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.

New Companion

Hey there!

I got a ¨Gone Camping¨ note in my inbox.  I guess I here for a good camping trip next week. Someone go tip the boy's tent over for me. :D

This last week had been pretty eventful for me.  On Tuesday night the trainers and new missionaries went to the temple to sleep in the hotel there so the we could get up early in the morning and do a session together.

I knew that I missed hot showers, but I didn't realize how much I missed them until I showered in the temple hotel.  That hotel is one of the only buildings that I know of that has hot water in the pipes. My legs almost gave out in the sweet relief of the hot water.  The most relaxing thing ever.  Beats showering with a bucket and a cup any day.  ...freaking Duran water  -_-

ANYWAYS, on Wednesday after the temple we all went to President Riggins' house for breakfast and to be instructed together.  There I was paired up with Elder Salazar, my new son!

I'm training now, with is pretty easy because Elder Salazar is pretty smart and already has a desire to share the gospel;.  I'm just showing him the technical things, his testimony is already amazing.

Elder Salazar is from The City of Guatemala, Guatemala.  If you don't know where Guatemala is you'll be able to find it right where you thought Mexico is.  Turns out that not all central America is Mexico.  Guatemala, Honduras, and lots of other countries are down there on the bottom.
His grandparents are converts.  He says that he's the seventh missionary of his family line.

After the last changes in the mission we're living with Elder Vargas, from Bolivia; Elder Wilson, From Eden Utah as well. Elder Wilson calls Elder Salazar "Russell" because he kinda looks like Russell from the movie UP and he's got a similar personality: He'll often poke his head into the kitchen with a smile and whisper "buenas días!" and then go iron his shirt.

Working has been a whole lot of fun with the optimism and energy of a new missionary as my companion.  And I think that because of that same optimism we're going to have a whole lot of success here together. Whether it's a challenge or something good he always has the same reaction.  His catch phrase is "¡que bendición!" or "What a blessing!"

We're going to have some fun here.  I'd send a picture but I don't have any.  My SD card broke so I can't take anymore.  What a blessing...

I get some sent next week and I'll also stop being lazy about uploading to dropbox.

I'll talk to you all next week!  Let my know how the camping trip was!


Love, Cameron

The Pope, Wedding, Party, Ward activity, Rock concert.

Hola,

So last Monday was a big pain in the butt because the Pope came to visit.

PEOPLE HERE WENT NUTS.  He went to my old zone in Guayaquil in Parque Semanas and then went to Quito the next day.  From there he went to Bolivia.  As missionaries we were assigned to stay in our sector from the p-day.  From what I saw on the TVs, el papa Francisco is a really cool guy.
It´s not a bad thing to be a part of another church.  However, the authority to be saved only exists in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that authority only cames through exact obedience to his organization and commandments and by the laying on of hands by someone who has been called of God to have the same priesthood authority.

Last week was the last week of Elder Gutierrez, he´s in Guayaquil getting ready to leave as I write. Last week we sent him off with a bang.

Wedding, party, ward activity, rock concert.

On Friday we had a wedding! (The Howell Family may or may not have used $20 of my reserve to help them out with that.  THANKS :D)

We helped Melisa and Adrian Huacon get married en el civil.  They´re both members, we helped them reactivate and live the law of chastity.  They´re a happy family of three and we foresee them being very very active in the church from now on.  They´re already incredibly faithful to the Lord.



...I always forget that I´ve huge until I see pictures of me with other people...

After the Wedding we helped the ward plan a big wedding reception which turned into a party that we couldn´t see through to the end (curfew is 9:30pm.)

The following Saturday we threw on a ward mission activity planned by us, the missionaries.  It was a talent show and it was EXTREMELY successful.  People later came to over and said it was the best ward activity they have ever attended. And the attendance was incredible.  It was a mix activity between two wards, but the bishop said it had better attendance than the stake activities.

The Talents included cultural dances, skits, singing, etc...

We ended the night with a rock band that asked to come and play.





And the night was forever remembered.

And that´s all.  ¡Voy a entrenar!

I don´t have a new companion yet.  Turns out that I have to wait a little while for my new companion because he isn´t in Ecuador yet. I´ll update you all next week.  I´ll probably have a whole lot more to say by then.  I already have a more to say but my time is short.  I´ll write you all next week!  let me know if you have questions.

Love you all!

-Cameron

Fruitless post

Hey there!

I'm still here burning in Ecuador.  I'm sure it's pretty hot back home too as I recall, that 4th of July burns.  As for as the two and two I've put together goes, mom is on tour and dad is back home with the girls, therefore the forth of July was probably a little different this year, right?

How was it?  what did ya'll do?  We, as I predicted, didn't do much more than get together and sing a three part harmony of the national anthum really really loudly and terribly.  I wasn't able to make hamburgers as we were fasting that day.  I'll probably make them today.

Not too much has been happening.  I actually don't have too much to report.  Next week I'm going to get a new companion because Elder Gutierrez is finishing his mission.

I still can't get my pictures to upload so... I'm pretty much fruitless this week.  Sorry.

I'll write next week. :)

Love, Cameron

MTC training camp

I can´t seem to get computers to read my camera right now.  I think it´s the cable.  I´ll add that to the list of things I need to buy. :P

For now, another email without pictures.

Hello!

We have about 40+ youth here in the ward here, we thought it would be good to have a mini MTC for them so that they could know what it´s like to be a missionary for a day.  We did something similar in the stake in Guayaquil a little while back.

We did the activity last Saturday.  We had them study personally for an hour and as companions for an hour-  they almost died.  We explained to them that they had to stay with their companion at all times-  that almost killed them too, and most of them failed to stay together.

All and all I think everyone enjoyed themselves in the end.

I realized that it´s naturally difficult for lots of people to have someone by their side 100% of the time.  But somehow as missionaries we pull it off.  Doing so we keep ourselves and each other safe.
I´ve only ever had my companion hide from me once in my mission.

Apart from all that, things have been normal.  It´s been really really hot and my feet hurt a lot.  That´s life. I wish I had more to write... but I´m drawing a blank.  I´ll try to do better next week.

I love you all and hope you have a nice Forth of July.  I wont.  We don´t celebrate that here.
I might go find a really really American tie and play the national anthem really loudly.   ...and maybe buy some hot dogs to cook up too...    ...hm...

I changed my mind, apart from the fireworks, I´m going to have a good Forth of July.  I´ll let you know how it was next week.  Be sure to let me know how it was back home too.

Love you all!