January 9 ~ Mayo in Ecuador

Hola!

Well, I hit my 3 month mark in the mission this past week!  Man it has been hard, but it actually went by pretty fast! 

This last week was hard. We didn't get too many lessons in and it has been raining a ton! Kind of nice!  Anyway, fun fact for you - here in Ecuador they use Mayo like we use ranch or ketchup hahah  It's kind of gross but kind of good too. hahaha 

We are really teaching and working a lot.  We have a new investigator who is a girl here who is 13.  She's awesome!  We are hoping for a baptism Feb 4th!! 

Also BIG SHOUT OUT to my mommy!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Anyways... missions are hard.  Especially with no bueno health. I have faith that I will overcome these trials, but it is for sure hard sometimes! Thanks everyone for your prayers!  It means so much to me!

Hope all is well! 

Con amor,

Elder Hoole!

Recent Photos

 Special birthday message for Mom!

Sending love to everyone back home while at a member's home

 Eating lunch - there's not much he can eat due to tummy troubles!

 Scripture cover for English scriptures

- a member makes these for each of the missionaries

Scripture cover for Spanish language scriptures

 Two covers side by side

 Helping clean up after lunch!

 A New Year's Eve treat for the missionaries

 It's hot enough to enjoy a cold popsicle while out visiting!

 Amazonas Ward...Elder Hoole on far right

 A breakfast treat at a member's home

 Trying fresh mango and juice

  Maybe Oreos will help his tummy???  

Feliz Anos! ~ January 2, 2017

Happy New Year amigos! 

Well, this week went by fast!  It was hard, but we worked hard and are doing our best!  Somedays I still feel like Helen Keller would make a better missionary than me.  We both wouldn't understand the people but she could at least play the piano during Sacrament Meeting!  haha  No, but all is well with me. The language is coming along and I have improved sooo much. It is very hard to see the improvement but it is there! 

This week we taught a girl who is 13 years old and we invited her to get baptized on the 14th!  I really hope she follows through! We are really working with her!

Our investigator who just got baptized shared his testimony yesterday during church and it was awesome!  He is such a great guy and has such a strong testimony!  What a great example for me!

Well, for the New Year we had to be inside our house at 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday nights so we just chilled and watched 17 Miracles!  We also got a new Zone Leader!  He lives with us and he is from Tennessee and is so dope! His name's Elder Burton.  He is like 6'6 and just towers over everyone here!  It is pretty funny!  He is great.

And...we also got a late Christmas present today!  The missionaries can email for 1 hour now each week!!!! So dope!

Well, I hope all is well back home!  It is hot here lol

If you are thinking of a new goal to set for this year, you could write to Elder Hoole once a month!  So that is just 12 times total hahah! 

Love y'all! Church is true!

con amor 

Elder Hoole

p.s. Yesterday was my 4th Fast Sunday in the mission. THAT WAS FAST!

Merry Christmas!

This week was awesome!  Can't believe it is already another PDAY!  

This week - on Saturday all the Zones in Guayaquil got to have lunch with the Mission President and his family and play games.  It was awesome to see all the missionaries here!  After that, we had our first baptism in our area.  It was awesome!  I had the awesome opportunity to baptize Ricardo and it was a great experience!  He really has faith and loves the gospel.  And he knows English so it was awesome to get to talk with him! 

Crazy that I have now finished my 1st transfer in the mission!  It was sooooo hard but I have learned so much! Spanish is hard and it is hard to be away from family and friends but I know I will be blessed and that the Lord is here with me and helping me! 

The church is true!  God loves us and knows us! 

Alma 38

Con amor,

Elder Hoole

PS. Skyping the family was awesome!  I love them so much! Can't wait for Mother's Day haha!

 With missionaries from zone

 Ricardo's baptism day

 Elder Alvarado, me, Ricardo, family & friends

 Baptism day

 The trunky dollar bill!  A missionary tradition here!

 Lunch today!  Pizza!

 Elder Hoole has lost 15 pounds...he needs to eat that!

 Happy elders

Parque Samanes

Wow, this week was great!!  So our church puts on a Christmas festival each year here and it was this last Thursday-Sunday.  All of the North, South and West Guayaquil missions were invited to attend!  It was great to see so many missionaries! We had some missionaries dress up as the 3 wisemen and a sister missionary as Mary and I took pictures for people.  After taking their photo, we would get their information and we are going to reach out to them with their pictures, and also you know teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ!  It's a great way to spread the gospel!  I took well over 150 photos of just new investigators!  It was an awesome experience.

Sunday morning we walked into church and BAM the Bishop told us we had to give a talk that day in Sacrament meeting and that i was first!  Well, it was so bad hahah but I did my best and talked about faith and enduring to the end!  Well, that's about all this week!  Church is true!

Yes, it is hot here!

We have a baptism this weekend and we are super pumped! 

All is well!  Merry Christmas!

Con Amor

Elder Hoole

It's Hot As Heck Here!

Well this week was interesting haha!  I spent a day in a hospital this week.  (This part has been edited for TMI - just keep him and his digestive issues in your prayers! :) - Ann) The doctor was a great guy who is also LDS!  Also my toenail was having some problems so a member performed surgery on her front porch for me and well, all is well with me now!  So the members here are great!

I also finally ran into Elder Roberts here at a zone meeting! (Went to Alta High School) He gave me some great advice and man, has he grown up haha!

A family we are teaching here told us they don't want to hear from us anymore. They like coffee too much.....so we are invited and going back tonight to their house and we are going to do our best to get them to have faith!

We are also teaching this great guy who is 23 and is awesome! He was curious about life on other planets and he asked me about it.  As you know, my spanish is so bad but I pulled up a scripture that I couldn't remember having read before in Moses chapter 1 and it was awesome! So he's doing great and right now he is getting baptized next Saturday! (Christmas EVE) It's going to be awesome!

The work here is hard.  It is very unorganized and it gives me headaches but I've just gotta deal with it!
 All is well!  It. Is. Very. Hot. However, my Spanish is coming along everyday!

The Church is true!

Con amor,

Elder Hoole

All is well!  Keep the prayers coming!

Zone Conference

Eating lunch with the Torres family

Enjoying Chicken and Rice Tacos

The food is pretty good!

A fun lunch with his companion and a member family.

The members here are so kind!

Fun P-Day Island Visit and Pictures!

Hello! 

This week was great!  All the zones met up and went to the temple and it was great to see my old MTC companion and so many others!  The temple is great!  It is way crazy that I have now been on the mission for 2 months!  That was way fast and way hard haha!  Spanish is still hard!  I don't understand people and when I talk they don't understand my English accent!  Anyways it will come with time.  The Lord is just really testing my faith and patience! 

We had a family we are teaching come to church!  It was awesome!  I also bore my testimony and my Spanish was soo bad but it felt good!  So a family in our area is getting my companion and me PIZZA HUT!  We are so pumped! 

Sorry this update is way short.  We have a new rule in our mission.  We can only email for 30 minutes! So if I don't reply to you I'm really sorry but just know I'm always way happy you emailed me!  If you do email me, just try and do it by Sunday night.

Also, for P-day today we went out to an island and it was so cool and beautiful!  However, I got eaten by mosquitoes!  Hopefully I don't have ebola or something else now!

Love you all!

Elder Hoole

Mosiah 24:15-16

***I really do love to hear from all of you!  Again, sorry if I can't always reply now!!!!!

 Apartment

 Temple Day

 Meeting up with the zone

 Visiting the Island

 On bikes

 It's humid...lots of mosquitoes in these areas!

 Loving life in Ecuador!

 A different kind of investi-gator! :)

An island house