Baptism!

Hey there!

Normally around here, plans don´t work out.  There are LOT of reasons for that, one is the better will of God, and the other is the agency of people. It usually turns out that people don´t give too much of a crap about what YOUR plans are, but what´s important is to do your part so that in the end you don´t feel bad.  ...the secret is to not worry about the things you can´t control and not get frustrated.
My companion has noticed that I get frustrated what plans don´t work out, it´s something that I´m trying to do better.  I think I can say that I´ve learned a TON more patience than when I stated out, and I´m still learning it day by day.

This week something incredible happened.  OUR PLANS ACTUALLY WORKED OUT!
Us and the other Elders living with us planed a baptismal date for one of our investigators and one of theirs -and it worked!

My little son got to have his first convert baptism in the mission.  We baptised Elian, un chico de 15 años.  He lives with his grandma who has been less active for a long time.  We reactivated her and he´s been attending church with her and playing soccer with us every Wednesday night.  He agreed to a baptismal date for the 8th of August and that´s just what we did.

Left to right: Elder Salazar (my companion from Guatemala,) Elder Howell (Me,) Elian (our baptism,) Elsa (The other Elder´s baptism,) Elder Wilson (Eden-Utah,) Elder Vargas (Bolivia)

Left to right: Me,  Elian´s niece who we call Caramelo,  Hermana Mercedes (Elian´s Grandma,) Elder Salazar, Elian.

This ward hasn´t seen a baptism in about 5 months, so the bishop is content with the work we´ve been doing.  We´ve also been spending the last few months working with the members and helping lots of less active members reactivate. We´re doing good work and the Kingdom of God is being built stone by stone.

Everything here is going good, thanks for everything you guys do back home to help us out here!

Take care!

Love, Cameron

How to be a Millionaire in Ecuador!

Hey there everyone,

This last Sunday my companion got to see that I get kinda grumpy when I´m tired, hungry, and uncomfortable at the same time. I don´t try to be grumpy when I fast, but the circumstances are just so freaking crappy.  meh..  I do my best though, fasting is important.  And being tired and walking in a hell inspired sunshine is unavoidable.

Those are the worse things though.

In general I´ve been doing alright, I've been cooking myself a breakfast I like to call:
"Elder Howell, I Love You" Which consists of huevos, tocino, tostada con queso, con jugo de naranja. :)

Yum.

It don´t look like much, but bacon here isn´t cheep and the only people who buy it are people who want to start the day by loving themselves.

(it been awhile since I´ve wrote about my breakfasts.)

Elder Salazar and I have been working our butts off doing the good work.  If all goes well, we should have a baptismal service this Saturday.  We´re crossing our fingers and folding our arms.

-And also trying to keep things on the light side. The light side is good, it helps us stay energetic, optimistic, and ready to work in the sun and dust.

I had a thought this week about how to be a millionare in Ecuador.  I had a couple ideas:

One is to open a pancake house in Guayaquil.

People here don't know what french toast or waffles are.  Maple syrup sits on the bottom shelves in the supermarket because no one knows how to use it.  Pancakes exist, but no one makes the from scratch.  Bacon is underused...  I could keep going on and on.

What these people need is a good American pancake house.  and I really think that if one opened it would be a big hit. 

My other idea is to build a ductape factory.  These people have the redneck mentality, but they don't use ductape.  HOW IS IT THAT THEY LIVE WITHOUT DUCTAPE???

I'm pretty sure it exists here, but it needs to exist in large quantities and be sold in the street corners, not just in the deepest corner of the hardware store.  I think the man who REALLY brings ductape to Ecuador will made big time bucks. Another missionary told me the only reason it isn't here is because the people would probably build houses out of it.  He's probably right; I've see houses made out of roofing, cement road dividers, and rocks.

Today we went walking out to La Isla Santi it was cool but it was mostly just a boardwalk with a bunch of trees and swamp, I would have had more fun if I had a camera with a zoom lens.  The camera I currently have doesn't have a zoom ability anymore, the motor for the lens is dead and I have to help in with my fingers every time I turn it one and off.  Meh.

I took a couple pictures while we were on the island.









Yes that's a real crocodile.  Yes, there was a fence between us and them.

That's basically everything.  we're headed off to work now.  I hope everything is going well back at home.  I talk to you all next week!


Love, Cameron.

Mi ejercito de niños >:) jeje

Hi!

This week has been an action packed week of teaching and walking, as usual.
We´ve been doing some really good work here, mostly rescuing less active members, but work just the same.

Most of the members who are less active here are only less active because no one visits them.  Making home-teaching and visiting teaching appointments is one of the things that we´re trying to get this ward to do because it´s REALLY important and not all of them are really doing it.

This last week we did an activity for the ward.  Sack races and apple eating contests with no hands and stuff.  It was fun, but there were a few kids there that weren't having fun and were getting in the way.  When I say a few I mean three.  I decided to start playing Simon says with them to keep them out of the way. It was a huge success and they were very very good at it.

It was a huge success because my obedient army of three kids turned into an army of ten or more.

And they did EVERYTHING I told them to do. MWAHAHAHA!

Apart from all that things have been pretty good.  Training has been nice because I have a nice humble son who takes all my advice and does what he should.

And... yeah! Everything´s good.  I´ll send a few more pictures and write you all next week. :)

Love, Cameron




Dan Jones: The only thing I lack is people who want to listen to me.