9.3.12 Cuenca, Ecuador

Family,

Okay, so I am feeling a lot better but everyone else in Cuenca is sick.  It has been so freezing cold these past two weeks.  Not only freezing cold, but raining 24/7.  So I am the only healthy one in the zone.  Luckily, 4 new missionaries are coming here today in the afternoon so they should be healthy.  Elder Rojas is on his way here right now from Guayaquil.  He will be my new companion.  We were both junior companions together in Naranjito in my first sector.  Elder Chicaiza went home early this morning.  All day yesterday he was freaking out to make sure he got to see the converts and members here in Cuenca.  By the end of the night, he was completely ready to go back to Quito.  He was a good companion so I hope elder Rojas can fill in for him.

This week was pretty bitter sweet.  We found a ton of people to teach and they all accepted the invitation to be baptized, but none of them came to church.  We have a lot of work to do now.  We have to find out why all these people didn’t come to church and see what we can do to help them.

We had a super great lesson Friday night with a single mom who recently separated from her husband.  I was so thankful for having the support and help from the members.  We brought two members to this lesson and it turned out great.  We are going to have a family home evening tonight with Belen and with these members again in order to get her excited for her baptism.

A 17 year old kid came up to us during the week and he said he had spoken to missionaries before and that he wanted to get baptized.  It was a miracle.  But he didn´t go to church so it kind of ruined the golden moment.  We will see what we can do.

Elder Gates is a missionary from St. George.  He said he knows the Martin family.  He just finished his first 6 weeks here in Ecuador.   He said JR stitched him up once when he cut his foot on a trampoline.  Crazy huh?

So Elder Christopherson- It really wasn´t what I was expecting.  It was a great meeting and we learned a lot, but I was expecting more of an Elder Holland kick in the face.  He was really calm and relaxed.  There was one part though, where he called up a missionary, and started asking him questions.  When do you go home?  What are you going to do?  Where is your family going to take you?  He ended up getting him to tell him how his stake president was going to release him.  Then he took the Elder`s plaque off. He took his missionary handbook away, and said, ¨You are no longer an Elder, What time will you wake up in the mornings? What will you do with your day?  What kind of music will you listen to? Will you watch tv? What will you watch on tv? ¨ I defiantly felt the spirit during that part.  The way we live as missionaries shouldn’t change drastically when we get home.  I asked myself the same questions.  Will I study my scriptures every day?  What will I watch, listen to, and do?  How will I act?  I am glad I have 11 months left to perfect my life and habits.  I have great habits here in the mission, but will they stick with me?  After listening to Elder Christopherson, I am making it one of my goals to make sure my habits in the mission become apart of who I am as a person and not only as a missionary.

Anyways, I have to go pick up a group of new missionaries from the terminal.  Everything is going great here in Ecuador.  Enjoy the sun... I haven’t seen it in 2 weeks.

Love,
Elder McRae

PS - You have to send the picture of me and Elder Gates to the Martins.
On Elder Chicaiza´s last night we bought him KFC and the whole zone was over to eat