Family,
I got your packages a while ago.
I have the rubiks cube. This week was great again up until Sunday
when half our investigators were nowhere to be found in all of Pasaje. We
brought six people to church and so we still have something to work with.
This week, we are fighting for 2 baptisms. A and R are brothers,
single, and jobless. So they have much on their minds and that sometimes
distracts them from remembering the important things in their life; THEIR
SALVATION. But we are working hard with them.
I have several stories, but I will
just tell a couple. We found a kid named Rafa. He is 18 and never
stops talking. He found us and told us that he is a member from Santa Rosa and
he just moved here to get away from his bad influences. He has strong
desires to serve a mission and wants to get active again. He is SO FUNNY!
He never stops talking and he teaches everybody about the law of chastity
and the word of wisdom. He visits our investigators out of his own free
will and sits down and reads the scriptures with them and never tells us
anything. He quit his job so he could go to church. He went to
church and brought his cousin that is going to get baptized and now is working
with a member in the ward. He has helped us out in so many ways.
But seriously, he never shuts his mouth. He reminds me a lot of Ben
Colyar.
Another story: As we were walking to
one of our appointments, a man in a truck stopped us and said he wanted us to
come visit him. After we wrote down his address and stuff my companion
asked me what I thought of the man. ¨He is gay¨ I said. My
companion laughed for probably 15 minutes. So anyway, we went and visited
the man. When we got to his house we almost fainted. He lives in a
mansion, has a pool, a gym, a sauna, a STADIUM (not a soccer field, a STADIUM)
a peugeot convertible, and his dad owns a few banana fields. He accepted
to be baptized and he came to church on Sunday. All the young men are
begging us to baptize him so he can be their young men’s leader. He is a
really nice guy and he is very innocent. He is 35 and lives with his
parents. He is in the university and he knows how to drive. He just
is very innocent. So we are excited to keep visiting him.
My companion, Elder Espinoza, is
great. I can probably say that he is my best companion. He has only
been a member for 2 years. He is still junior companion, but he has grown
up a lot and is an amazing missionary. His testimony is the best part of
him. When this guy bears his testimony in the lessons, everyone can feel
the spirit. I told him one night, ¨Finally I have a companion who has a
testimony of the church¨ He laughed and so did I because obviously we all have
testimonies, but you can just tell that his testimony is ROCK SOLID. And
everyone who we talk to knows that. It has been so much easier to teach
when I have someone like him to help me out.
We also had a meeting with President
this week. It was awesome. We talked about many different things
and learned some great doctrine. For example, in the Book of Mormon, in
the introduction, it says that the Book of Mormon is written to the Lamanites.
(Ecuadorians) It is also written to convince the Jew and the Gentile that
Jesus is the Christ. It never says to convince the Lamanites that Jesus
is the Christ. Why?? Because they already know that. They don’t
need to be convinced. That is why South America is so successful.
The book is written directly to them. They feel that power.
After we talked about that, President asked us if we believed in the Book
of Mormon and then asked why. I love when President asks straight forward
questions and doesn’t accept flowery answers. He asked some missionaries
if they believed the Book of Mormon was true and asked why. Then he asked,
¨Are you sure?¨ He emphasized that it so obvious that the investigators can
tell when we are not sincere or if we doubt. I felt pretty confident and
my companion was perfect, but it was a really great meeting. SO, how do
you know the Book of Mormon is true?
Everything sounds pretty normal at
home. That would be sweet if Cameron came here to Ecuador. He doesn’t
want to go to Europe. I understand so much better now. Our purpose
as missionaries is one thing. Establish the church by Baptizing and
Confirming Gods children. There is no other objective. Here, you
can complete that objective. In other parts of the world you are not as
blessed for your efforts. I will send some pictures later today.
Love,
Elder McRae
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