Like I said, I found out I was coming to Cuenca, opening a sector, senior companion, and training... well the night I got here to Cuenca, the zone leaders came over and told me I was also the District Leader.  Dad will tell you what a district leader does because I have no time to describe it.  It is a ton of work though.  I have been reprimanded by the zone leaders a few times already for our numbers being low but it is okay.  It is just super hard to start from scratch in a sector the size of South LA.  We have been lost probably 100 times already.  My companion is Elder Monroy.  He is from Mexico.  He is great.  He is a help and not a burden, so we are going to do great.  We had 4 baptisms this weekend which was awesome.  Also, the other sector in my district had a baptism too.  I interviewed the girl who got baptized and it was amazing to see her get baptized.  It hailed and snowed yesterday too.  It is freezing here.  I like that though.  We sleep in a basement... Dad´s dream.  Literally- a bat cave… they have tons of blankets for us though.  I already know that this is going to be the hardest change of my mission.  Anyway that´s about all the time I have to write.  My trainee emailed everyone and their dog ;)  He has a lot to learn.  I am doing great though.  Oh, the people.  Cuenca is different.  People don´t want to listen... I realize now how amazing the people in Guayaquil are.

I will make sure to kick Elder Monroy off after 30 minutes next time so I have time to write.

Love,
Elder McRae

3.19.12 La Colmena, Ecuador

Family,

This week has been by far, the best week of my life.  It began on Tuesday with a multi zone conference with our mission president (The Best Mission President on the Face of this Earth).  He started off by talking about the importance of missionary work.  We read from ¨Preach My Gospel¨ about how ¨When all is said and done, the most important work is PREACHING THE GOSPEL.¨ Then he asked us how we were handling this responsibility.  Were we treating our missions like the most import work on earth?  He told us a story about when a return missionary reported to him one day.  He didn´t even have to say one word to him.  He knew from the moment he saw him, that he was not the best missionary he could be.  He told us that the day we report to our stake presidents they will be able to sense the exact same thing.  I took this conference as a pleading.  He was pleading for his missionaries to focus and serve with their whole mind, might, heart, and strength.

Now, for the past like 10 months, people have been telling me basically the same things he told us.  However they never really stuck.  I heard what people were telling me, but it didn´t cause any change in me.  After hearing my mission president speak, it sparked a huge change in my heart.  I realized how important this mission really is for me.  I only have 16.5 months left to fully participate in the most important work on earth.  We can serve a mission and learn to be a good teacher and learn lots of doctrine, or we can serve a mission and learn to become a disciple of Christ; an unmovable force always abounding in good works.

Anyway, so this past week I felt that change… the change from someone who just does what is right and works hard to someone who is constantly trying to do what Christ would do.  Every second, when a thought of soccer or something pops in my head, I try to switch my focus to how I could help my investigators.  I’ve thought to myself countless times, what would Christ do in this situation? I have felt the difference.  I have felt the difference in who I was, compared to who I am. 

This change of heart and focus of mind has brought about a lot of changes.  I realized finally that the numbers do not count the way I thought they did.  They are important.  But they are worthless if they are used to compare to anyone besides yourself.  So, for the first time, I lost the desire to want to be senior companion or a leader or a trainer or anything like that because it is not what is important.  They are all great things, there is nothing wrong with being any of those things but it all has to do with why I want to hold those positions.

So crazy enough, just at the time when I forget about being a junior companion, and not having that many baptisms, I get called to be a trainer.  Last night, we got called and were told that I had changes.  I packed my bags and this morning headed for the Terminal in Guayaquil.  There, I found out I was now a Senior Companion and going to be a trainer.  Immediately, I realized something else.  I was changing sectors and going to be a trainer. This means I also have to open a new sector.  Where?  Tomorrow I will pick up my fresh new companion from the Temple and take him to Cuenca.  Cuenca is 4 hours or so from Guayaquil.  It has an elevation of something ridiculous. Like 6500 feet.  And it is freezing.   It is known as the rich part of the mission.

Anyways, I am super excited to train a new missionary.  I am so thankful for my mission president and the things I have learned from him. Cuenca will be a very new experience.

I can´t believe Christian got called to Ogden with Ashley.  That may be the funniest thing I have ever heard.

Love,
Elder McRae

3.12.12 La Colmena, Ecuador

Family,

This week, my companion and I worked harder than ever.  We literally almost worked my companion to death.  He has been throwing up the past 2 nights and could barely move to get here to write.  John and Mariuxi finally got baptized! Saturday night was the ordinance and it was great.  This week will be full of stress again as we run all over the place to get 4 baptisms ready for Saturday.  I gave my companion a blessing because he just cannot be sick this week.  It is the last week of the change and we need to get this family baptized.

Virgina is a 55-year-old, single woman who lives with her two single children Lucy (34) and Marcos (30)  We only met them 2 weeks ago but they are so great! … and they are going to get baptized this Saturday.  They immediately accepted the Book of Mormon and all the gospel principles.  They understand everything we teach, and do all the challenges we leave them.  They are super great.

Okay so the people.  My mission president told me something that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.  In fact, a lot of things I have learned so far will stick with me for the rest of my life, but there just really isn´t enough time to talk about all of them.  When I come home, we will have tons of time to talk about how the mission ¨REALLY¨ was and all the great things I learned.  However, in short emails that I write super fast in 20 minutes, there is just no time to type in lots of details about what I learn.  Anyways, so what my mission president told me is, ¨Why is South America poor?¨ the answer is... Poor planning. or No planning.  The people work for one whole day, to pay for the next day.  He told us that´s why you see 30 year old grandmothers with 7 kids and 2 grandkids.  The culture is not to plan.  When we find someone who did take the time to go to school and get a decent job and get married our eyes light up, because those are the people who are prepared for the gospel.  So the no-planning is most of the people.  They are working 16 hours a day to pay for their 5 kids and their girlfriend.  The schools here have had to change to fit that life style.  At 13 years old, you pick what you want to be so you can be done at 17 and working to support your 2 kids.

The kids are on summer break right now so there is no school.  I am not sure exactly how it works for them.  I will say, the difference between members and non-members here is amazing.  The members live such a better life.  It’s so obvious that when you follow the Lord´s commandments, you are blessed and happier.  The youth are more successful also.  The youth here make the youth in the US look like underachievers BIG TIME.  The youth hold callings here.  They are all at least a ward missionary.  The primary president in Naranjito is an 18-year-old girl.  The ward secretary is a 17-year-old kid.  A lot of the ward mission leaders are young men preparing to serve a mission.  Oh- and mutual- is cool here too.  They just play soccer for a couple hours :)

My ward that i am in right now is amazing.  La Colmena has to be the best ward in the whole mission.  We have 20 ward missionaries.  My companion and I teach those who are preparing for baptism and the ward missionaries do the rest.  They visit all the recent converts and our investigadores and become friends with them and bring them to church.  It is amazing.  They are giving us references and the work is just progressing like crazy.  My companion and I are super busy always.  That´s how it should be.

Something else I’ve realized… Dad is not weird.  We are weird.  Everyone here acts like Dad.  The traffic laws don’t apply to the public.  They argue about all the little details that don´t matter.  And yes, they treat me like dad would treat someone who couldn´t speak English.  It´s not bad now, because I know how to say the essentials, but at the beginning… oh yeah, a taste of Dad. They would just disregard whatever i was saying.    The best was a few months ago when I could understand everything they were saying.  They just couldn’t understand me.  So they would say things like, ¨Is he special? Why can´t he talk? Is there something wrong with him?¨ That made me mad for a long time until they started asking questions like, ¨Wait, so when the babies in the united states are born, they talk English!? But how? English is so hard!¨ At that point I didn´t care what anyone said about me anymore :)

This is life in Ecuador.  It´s great.  Tomorrow we have a meeting with president Montalti, The best mission president on the face of the earth.

Love,

Elder McRae

3.5.12 La Colmena, Ecuador

Family,
Okay, I will start by answering the questions.

1. On every single corner there is a place called a Cyber. It is like a little store with a bunch of computers that you pay to use.  It’s something like 1 dollar an hour.

2. There is no time limit according to the store.  However, the mission president doesn´t want the Elders sitting on a computer all day long so he says to be on the computer no longer than 30 minutes.

3. Again, I could email whoever I want and do whatever I want on the internet, but obviously as missionaries, we are supposed to only use the internet to email ¨Direct Family¨

4. I am pretty sure anyone can email me.  I would guess again though, that president doesn´t want us getting emails from people not in our family.

5. P day.  We wake up at 6 30 like normal.  We study until 10 30 like normal, then clean the house.  The Zone Leaders then have to check our house to make sure it is really clean.  They give us permission to leave the house.  We sometimes go get a haircut.  Other than that, we write the family… and that´s about it.  We sit in the house and sleep or read a book or something.  We have to ask permission weeks in advance to be able to leave our sector.  Most of the time the answer is no.  We are not allowed to go to members’ houses or play any sporting activities.  We buy groceries for the week too.

Anyways, so this week, somehow the work completely flourished! We got a reference from a lady in a different stake.  The referral was three golden investigadores.  They went to church and accepted dates to be baptized as well.  It is highly possible that we will have 6 baptisms in these next two weeks.  Heavenly Father blessed us a ton this week.  Now it is just up to us to work hard and not screw it up.

I got your package this week.  The pictures are awesome.  I was showing them to some investigators and some members and their comments are funny.  They do not actually believe that Gavin exists.  They just think we photo-shopped him in and he is really me when I was a little chubby kid.  They always say "IGUALITO!!¨!" Which means "EXACTLY THE SAME" The pictures of Dantrell, Kyle, and Jared are great too.  I sent a letter to Dantrell today.

Grandpa´s email was great.  I don´t have time to respond to it.  Tell him thanks though.  Maybe I will try to write a response some time and send it in the mail.

So, there is a lot of work to be done.  I can´t think of much more to say.  Keep asking me questions because it gives me something to talk about.  Ask about anything.  It is a lot easier to respond to and it sparks new ideas of things to talk about also.

Love,
Elder McRae

2.27.12 La Colmena, Ecuador

Family,

Everything here in Ecuador is pretty normal.  Nothing new to report.  Hopefully we can have a baptism the 10th of March.

So my companion, Elder Dahlin, reminds me a lot of Kyle Drake.  It is really funny.  He has his same personality and laughs at the same things Kyle does.  He even laughs like Kyle does. 

Tell Dantrell I got a letter from him and I will respond next week.  So hopefully he will get the reply sometime this year.  I still haven’t got the package with the pictures yet.  The first package you guys sent took over a month and a half to get here so we just have to wait until maybe April to get it.

Other than that, nothing is new.  La Colmena is nice.  The ward is a lot bigger than my last branch.  They are very helpful also. 

Love,
Elder McRae