Elder Max Hoole ~ Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission: 1 Year Down!

Well, this week hits my 1 year mark in the mission!

If I wrote down everything that I have learned in this past year, I would never finish this email. But I thought I would share a few things that I have learned so far in the mission field:

1) God knows me personally.

2) Love everyone you meet.

3) God gives us trials so that we can find strength.

4) Faith is super powerful!

I could keep on going with this list, but this past week a lot happened!

1) We had a zone conferencia with 3 other zones here in Guayaquil with Presidente. As a mission, we are going to read the Book of Mormon together! We started Sunday morning and we will finish on May 31st next year! It's super cool! We always hear about the importancia of reading the Book of Mormon so it will be cool to do it as a mission!

2) Wednesday all the Zone Leaders had another meeting to figure out why we have been lacking in baptisms as a mission! We have had a difficult time lately, and need to figure out what is wrong. We need to do a better job with teaching the doctrine to the people we are teaching and also working more with the members.

3) In our zone last week, we got some super sad news. An elder's dad passed away. It has been super sad and hard for all of us. This particular missionary is a stud and from Peru. He has 8 months in the mission and is going to stay here and finish serving. Super sad for him but it is such a great act and example of faith to all of us.

4) I loved watch general conferencia this past weekend! Got me super trunky with seeing home. It looked like it was raining a bit in SLC!

This has been an awesome time out here in the mission! I have truly learned so much! Thanks for all the help with first year! This is the Church of Jesus Christ! If it wasn't, I would've dipped back home in week 4 of this thing haha! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that we have the fulness of the gospel here on the earth!

Thanks for everything.

Elder Hoole