Quito Week 16 Pictures

Quito Week 16

Dear Family and Friends,

It's great to hear how well the whole family is doing! That's awesome about Nate going to go to the temple this week!!! And that Amanda sounds like she's doing well and Jake too. I'm glad he could go on a campout with the teachers quorum and all that. I still remember many of my experiences with my youth groups in church so I'm glad Jake can experience all that too.

Alrighty, now for my news. First off, this week was awesome!!! We had soo many miracles this week it was amazing. The first miracle was that we had a baptism !! Whoo!! I sent a couple of the pics. It was a 9 year old kid named Alexander and he is awesome. It really was an amazing baptism and he gave one of the best testimonies I've ever heard afterwards. Also, my companion and I have been working really hard, trying to find new people these last few weeks, and this week the Lord blessed us soo much for all that hard work. People just started popping out of everywhere. We had like 6 different references from members and we found a lot of people just out contacting. It was amazing. One of my favorite people we found is a guy named Maverick. He's a man, about 40 years old and an amazing investigator. He was a referal from a member and it was awesome how we found him. We were waiting in front of another member's house for Alexander to show up so we could teach him. The member there told us that another Sister was looking for us because she had a reference and right as she said that, the other Sister showed up with Maverick. We were able to teach him and now he's preparing for the 16th of March to get baptized. He really has been soo prepared by the Lord and is an amazing investigator. 

Well so it's been an amazing week. And I hope this week is similar. So now about other news, yes we heard about all the new missions they are going to make and that is awesome! That's so cool they're making two new missions in Arizona! Are we going to be in the Gilbert mission now? As for here in Quito, they are dividing this mission into two new missions. There's going to be Mission Quito North and Mission Quito. And they are going to be dividing the missionaries here too. From what I heard, when they split the missions, if we're in the Mission Quito North, then we'll stay in that mission and the same with mission Quito. President Ghent is going to be in the Mission Quito and a new mission president is going to be in the Mission Quito North. I heard it's another gringo from the States, but I don't know who it is. So there are going to be some crazy things happening here in this mission. Now I'll be able to say I served in two missions because I started in the North and now I'm in the south. But the sad part is that we won't be able to see a lot of the other missionaries now because they are going to split us all up. But this isn't happening until July so things will be normal for a while. 

So that's about it from me. Oh and I did eat cow intestines, lung and liver this week. That was interesting. Not too bad, but I think it made me a little sick. And I made your cookies mom and they were delicious!! Everyone lovvvvvvvvvvved your cookies and wants the receipt. They want to know how to make them. But I'm still doing well. Absolutely loving all the miracles that we've seen this week and I know that if we keep working hard we'll keep seeing all these miracles. Thanks again soo much for the roll-up piano and all the letters and packages! I love you all a ton and I friggin love being a missionary!!

Con all the Amor in the world,

Elder Joshua LEE!!!

Quito Week 15

Dear Fam and Friends,

Well so first off this week my companion and I went to the offices and I got surprised by opening a package with a pedal and batteries in it. And then I got even more surprised by opening another package with a roll-up piano in it. So thanks soo much Mommy and Dad and Anna and Stu and Michael and Megan and Grandma and Grandpa!!! It was a sweet birthday gift!! Now I can learn to play more stuff on the piano in the house! It's hard to play like intense songs, but it is helpful to learn how to play new stuff and that's what i need it for so thanks a ton! But now that I have a piano, you already know I'm gonna need some more piano music to learn how to play.

So it's great to hear that everything is still going well with the family! Make sure you tell Jake happy birthday for me if you haven't already! I hope he had an awesome bday. Wow he's gonna be freaking 15 when I get back. That's weird. And I'm glad Ben had a good valentines day. El día de San Valentin passed all tranquilo here. All the latinos walking around with their boyfriends and girlfriends and me walking around with my boy Elder Grace haha.

Oh yeah so Elder Grace, my companion, is like way chill. He's a way humble dude and he knows how to cook which is soo awesome!! Whoo!! He cooks me food sometimes. I think the only things I've cooked on the mission so far are grilled cheese sandwhiches, cereal, and i've made eggs a couple times. But that's like it. Maybe I should learn to cook a little more. As long as it's something that doesn't involve rice (which I eat every friggin day). But I actually like the rice. i feel like if I don't eat something with rice then I don't get full.

This week was pretty tranquilo too. We didn't do a lot. Yesterday were the elections for the new president of Ecuador so we had to spend all the day in the house. We went to church for an hour then came back and were bored for like ever in the house. There was something about crazy people who hate gringos during that time or something, so they didn't let us missionaries go out that day. Oh and for the first time in my life, a bird pooped on me the other day. And I was like freak, that's never happened before. And then the next day it happened again. So that sucked a little bit. I might have to burn my clothes now.

So it's been a little tough here finding people lately. I feel like the people here in Quito are too much like the people in the States. We go contacting and no one wants to let us in. Everyone is Catholic and says they're gonna die Catholic. And I'm like, man we're not here to change your religion, we're just here to help you have more faith in Jesus and they're all like no I'm busy right now. Everyone is busy here all the time. But it's okay because I know we're going to find some new people to teach. Elder Grace and I are doing everything we can to find new people so I know it's going to happen. We're gonna work more with the members in this ward too so we can find some new people.

But that's about it. It's been a while since we've have a baptism, but we're gonna have one this week!! Yeah buddy! It's a kid of a less active family with a boy who just turned 9 so we get to baptize him! So yeah hopefully I'll have some good picks and stuff next week.

But that's about it from me. I'm still doing well. Healthy and happy and still loving being a missionary. And more recently, I've started enjoying the experiences that kind of suck here on the mission. Because those are the ones you learn the most from and they're kinda funny sometimes. But I love the awesome experiences too. And we're working hard to keep having those experiences. But yeah I love being a missionary. It's soo awesome. I don't know if I've said it before, but I think i'm like the happiest I've been in my life here on the mission. So it's freaking awesome here in Ecuador!! Love you all soo much! Have an amazing week!

Con Amor,

Elder Joshua Lee!!

Quito Week 14 Pictures

Quito Week 14

Dear Fam and Friends,

Glad to hear everything is going well at home! And tell Jacob HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Whoo!!! The big 1-4. yeah buddy! he's already growing up. Next thing ya know he'll be somewhere down here in South America learning a little spanish too. And I'm happy to hear that everyone seems to be healthy and happy!

As for me, there's not much new going on here in Ecuador. Just living it up still. Oh but the rains have started here. And when it rains it rains. Everyone here said it was supposed to start raining in December, but it's just been hot until now. This last week it's rained like every day. And all day. Ugh... But it's not too bad. I do like the rain a little at least. And I have to enjoy it while I can because it never rains in AZ. But it has been really cold these last few days. I feel a little bad for my companion because he's from Guayaquil Ecuador and it's way hot there so he's been freezing these last couple days. But i'm taking care of him.

So yeah not much going on here. We're still working trying to find people to teach. We have a couple people who are planning to get baptized soon, but there's been problems with papers to get married and all that so we'll see what happens. It's been tough finding new people too, but my companion and I have decided we are going to try some new things this week to find new people to teach and I know the Lord will bless us.

And it's been a little tough at times because I feel like we really are working hard and we've been like 100% obedient and all that and we haven't had the success that we've wanted. But I know that we're going to find it. We just have to go a little bit further. So we're going to go a little farther this week and work a little harder and I know we're gonna find that success we want.

Oh and my birthday was pretty good. Not very birthday-ish though haha. It just felt like another day out in the mission field. I even forgot it was my birthday most of the day. Oh and on that day we had this contact that was pretty funny. He said he didn't want to talk to us because he said I was here from the good old USA trying to take over the world with religion. It was the first time I'd heard something like that so it made me laugh a little.

Well enjoy the pics! One is from my birthday where a family did give me some cake so that was pretty cool. The other one is of my with my son in the mission. And the last one is me with one of my favorite Elders from my group, elder Nelson. He's from Vegas and pretty chill (and not from utah like all the other gringos haha), But yeah that's about it from me this week. Still doing well! Love you all soo much and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Joshua Lee

Oh and I forgot. There was this earthquake this week that was crazy! Just a little tremble, but still crazy! My companion and I were sitting there studying and the whole ground just started to shake! But nothing happened so it's all good.

Quito Week 13

Dear Family,

Great to hear that everything is well! And thanks for the birthday wish! Here in the mission it feels nothing like my birthday right now. I've hardly even thought about it. Wow it really is tomorrow huh? Well the first of 2 birthdays on the mission! haha. Time really flies by. And thanks for sending packages! I did get one today from Aunt Anna that had a cd of piano music on it so that was really awesome! Thanks so much Aunt Anna!!! And yes it looks like you can send me stuff directly from Amazon.

 

So the big news is my new companion!!! Whoo!!! He's pretty awesome. His name is Elder Grace, and no he's not gringo. He's a latino from Ecuador who's grandpa is from the states, had a couple kids with his grandma, and left back to the states so he's got a gringo name for that. But he's from Guayaquil.And the sad news is that he's only here temporarily. He's just waiting for his visa to go to Mexico. So it makes me a little sad that my first kid isn't in my mission, but I still love him!

So this week was a little tough. We didn't have a lot of success this week. During the week was okay because we had people we were teaching, but Sunday came around and we couldn't get them to come to church. So I was feeling a little upset and down because of that. ALso because we had been working really hard and we had been 100% obedient and I thought doing all we could do so it was a little tough. But I had just watched the night before, an episode of The District 2, which is a series about missionaries on the mission that we have to train our new companions,and in that there were two missionaries that went through just about the same things. They were doing all they could and didnt have success. But finally, they were able to find someone who eventually got baptized (You should watch the District, it's pretty sweet and then you might understand this part better). But because of that, I had faith that something good was going to happen. And it did. A member came up to us during Church and said she had a reference and it was a little girl, 11 yearsold who had always been at church, I just didnt know she wasnt a member. So we were able to teach her and now she's preparring for a baptism the 16th of this month! Whoo!! It really strengthened my testimony that if we are doing all we can, working hard and being obedient, that the Lord will take care of us.

Well I don't have very much time today so I just want to finish saying, All is well in Ecuador! I still love being a missionary and I've really learned so much having a new companion. It's awesome here! Love you all a ton and miss you all!

The Coolest Missionary Ever,

 

Elder Joshua Lee!!