Stay Away From Rabbit

Well, I'm 20!  Great birthday last week.  So this past week was good and bad in parts. The bad first. My companion and the sister missionaries and I have all wanted to eat cuy (Guinea Pig) so our investigator Bryan made us some cuy....but it turned out to be rabbit....he fed us rabbit and it was so gross haha it kinda made us all sick all week but that was good because now I can say that I have eaten rabbit and never have to eat it again! 

My new companion who I am training is scared at times to talk in front of people (and sometimes so am I) but I decided to be a good example for him so this past week we talked while riding on the bus here and preached in front of like 50 people each time and it was so scary haha!  The first time the bus hit a huge bump going like 20 mph and I fell over and it was so funny but it felt good to preach and share our testimonies in front of a bunch of people!  Also we had a pretty weird lesson this past week. We have a family here that has been investagating the church for 5 months and we somehow in our lesson started to talk about baptizme and baptizms in the temple and they told us that our church was not true because there isn't water in Africa to baptize people and they told us to stop coming by....so yeah that was weird haha!  

Some good news now.  We might have a baptizme this week!  He actually hasn't had really any lessons but he has everything else that he needs! So we are going to go hard this week and teach everything so that we can maybe get a baptizme this week here in Cuenca!  That would be so awesome!  Other than that the work here is going along and we are really trying to talk to everyone we see and it seems to be going well!  Our goal this week is to talk to 84 people as a district and get some awesome new investagators!  Last night, we had a family night lesson with about 20 members and I taught the lesson.  It was a little scary but it all went well!

We went to the mall today for pday because I was hoping to buy a new suit.  They didn't have my size in the pants so that was a bummer.  

Well, I hope all is well back home!  If you have some time read 3rd Nephi chapter 5!  I like it a lot!

Con Amor,

Elder Hoole

Also the new Transformers movie looks like it will be so cool hahaha!!!

Cuenca - Birthday and Photos!

Hola!

Well, this week has been awesome, crazy, very fast, and funny!  So first, as you know I am training and my son's name is Elder Quintana and he's from Lima Peru.  He is so cute and little and has so many questions!  I make sure to help him in anyway that I can!  He is a sweet and nice kid!  So training so far has been dope! 

Also this week we had Stake Conference here and it was great!  The Guayaquil Temple President came up and spoke to the stake of Cuenca and so did our Mission President!  Great talks for sure.  So when I went to church on Sunday, all of the HEFY (Humanitarian Especially For Youth program) kids were there and that was super weird to talk to people from Utah here!  hahah  But it was awesome! 

Well today is my birthday so big shout out to everyone that wished me a happy birthday!  Yes, it made my day! Yesterday at the church here the sister missionaries and the ward threw me a birthday party and it was so fun!  The ward here is great and really hard working!  My new companion and I are really working hard and training to find those people who are ready to hear the gospel!

Today we went to centro de Cuenca to shop and walk around and we found these hats (see photo) hahah!  I ate the best crepes today and we had pizza too.  Oh also, with the Spanish accent my last name sounds like HULK so everyone here calls me Elder Hulk hahah, so the sister missionaries bought me an Incredible Hulk action figure for my birthday!!! haha 

Not much else has happened here.  It is getting a lot colder and yesterday I ate cow stomach hahah! 

Welp hope all is well!

Con Amor
Elder Hoole

Fur hats!

 Cuenca monument

 Birthday cake and soda

 Birthday poster from companion and sister missionaries

 Chips, guacamole, cake and treats!

 Elder HULK 

 The best crepes ever!

Cuenca

Ecuador style hoodie

Good Bye Dinner with last companion

Dinner with companion and member

Missionary selfies!

Delicious

View of the city of Cuenca

Finding and Training in Cuenca

Well, this week was a pretty good week!  My companion had his last week in the mission and all the members wanted to take us to dinner and talk about the mission, so this past week I ate the best food that I have eaten the whole mission!  It was awesome!  

The work this week was so so.  We lost a baptizme date.  Se llama Brayan.  He is so awesome and loves to talk with us and he owns a restaurant and also hooks us up with free food all the time, but this last week he told us some stuff and yeah he needs a few more weeks to prepare!  But he is so awesome and he also just got a puppy and it is so cute!  Also we have a great new investigador!  Se llama Juan!  Yeah, we talked with him yesterday and his wife is a member and now he wants to learn and join the church in order to be married in the temple with his wife and he is a pretty cool dude, but we think maybe he's just getting baptized to make his wife happy.  But that's ok because a happy wife is a happy life right? haha! 

Well, also this week the APs called us and they told us who has transfers and what not, and they made me District Leader and also I will be training!  I am so excited and so scared haha but it should be awesome! I leave in the morning to Guayaquil to pick up my son (new trainee) and have training and then travel right back here to Cuenca for probably the next 4 months!  I am so excited for all of this, and also because we got a new Zone Leader!  Elder Roberts from Alta High!  He is so dope!  We all live together and it is going to be awesome!  All in all I am really doing well! 

P.S. Just a reminder...next week is my birthday haha

Con Amor +

Elder Hoole

Everyone!  Also Read Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon!  I love it! 

8 Months Down in Ecuador!

Well, today I hit my 8th month mark!  Crazy how fast time is going!  Later this month I will turn 20 years old!  HOLY COW!  I have learned so much these last 8 months and can't wait to learn some more! 

Well, this past week was pretty hard.  We almost had a baptism!  Unfortunately, she talked to some people who were full of untruths about the church and now she has lost her testimony and doesn't care to listen to us anymore.  So that was really hard this week, but we are going to have the sister missionaries return and teach her this week and see if that helps at all!  I really hope so!  Her name is Kerly and she's so awesome!  I really hope it all works out!  We also have another great investigador named Kevin and he is just a bro!  He is so awesome!  He is 31 years old and is so funny and he owns a restaurant and hooks us up with food. This last Sunday he came to church and he was so mad that the bread with the Sacrament didn't come with ham and cheese haha it was so funny!  The whole ward welcomed him in to the church and it was awesome! 

Other than that not much has happened. The other Elders and I have had a couple of sleepovers the past week, just talking about the mission and life. Every Elder in the house goes home either next week or next month so yeah the house is a little trunky and it has been hard for me haha but all is well!  This week should hopefully be better! We really need to find some more people to teach!  Pray for us!

Hope all is well!  I am SO happy to hear about Bob Paulson and the Paulson Familia! 

Con Amor

Elder Hoole