Thursday, March 26, 2015

Living with the Zone Leaders

So we found out this week that we will be living with the Zone Leaders for the rest of this change!!!  Its way fun being in the same house with other Elders.  We found a couple of new apartments that we could move into, but President said he will not be making a decision until the next transfer (in two weeks).  And our old apartment is pretty much unlivable without water or electricity so that's why we are with the Zone Leaders.

Anyways this week we found a bunch more people to teach and we also got Nelson (our investigator who's baptism fell through) to get excited about the church again.  Nelson has been working with the Missionaries for a little over a year now and it is kind of sad, every time he gets close to baptism something happens and he ends up not being able to.  We are the third group of Missionaries to teach him and we got him right up to the day of his baptism and members had heard rumors about him and didn't trust him so we decided it would be best to wait until we found out for sure that he rumors were not true.  So we had to tell him the day of his baptism that he had to wait.  It was super sad and hard to that to a person that has this happen to him so many times before.  We kept teaching him but it was different, he stopped reading and coming to church.  So we finally just asked him do you still want to be baptized?  He said no that it really didn't seem like he was meant to be baptized.  We then asked if wanted to continue to meet with us and he said no not really.  Me and my companion then began to ask him about his life and where and how it is going right now?  We taught him about the atonement and it life changing power.  We asked him if he felt better when he was following the commandments before or if he felt better when he was breaking them?  He started to weep and said he felt better before when he was keeping them and trying to get ready to be baptized.  He then apologized to us and said he was willing to do whatever it took to be baptized.  He came to church this Sunday and started to read again and he is happy again.  This guy has the most humble life I have ever seen, he lives in a small shack and collects bottles to make enough money to eat.  We just need to do all we can to keep him focused on whats really important so he doesn't slip into his old bad habits.

Now some other things that happened this week.  I went on divisions with someone in our district.  I was with Elder Equite from Guatemala he is awesome and we had a good time.  They have a small island in their sector that's like in the middle of the bay and I guess its below sea level or something because when its high tide some of the streets flood.  While we were at teaching appointment a bunch of the roads flooded and it took a while to get back out of there because we had to find a dry road.  Its really cool there because all the houses are built on stilts..

Something pretty funny happened to me and companion while were out trying to pick our investigators up for church.  There was this drunk guy that I think had been drunk since the night before, who started talking to us and would not stop.  So we told him we had to go but he could walk and talk with us if he wanted.  So he ended up following us all the way to church and came right in the church with us.  I think he started sobering up after about the third speaker in Sacrament meeting because he left to the bathroom.  He then left the church bought a water bottle and came back and actually participated in the classes which was awesome. hahh...  The after church he took out an appointment with us so I don't know if I should call that story a miracle or a dumb funny story but I thought it was pretty funny.

Love you all,
Elder Keyes




















Saturday, March 14, 2015

Another Week on the Coast!

Ya, so I'm on the Coast, its super hot and humid.  This past week our baptism fell through so we will have to wait for a little bit to see what happens with Nelson.  Anyways we found a ton of people to teach this week including another Gringo.  His name is Jud and him and his wife and his friends have been living in different parts of Ecuador for like six years studying different types of native music.  He is way cool and is from Boston.  It was really weird talking to someone else besides another Missionary about things.  Me and my companion even practiced how to teach in English after that because its way hard for us to not use incorrect grammar or words when we are teaching the gospel in English.

My companions name is Elder Hess and this is his last change before he goes home. He is a great Missionary and awesome to be with.  He was the financial secretary for  like 9 months.

Sorry I can't send pictures because this computer is super ghetto.

Love
Elder Keyes

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

My first week on the coast

This first week in a new sector was pretty different, it feels like a different Country.  The people here are really receptive to the gospel, they just struggle with following through on things like in most places.  Something cool when I got here we already have someone getting baptized at the end of this week.  His name is Nelson and he is one of the most humble men I have ever met, he has very little and doesn't ask anyone for anything.  I am also with a Gringo so I get to speak English a ton and he has way good Spanish so he helps me with Spanish a lot too.

Sorry that is all I have time for I will write more about the area next week.

Love,
Elder Keyes
Nothin like a Coconut after a hard day of Missionary work

Transfer to Esmeraldas

Hey everyone I'm doing good, I got transferred to the Esmeraldas.  It is pretty hot and humid and I don't have much time to write but here is a picture of Middle Earth.

Last Week Before Changes...

This change flew by, I will likely be leaving this sector next week.  But something cool happened this last week, the Vizcaino's got engaged.  Sadly I was on splits with the Zone Leaders when my companion found out but the Saturday before I gave them each a CTR ring that I got in one of my packages.  Then I guess sometime between then and Tuesday he proposed to her with them.  They don't have a date yet but I'm just glad they are still moving in the right direction.

We also ate dinner at a members house on Sunday who grew up in the States but is from Venezuela and then moved here with his family because Venezuela is a lawless country right now and not exactly a safe place to raise a family.  Anyways his wife made these super good empanada's and other Venezualean food.

That's pretty much all that happened this week and we haven't gotten eggs and water balloons thrown at us yet from the crazy holiday of carnival so pray that our luck holds up. 

Love you all
-Elder Keyes
Festival in Town

The Venezualoes

Got the Hammock setup