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Baptisms and more Baptisms

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Well, things sounds pretty normal and boring at home. Cool beans. We had interviews with President Ghent this week and he said that the last little time goes really slowly for the parents at home. At least he said that's how he felt when his son went on a mission. Is that true? Because time just seems to go faster here. And it's really scary haha.

But it was a pretty great week here in Ecuador. We had some sweet baptisms!! Whoohoo!!! And they are some cool peeps. First, (and I am sending home pictures of all of them) Alejandra and Mishell got baptized. They are sisters that we found while out contacting. They already had some friends at church and they like church a lot and got baptized! Their parents aren't married so we are trying to help them too. Then, the niece of the wife of the first councilor in the bishopric was baptized! Her name is Neeby (pronouced Navy). But she's way cool too. Just a 9 year old girl, but she was really happy with her baptism.

 

And lastly, The Zambrano Family was baptized. That was probably the best baptism of the weekend. They are an amazing family. We really had to work hard to get them baptized. There were a lot of obstacles that kept coming up, but finally everything came through. And the whole family was baptized! The dad, mom, son and daughter; a whole family that can make it to the temple to be sealed in a year. I really love the people I get a chance to teach here.

The only thing that put a damper on this weekend was that it was raining. And because of the rain some of our converts couldn't make it to church to be confirmed. So that was sad. But in 2 weeks they'll get confirmed now. So we've had a bit of rain and a bit of heat (it's super hot today!) Like 108 degrees outside. Needless to say I have sweat a ton today. But life is good.

 

Oh and the other pictures are of a birthday of a recent convert family we had and then a FHE activity with the Zambrano Family. Enjoy!

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

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Brackets and Breakfast Burritos

Dear Fam and Friends,

It sounds like everything at home is going well. Tell Amanda to check her email and that I say happy birthday!! Sounds like she had a fun  one. That is the hardest for me to believe though.... She can't be 17 years old yet.... Dang time flies.

 

I am titling this week, Brackets and Breakfast burritos. Because that is what we did this week. Elder Schneider and I had some friends send us March Madness brackets, and even though we can't watch the games, we filled them out just for fun. Then one morning we decided we wanted to make breakfast burritos. And they turned out soooo amazing... It was definitely a good choice. I'm learning to cook more. Little by little.

But not really a lot else happened this week. We are visiting some awesome investigators. We have one family, the Familia Zambrano, and we've been working really hard to help them get baptized. And if everything goes well they (mom, dad, and 2 kids) should be getting baptized this weekend with some other investigators. We can always use your prayers for these people.

 

So yeah, everything normal and todo bien here. Just working hard until the end. And I'm really enjoying being with Elder Schneider. I love you all a ton!!!

 

Con Amor,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

 

Pictures

Pictures of all the ZLs and the missionaries from my group (the ones that are all going home together)

 

 

 

Planning for Life after the Mission

Dear Fam and Friends,

I've gotten Christmas packages!! Sorry for not letting you know! I got one from you and one from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and one from Grandma and Grandpa Pope and one from the Hills. Awesome packages and thanks sooo much to everyone!!!!!!! It was nice getting some later because it has made the goodies last longer.

 

Well life is good here in Ecuador. This week I was feeling a bit down and stressed out because I felt like we were losing some of our investigators. We had an awesome family that wasn't as excited when we visited them and didn't go to church yesterday. But things got better when we went to visit them after church. We got there and the wife was reading the Book of Mormon and was pretty happy. She had just been feeling a little down because her husband doesn't want to get baptized yet. So we are going to keep helping them and hopefully get the whole family baptized together, or at least baptize the mom and kids for now. And we also got a couple of referrals from recent converts this week which was nice. I'm feeling better now.

 

I think the stress is combined with the stress of having to pick BYU classes soon. I'm still not sure what I want to study and I have to pick my classes on March 31st. I'll plan classes on MyMap on the BYU website and if you could register for them at midnight on March 31st that would be great. 

 

But otherwise things are going well. I'm still trying to stay focused on missionary work and why I'm here. I can figure out life later. Here are some pictures from like a couple weeks ago. I finally got my camera back so I can send them now. These are pictures of a convert family I visited in Quito and when I went to crepes and waffles with Elder Nelson. Delicious!! Enjoy!

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

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The Matador

Dear Family,

 

 

So I believe I should be arriving home Tuesday, June 3rd. I don't know at what time though. They should probably give me all the details in a month or two. So it looks like I'll be home for a couple days and then get to travel again. And you just got me super excited about the trip to California to see a baseball game. Tell dad that that is like the first thing I want to do when I get home. It would be awesome that same night to go to a Dbacks game. I miss baseball. But it sounds like it'll be a fun summer. And how long are Amanda and Nicole going to be in Tonga? That's like way far away... Cool stuff.

So you just gave me a lot of information there. And I always laugh at the Ben stories and at your lack of enthusiasm for golf haha. Everything is going well here in Ecuador. We just had changes today and my companion finished his mission and is going home tomorrow. I have now gotten the reputation as the matador (or the killer) here in the mission because they say you "kill" someone when you are their last companion before they go home. And I have now "killed" 3 missionaries which is a lot. But I was happy and sad with the changes. I am very happy because my new companion is Elder Schneider!!! He is a missionary from my same group. We met over a year and a half ago in the MTC in Peru and now we are companions. He's an awesome guy and I'm way excited for this change. I've wanted to be with someone from my group my whole mission and now I finally am. But I am sad because this probably means that I won't finish my mission here. I will most likely have to spent my last transfer in another sector because Elder Schneider and I are going home together. But I guess I'll get over it.

 

This week was fun. My last companion, Elder Plua, pretty much spent it saying goodbye to everyone. I took a lot of pictures, but sadly my camera almost got lost and is now in the offices in Quito. We'll see how soon they can get it back out to me. But when I get it I will be sure and send all the pictures we took. For now, here are a couple pictures off of my companion's camera. This is us with all the zone leaders at the leaders council with President Ghent. And the other picture is our zone before we had transfers.

 

Oh and last week one of the Senior Missionaries called me from the office asking which airport I'd be flying into. That was a trunkey phone call haha. I told her Sky Harbor airport. So I will be flying there. But in like 3 months still. Life is good. I love being a missionary. And I am going to work hard until the end. I love you all soo much and have an amazing week and spring break!

Love,

Elder Joshua Lee

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Carnaval and an Answer to Prayers

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow sounds like a pretty eventful week. It sounds like an awesome experience at the Temple Cultural Celebration.

Here things are pretty much the same. Not a lot has changed. I am still doing well and enjoying life. 

Yesterday, today and tomorrow are a holiday here in Ecuador. Its called Carnaval. Its something they do in a lot of South American countries. But its pretty much a three day holiday where people use it as an excuse to throw water on other people. And more than that. People go around throwing water with foam and coloring and even eggs and flower. It can get pretty messy. So some people got my companion and I soaked and with coloring on the white shirt and face. I sent a picture. You might not be able to see that well though. But we spent all day yesterday wet. Luckily today we had to come to Quito and its cold here so they don't get each other wet as much.

And I saw an answer to my prayers this week. These last couple weeks I have been praying to find a family that was married and ready to listen to our message, and this last week the Lord answered my prayers  Two Sundays ago when they had elections here in Ecuador we only went to one hour of church and it was at 8:00 am instead of 10:00 am.  So we left at 9:00 to go visit some people. Well after we had left a family had shown up to church because they had desires to see what it was like. But when they got there almost everyone had left, except for our Elder's Quorum President.  So he talked with the family and got their direction and phone number and set up an appointment for us on the following Tuesday.  

That Tuesday we went to visit this family, the Familia Zambrano and we had a great lesson.  they said that the Lord had touched their hearts and that they had a desire to go to Church and learn more about it.  So we were able to teach them a few times during the week and they came to church again on Sunday. I really could see that the Lord answers prayers.  An awesome experience.

So life is good here in Ecuador.  I am also sending a picture with a giant plate of food.  You could say I'm a happy guy here.

Love you all so much,

Love,

Elder Joshua Lee