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Our Fountain Has Run Dry

Dear Fam,

That is awesome that you guys are going to go through the temple for the Open House. I so want to be able to go to the temple again. It's been like a year and a half since I've been able to go. But soon I'll make it there. And tell Aunt Anna to push for giving birth on February 5th. That way I can have a birth buddy. 

All is well here in Ecuador. It was a fairly uneventful week. We had transfers this week, but nothing happened with us. President Ghent decided to leave my companion and I together. I'm pretty happy with it because we've been working well together. This is going to be his last transfer in the mission though so I just have to keep him working hard until the end. Hopefully I can do it.

 

So not a lot is new here. My companion and I are now in the stage of finding people. Our fountain has run dry and now we need some new investigators to teach. So that is going to be our focus this week. And if we can find a lot of new people this week, hopefully we'll have another good month here in February. 

Umm not a lot happened this week. I'm sending some pictures of our district here in Santo Domingo and one of our convert families here. I'll try and get some more pictures to send. And not a lot else has happened. I'm loving life and working hard until the end. I'm going to at least be here in my sector for another 3 months and then we'll see what happens afterwards. Oh and please don't send me anything for my birthday. I'm doing very well here in Ecuador. You can save up on whatever you were going to send for when I get back. It's not a whole lot longer till I'll be there. But yeah. I love you all sooo much!!! I'll be more exciting next week!

Con Amor,

 

ELder Joshua Lee 

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Focus on the Families

Dear Family and Friends,

Sounds like things are pretty normal there in Arizona. Things are pretty normal here in Ecuador too. Just being a missionary all day er'ry day. 

 

This week was another good week. We saw even more miracles this week. We had 5 more baptisms!! Whoo!! I'll send the pictures home. One was Gabriela, a girl that was supposed to get baptized with her siblings last week but wasn't able too. So she got baptized this week! Her dad was a less active member who really had his heart touched. He is coming back to church and has the goal to get sealed as a family in the temple. They are soo awesome! And hopefully he and his wife will get married this week so that she can get baptized too!

Then we also had the nephews of one of the members in our ward. We are trying to help their families come to church and get baptized as well. Hopefully we can help them all out. 

I've really been thinking a lot about that lately. There are a lot of people willing to come unto Christ here, but I really just want families. A dad and a mom and kids that can progress and get sealed in the temple. I'm really going to make an effort to find and focus on helping families come unto Christ.

 

Quick story about that.

One of my companions from early in the mission, Elder Bloxham, a couple weeks ago wrote me. He is now studying in BYU, but he told me everything was going well. He also told me about a family we were able to find when we were in Esmeraldas. We were out late one night with nothing to do so we decided to go contacting. We knocked on a door and found a family. The husband's name is Carlos and he was a less active member who had gotten baptized when he was 8 and pretty much never went since then. His wife is Sabrina. And when my companion wrote me about a month ago he sent me some pictures of them in front of the temple dressed in white, about to be sealed as a family for all eternity. That was something that really made me feel amazing. It made me really realize that the goal isn't just that we can help people get baptized, but that they can become converted and make it to the temple to become sealed as a family for all eternity.

Life is good here. Time has flown by. I have a lot of pictures to send. I'll try and send as many as I can. And I have only gotten the Christmas package from Grandma and Grandpa. Maybe the other ones got lost. Or they'll get here eventually. It's probably safer not send more packages. And I'm okay here. Don't worry about me. I love you all soo much!!!

Con Amor,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

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Six Baptisms plus Cow Tongue, Cow liver, and a Chicken Foot

Dear Fam and Friends,

First, thanks to Dad for the pictures he sent me!! They are awesome! It looks like everyone had a great Christmas together in Utah. And I'm glad everyone is getting back into the swing of things with school and normal life. 

Life here in the mission is awesome!! I just love being a missionary more and more. We had an amazing week here. It was amazing because we had 6 baptisms this weekend!! Probably the best weekend of the mission so far. They were 2 different families. The first was a Marcia and her 2 kids, Melanie and Jesus. She is a divorced mom and lives with her 5 little kids. But she is awesome. We found her one day in the house of a less active member that we went to visit. And she really liked what we taught and kept progressing really well. The other family is the Burgos family. The dad is a less active member for about 25 years. He got baptized when he was about 11 years old and then went inactive. But he has amazing desires to go back to church and get sealed with his family. 3 of his kids got baptized on Saturday. He has one other daughter that couldn't get baptized on Saturday, but is going to get baptized this weekend. And we are helping him and his wife get married so that she can get baptized too. They are an awesome family.

So I'm like super happy right now. My companion and I are working very well together and have been having a lot of success here. I don't want to leave yet. But I should be here for a good while longer so that's good news. 

So to finish, for lunch today I had a plate of rice and cow tongue and cow liver and chicken foot. It was rather interesting. It wasn't my favorite meal, but it wasn't too delicious haha. So I'm sending some pictures of the baptism and of when my companion and I went to this big hill in our sector. Everything is really green here. Well l hope you have a great week!

 

Elder Joshua Lee

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Another Week of Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sorry it sounds like everyone's been a bit sick. I've been a lot better this week. Zero sickness here. And I'm glad it sounds like everyone has had a good Christmas break.

I'm doing great here in Ecuador. Especially being here in Santo Domingo. I just love the people soo much. And the work is going amazingly well here. We had another awesome week with another baptism! Whoo!! Lourdes got baptized. She's the wife of a member who had been excommunicated. They have been going to church together for like 2 years now, but they couldn't get married because of problems with their papers, but finally 2 weeks ago they got married! And she got baptized this weekend. And now her husband who was excommunicated is getting baptized tomorrow!! They are a great family and they'll be able to get to the temple someday. 

Then the week was even better when we got 10 of our investigators to church! We have an investigator, Marcia, who is doing really well. She went on vacation last weekend to Ambato, my old sector, and while she was there she talked to the missionaries there and went to church in Ambato. And now she's going to be getting baptized this weekend with her two kids! Then we had another awesome family show up to church. The Familia Burgos. The dad in the family was a less active member for like 30 years. But now he has decided he wants to start going back to church. And so he is bringing his whole family with him. We've been teaching them for about a month now and are doing great. And his 4 kids should be getting baptized on Saturday as well! So with a lot of faith we could have 7 baptisms on Saturday. So pray for us. And we are helping him and his wife so that they can get married and then she'll be getting baptized as well. 

Then we saw another miracle yesterday. Well a while back a member had shown us a house where he said a less active family lived that we should go visit. So we went to go find them on Saturday. We knocked on the door and a lady answered and said that the family we were looking for didn't live there. So we started talking to her and found out her name was Jenny and we invited her to church on Sunday. And then yesterday at church, she just showed up with her 2 kids. And they all really loved church and her kids even said that they wanted to get baptized. Now we just have to teach them a little more and help them get to baptism. We really have seen so many blessings and miracles from the Lord in this week. 

So I just absolutely love the mission. Everything is going very well. Keep our investigators in your prayers so that they can keep progressing and get to a baptism and eventually to be sealed as a family in the temple! I love you all soo much! 

Con Amor,

Elder Joshua Lee

PS Here are some pictures of the baptism and when they burned their Paper Mache dolls for New Years.