November

Wuakis and treasure hunting!!

Nov 9^th

well I’m still in quito and I didnt think that I would be able to learn so much Quichua but there are quite a few native laminates here.  So we had to use a translator a few times in our lessons. we also had a pipe burst in our house this past week so we have been sitting around watching a this dude pick away at our concrete wall I will send you guys pics but he thought it was like seven different pipes so he just kept going along the wall haha.

 we have a family progressing it’s the Tuquerez family they are from Otavalo and barely speak Spanish kinda like me so it makes for some super interesting lessons. I am back to not understanding anything because some member usually comes with us who can speak Quichua and he just teaches for us so it’s pretty cool I guess. 

  our ward is super cool and it actually functions like a ward should... like they keep up with their visiting and home teaching and stuff. there is a little native American kid in our ward whose name is Moroni and he is super cool and his dad is member of the high council so they are a super solid family. 

we also had our interview with president this week and on the way there my shoe got smashed in the door so my foot was hanging out the automatic door until the next stop. then on the way back my backpack got closed in the door so the straps from my backpack were cutting of my circulation for a few miles until we got to the next stop. I was also was hung in the air for a little bit as well haha it was really fun. 

Oh and I’m almost done with parasite pills so next week I shouldn’t have parasites!!

Elder Keyes 

Happy Birthday to me and Ryder!!

  

Nov 16^th

This week we were able to work super hard and it was pretty cool. I had to give three baptismal interviews this weekend and I have to give three more the next week.  So I guess you could say that things are going pretty good.
This week we had a pretty special experience with completing with goals. we had a goal set for 15 contacts and usually we just contact in the afternoons so after lunch we said a prayer to start off and I can really testify that that made all the difference. We were able to get 10 in the afternoon, and then we had our set lessons and our last lesson fell through it was getting late so we started down for the house right before we went down we talked with a family of 4. A little sad we started down on the last street of our sector 2 people passed by us, almost getting to the limit the third passed and my companion and I felt a strong urge to contact this third person, or God wasn’t going to give us another chance to reach our goal. We contacted him his name is Juan Fernando he is 45 and divorced, lives alone, he also hasn’t seen his daughter sense the divorce.  He recently got laid off, his house got broken into and they took everything and three days before we met him he got jumped and they stole the rest of the things he had.  I know he was prepared to receive us and it just so happened to be in the last possible minute that we could have found someone.

Sunday we had a ton of people attending we also had a few of the contact we had from Friday come so that was another miracle.
  today we were able to watch meet the Mormons with our zone and then they gave me a cake for my birthday.  And thank you everyone that could send me birthday wishes it means a lot!!

Love Elder Keyes

Baptism!

Nov 23^rd

This week went really well we were able to work really hard!

We met a teenage kid name Erick, and he has a ton of struggles. But since we first contacted him he has always been asking us what is this peaceful happy feeling he gets every time we talk to him. Every time we come back he looks happier and happier. We have only taught him three times and we can already see the gospel changing his life. It’s really amazing the sense of hope the restored gospel gives you.

Jessica also got baptized she is 19 and has a super strong testimony.  She told us a few days before her baptism that she wants to go on a mission, she is really converted and has some really good goals.  Her cousin was able to baptize her and her entire family are all super supportive.

We also had a few interviews this week so the sisters in our ward also are going to have a few baptisms this next week.

Love you all Elder Keyes!

Without Water

Nov 30^th

This was a pretty good week, only we didn’t have water for the majority of it. Supposedly the tanks ran out in our sector, which is weird because it’s been raining like crazy here.  So we had been showering at the zone leaders house for the last 4 days....

But the water came back and we were running around the house filling up bottles as if we were little kids in Africa and the red cross just showed up.. we got a little excited.

But this week we had a super intense lesson with Eric’s mom. (the kid I talked about last week)  Eric has been having a ton of struggles and we finally were able to teach his mom and she opened up to us. She gave the prayer and I have never heard so much love and concern in a prayer for her son. we are going back this week to so see how she is doing and continue helping her.

But today we were  able to have a district activity and we went to a little waterfall. It was pretty cool we also brought a bunch of food and had tacos at the top. we found some stinging nettles and so obviously we hit each other with it... it stung a bit but it was a pretty chill day!

Love you all Elder Keyes