My companion lit a member on fire
Feb 1st
So this last week we had a bbq with some members and well
like usual the coals were not lighting fast enough so we the great idea to use
paint thinner to help the coals get along a little better. Well I was fanning as my comp dumped a little
bit a paint thinner into the grill. And the flame followed the stream and well lit
my companions hand on fire, my comp got scared and threw the cup down and in
the process spread burning paint thinner all over the member that was standing
there. Luckily no one got hurt and all of the houses here are made of concrete
so nothing got burnt. But it was pretty crazy to see a person’s whole body on
fire..... The meat turned out great!
We also had a baptism!! The daughter of the Tuquerres family
got baptized. it was a good baptism even though it started a hour and half late
because the primary had an activity and the girl was in the activity they
forgot to tell her parents that they were going to go straight to the baptism.
So for about 45 minutes the Tuquerres family was waiting in there house for
her. But she went home and then came back down all dressed up. But ya it was a
good baptism.
But besides that nothing much happened
Love Elder Keyes
Carnival
Feb 8th
So this week is carnival and in this
sector it’s like the purge but instead of guns everyone has squirt guns and
water buckets! so it’s pretty cool here because we basically can’t work for
these two days because we get soaked if we walk down the wrong street. This
past week we have seen everything from kids launching water balloons into the
buses to people soaking people with buckets from rooftops!
Apart from that we were able to find
a few good families this week. We found two guys that were laying a concrete
floor to start to build their house. So we were able to offer some help and so
we mixed and loaded concrete for about an hour. We wrecked our dress pants and
our shoes but it was worth because we found 3 families just from this
service.
But besides this the coolest thing
that happening this next week is Elder Holland is coming to Ecuador and we are
all pretty excited about that especially because he is having a stake
conference with my stake! And then a meeting with the missionary’s the
following Wednesday!
But that’s about it love you all and
there are no pictures this week sorry :(
-Elder Keyes
Transfers
with a double Holland visit
Feb 15th
i got changed! I am now in Imbabura
(Otavalo) and well I am now in a ward that does not speak Spanish they speak
Kichwa where I am and now I’m going to have to learn a new language!.... again
but it’s all good Kichwa it kind of sounds like if you mixed Chinese with baby
language.
This Sunday (before the change) my
stake had the huge privilege to receive Elder Holland and wow the minute he
enters the room you can feel that he is a man called of god. He explained to us
a few miracles he made an Apostolic promise that if the wards keep the temple
in Guayaquil very busy then in a short time they will see a temple in Quito.
it’s kind of funny before I thought
to see an Apostle or listen to him up close I thought it would be the fear of
god he would strike into you. But it was the opposite you could only feel a genuine
unconditional love, and it honestly drives one to be better a lot more affectively
then fear haha. He bore his testimony in Spanish and I’m pretty sure that
everyone there was crying it was a pretty amazing experience.
And lucky I get to hear Elder Holland
tomorrow and Wednesday because he is coming to visit Otavalo and then Wednesday
we have the meeting with him with the missionary’s.
So that’s about all the cool stuff
that happened in my week
Love you All Elder Keyes
Week 1 in
the Shire
Feb 22nd
Welp this sector is pretty cool, it’s
also a lot of walking like a ton! it’s pretty cool here like all of the streets
are cobblestone and after the first few days my feet were killing as if I had
like 4 weeks in the mission again, but then again you see little old ladies
that look like they´re about 300 walking barefoot carrying about 60 pounds of
firewood so that they can cook the lunch. The people really are amazing here
and really, really tiny, I didn’t even think that God made people that small
but almost all the old people are like that and they hardly speak Spanish.
it’s really hard not to have a
love for these people Elder Holland said that every time he goes to South America
all of the 12 always ask him if he went to Otavalo because they think they are
such a great people. He also said that he believes this probably the only place
in the world where literally everyone could be members, and he prophesied 25
stakes with a 50% membership in Otavalo which was pretty cool to hear. Also
when Elder Holland spoke to our mission he didn’t have to lay the law down on
us because he felt a good spirit with our mission, he said we are lucky because
if he doesn’t feel a good spirit it gets ugly. But what he did tell us is that
if go inactive after the mission and he sees he will go ballistic. He talked
about how much the mission changed his life and how much it should change our
live. He said it was the most pivotal time in his entire life that he values more
than anything else that every good thing in his life he could trace back to his
mission. Really if you are not active in the church find a reason to get active
because when you find a love for the gospel it’s the best drug anyone could
find.
This sector is pretty cool there are
a lot of Catholics and they don’t like to talk to us very much but hey that’s
ok we will have to find other ways to teach them. Luckily the ward is in like
half Spanish and half Kichwa so I can understand haha. The members love to work
with us here so it’s going to fun to work with all of the wuakis here.
Welp that about all that happened
this last week!!
Love Elder Keyes
Road trip with the Bishop
Feb 29th
This week went pretty good we were
able to have a super powerful lesson with a part member family. The wife is
member of a church that still practices the Law of Moses and believes in Christ
and still does sacrifices so it’s a pretty crazy church oh and they also do thing
like crazy healing miracles like healing the blind and casting out demons. But after
we taught the restoration with members that testified and everything she
explained how she felt a peace that she had never felt before and it gave her
urges to read the Book of Mormon to figure out if this was all really true. We
explained how that’s exactly how Alma 32 explains the start of a testimony. She
is now super pumped and those super strong bonds we thought she had to her old
church just seemed to disappear, it just shows how much a testimony helps in
lessons.
we also went on a little road trip
this week to a community called imantag its like 1 hour in car outside of where
we usually work but it still counts as part of our ward. the bishop and other
leaders wanted to show us around there because there are members and also a lot
of old investigators. it was pretty cool we got to do some divisions with the
members and we got to know most the people that are members out there.
Well about the only other
interesting thing that happened this week is that during our studies our
neighbor butchered a pig and it sounded like they branding a baby with a hot
iron. It was pretty hard to focus that day in studies haha
Love you all Elder Keyes
