Elder Max Hoole ~ Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission: Great Week!

Una Semana con bastante milagros!

Well, I'll start off my email with how my week started off. So it was last Wednesday in the afternoon and we were teaching our investigator, se llama Elkin (his cousin got baptized last week). Well, we were teaching him the good word and he told us in the lesson that in a couple of weeks he was going to be moving back with his mom in a different part of Guayaquil (and this same kid had the goal to be baptized for our Noche Blanca) so my companion and I just looked at each other and then back at the kid and invited him to be baptized last week! He had been to church 3 times with us but we have never seen or even talked to his mom! Crazy! So he was super pumped and said yes! So that very same day we just taught him every lesson again and told him that at 7pm we were going to pass by his house to take him to his interview to get baptized. Then later we passed by that same day in the night to go get him and his mom was actually there. Now remember, his mom doesn't know us because she actually doesn't even live here and she supposedly doesn't know anything about our church or that her child is about to get baptized later that week. So she sees us and then she comes up to us and was like, "Is my kid getting baptized in your church this week?" and we told her yes. And then she just said, "Ok, just don't be out too late!" and that was it. While she was great to support him and give permission, we still haven't seen her since! Super random and funny and also super awesome!!

Also our other investagator, se llama Tahis got baptized! She's awesome and her family is so cool! So first her little brother got baptized like 5 months ago and before he was a member he was a really wild kid, but he has changed so much that his sister saw his changes and wanted to get baptized! So she got baptized last week! Well, her parents aren't married and we have tried to really teach them and even hit them hard with teachings in Alma 5 and other scriptures to show them the importance of getting married. They kept telling us that they won't get married until February when they have more money and family is in town. Well, my companion and I did a fast last week during the week for Noche Blanca. We really want to hit our goals. So right before the baptism of Tahis (their daughter), her mom took us aside into another room and broke down, saying "My health is so bad and I'm struggling. We want to get married this month!!" My companion and I died! This family has been so hardhearted about their marriage and then BOOM!!! When they told us, we were all so surprised and then the whole family started crying and the members who were with us also started crying and the Spirit was so strong! So today, we went with a member who is awesome (works in Galapagos) and with the family and took out a date for them to get married NEXT FRIDAY!!!!! Which means that now their bautismo is 23 de diciembre!!! We are so pumped right now!!! It was awesome!!! Milagros!!! By the way, the members in this ward are so AWESOME! They drop everything to help us with missionary work and are so amazing! Legit I think they were super impressed with our dance moves haha.

Oh also I almost got robbed again last week trying to buy bread.

This Week: In the Book of Mormon, please read Ether 12:27, Moroni 7:33, and Alma 32:17-18.

Con Amor

Elder Hoole