Finding Faith in Christ‏

Here is Jeremiah's letter from earlier this week. We were out of town for vacation this past week and I didn't get it posted earlier.

You might've heard a bit in the news, but Ecuador's been having a really tough time, economically. Things got even worse after the earthquake a few months ago. The government's struggling, and so is everyone. When we visit people, members, non members, everyone talks about how hard things are. I suppose that some sifting always needs to take place - it's been a trial for lots of people, members included. But it's great being a missionary because it means I can teach them how to get out of those rough spots...keeping the commandments! As representatives of Christ we can make people very specific promises if they keep the commandments, which is always great. It's just hard when people...don't keep the commandments! But I know if we keep the Sabbath day holy and pay our tithing, everything will work out. I'm sure I'll be on the other end of the stick someday, too...

This time of year is also a bit rough for missionary work among the natives, because right now it's the "sun festival," or something like that. There are just big parties every week and everyone goes out "dancing" (they just kind of walk around in a big circle and call that dancing). It's tough on church attendance. Just...keep the Sabbath day holy, gosh!

Yesterday was of course fast Sunday. It's never been my favorite here in the mission, but I realized as I studied Saturday morning that more than anything my attitude prevented me from really enjoying fasting. I realized this as I read D&C 59:13-15 :

 13 And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting‍ may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy‍ may be full.

 14 Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.

 15 And inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts‍ and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance—

I hadn’t really paid attention to the words used here. It’s described as something joyful! I realized that I should try my best to let it be something joyful, not something that gets me down and makes me want to sleep in sacrament meeting. I like promises in the next few verses as well:

16 Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness‍ of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;

 17 Yea, and the herb, and the good‍ things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

So this last fast Sunday I worked a bit more on my personal conversion. That Saturday, we tried to stop by a recently-rescued member and his non-member wife who were having some problems. We had planned to see the church movie "Finding Faith in Christ" with them, which has become one of my favorites out in the field. I think it's really heartfelt (even though it of course suffers from slightly-unreal acting inherent in any church movie) and I love the way it talks about finding faith when we have lots of doubts. I love the Spirit I feel as it portrays the Savior and what He did for us. It helped me renew my testimony of Him, which is one of the most precious things I have obtained in this life. Yesterday I was also reading in Mosiah 3 and I love what King Benjamin says about Christ:

 5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent‍ who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity‍ to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle‍ of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind‍ to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

 6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits‍ which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood‍ cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish‍ for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

 8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father‍ of heaven and earth, the Creator‍ of all things from the beginning; and his mother‍ shall be called Mary.

 9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation‍ might come unto the children of men even through faith‍ on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge‍ him, and shall crucify‍ him.

 10 And he shall rise‍ the third‍ day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge‍ the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men

17 And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no‍ other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation‍ can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord‍ Omnipotent.

When I read about Christ I feel the way King Benjamin's people did after he explained all this:

 1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel‍ of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen‍ to the earth, for the fear‍ of the Lord had come upon them.

 2 And they had viewed‍ themselves in their own carnal‍ state, even less‍ than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, andapply the atoning‍ blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created‍ heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.

 3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission‍ of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith‍ which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words‍ which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.

More than anything I'm grateful for a knowledge of my Savior. If nothing else, I can share my testimony and I hope you can achieve your own.

I know that He lives and that He really is our Savior.

As a side note I also found this great scripture this week in D&C 78:19.

 19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness‍ shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

Always remember to be grateful! And you'll get more. :) Love you all lots!

There are always chickens running around here.

Doing some service.

We ate shrimp today. Delicious.

Tomorrow

This is Jeremiah's letter from last week. I was at Girls Camp all week and was unable to send it. Thanks for all your support and prayers for Elder Scanlan!

This week was pretty great and pretty hard. Just like practically every other week.

We started out desperately searching for new people to teach. We hadn't found hardly any new people in the last few weeks, so we were trying our best to see what we could do to find new people. We started out trying to really pray harder for it, in the first place. We took as a model Alma in Alma 31:

 34 O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may havesuccess in bringing them again unto thee in Christ.

 35 Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord,power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren,again unto thee.

And we had some miracles! First of all, our primary president had "forwarded" a referral to us that she had received from somebody else - who, we weren't sure, but hey , it was a referral. After a few tries we managed to find them and teach them, and they turned out to be super receptive! We were ending the lesson when I suddenly remembered the circumstances and asked, "Hey, did you guys talk with a member of our church or something to have us come?" And they were like, "Well, there was this one lady talked about the missionaries, but I don't remember her name...she's from Chaltura, she sells honey..." And I knew INSTANTLY who it was. Laura Picuasi! She's this member I met who attends the branch I worked in while I was in Ibarra, and she was the same member who gave us the referral of the Pillajos, who we'd baptized in Ibarra! Wow! I was so happy. We need more members like that! I think Sister Picuasi's door-to-door honey business is really a scheme to share the Gospel sometimes. :)

Another fun experience we had: We were teaching some investigators and watching the 20 minute version of the Restoration movie...but it kept freezing up! I was kind of frustrated, and it decided to freeze up RIGHT before the first vision...so I said a prayer, but tried to be sincere, rather than just emitting an SOS like we sometimes do. I said, "If it's thy will, I know we can watch this movie." And it worked! I'm just glad it was the Lord's will and that he reminded me he can answer my prayers. :)

We also had...Pamela's baptism!! It went great. When she shared her feelings after the baptism she was very grateful, and we could feel the Spirit. I'm very grateful for the the chance to teach her. Now comes the potentially harder part...the retention! We've only won half the battle.

Apart from that, yesterday was pretty depressing, because apart from Pamela, who came for her confirmation, NOBODY came to church! I was really frustrated during a large part of the afternoon, and just really discouraged. Eventually I got over it, but it was pretty tough! Discouragement is tough! But here's something I love from Elder Holland's recent conference talk:

Only the adversary, the enemy of us all, would try toconvince us that the ideals [of the gospel] are depressing and unrealistic, that people don’t really improve, that no one really progresses. And why does Lucifer give that speech? Because he knows he can’t improve, he can’t progress, that worlds without end he will never have a bright tomorrow. He is a miserable man bound by eternal limitations, and he wants you to be miserable too. Well, don’t fall for that. With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed.

...If we give our heart to God, if welove the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow—and every other day—is ultimately going to bemagnificent,...

I love that! I hope you can realize it, too. Love you all tons!

Baptism!!

I finally got to try "caldo de 31," a soup made from cow intestines. I'd heard horrible things about this, but it wasn't really that bad...of course it was a lot better after squeezing like half a lime into it...

We did service for the patriarch, who attends our ward.

We were just working a bit in his field. I think they're peas.

The Last* Supper

President invited everyone going home in my group to a special little lunch in the mission home this Tuesday. It was most definitely a going-away thing for him and his wife (They end their mission next week!), but right off the bat, he said "We're happy to have you here, but there's just one rule: No getting trunky." It was a fun little moment with them. Sister Richardson had made lasagna, probably the first time I've had it in over a year. I almost didn't even touch the rice they'd given us, but I had about 4-5 helpings of lasagna. That was pretty great. Apart from that we saw a few videos from the mission and had a mock final testimony meeting.

It was a good meeting, and of course went on for a good while (especially when the sister missionaries all shared super long testimonies). The testimony that impacted me most was from Elder Green, an elder from my group who I haven't seen hardly at all in all the time we've been in the mission. He stood in front of us and said something along these lines, very simply: "You guys know I'm not one for words. I'm a nerd from the country of the US." Then he began to tear up. "I know Christ is our savior, and all I want to do is share that with others. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." We could all feel the Spirit. It really ended up motivating me - I still have time to find, teach, and baptize people! It just reminded me that the main motivation I have for being here is to help others understand and get to know the Atonement.

So it was then pretty frustrating to have a rather meh week, especially because it was kind of our own doing. I feel like there were many more people to contact and talk to in the streets and more ways to exercise our faith. More than anything I don't like knowing that we've ever wasted the Lord's time. On top of that, I need to be a good example for the missionaries in my district and my trainee. But we did have some good moments.

Pamela Flores has a date for this Saturday! We were scared for a moment because her brother and sister-in-law had scheduled to baptize their kids in the Catholic church for that same day, and Pamela wanted for them to be able to come to her baptism, which was going to be pretty impossible if they were both the same day. So she wanted to change her date, but we managed to share scriptures and follow the spirit so that she'd accept for the 25th. She had her baptismal interview and everything, and she's very prepared! It's pretty incredible - her mom tells us that she never wanted to accept missionaries before, but when we came, she just all of a sudden felt like she needed to listen to us. We were her chosen companionship, I guess! What a blessing. I'm just happy their family is happy. Now to work on her other nonmember siblings... :)

Apart from that yesterday was stake conference for the Imbabura stake. The temple president from Guayaquil was there, and he gave a great talk about the importance of going to the temple. He talked about how the path to the celestial kingdom always goes through the temple, and the temple recommend is basically our passport to get there. It really made me want to go to the temple, even though we can't in this mission. An elder from my group was sitting behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey, I think we need to talk to President after this. Our recommends are about to expire." And I was like "Oh shoot, you're right."

Turns out that was probably the last time I'll see President and his wife. So as we were leaving we said some more official goodbyes, that it isn't for long, because he said, "Elder Scanlan, we'll see you in Utah!"

But I've still got plenty of time. My dream (and prayer) is to find a family to teach and baptize, still. It can be done! I'm sure I'll have lots of miracles to share with you guys next week. See ya!

The last supper.

Right now is Inty Raymi, the sun festival, and what people do is go around to the different houses with a group and they dance in a circle. The tradition is to give the dancers food. This particular group dances outside our neighbor's house like every other day.

 Today we checked out this museum in Atuntaqui that was once a textile factory. It was pretty cool.

 Outside the factory. The story is that when things got really bad in the factory in 60s, the workers lynched the factory owner and dragged him all the way down to the main plaza in Atuntaqui, where they burned him. Cool.

And They Didn't Even Give Us Guinea Pig!

Lemme tell you, the waikis really know how to party here.

The natives have some pretty crazy traditions, and marriage has got to be one of the most stressful things ever. First of all, just for the proposal the tradition is to load up trucks full of soda, potatoes, fruit, rice, and pretty much any kind of food and caravan down to the house of the bride to present the offering. That's just the proposal. And for the actual marriage every third cousin twice removed gets invited - which basically means the entire community comes down to party. If they're not members of the church, there are normally copious amounts of alcohol as well.

One of the members of our ward is getting married, and it just so happens that it was his family's turn to give us lunch the same day they were preparing for his proposal. We got to their house and their whole family was peeling potatoes - so of course we started helping. I think we were peeling potatoes for like an hour before we finally took a break for lunch (and there were still several sacks of potatoes to be peeled). Of course, they'd only had time to make a chicken soup, so that's all we got to eat, because we of course had to go out to work since we'd already gotten behind on some appointments. I mean, it was tasty, but lunch is almost never just soup. We could see that they were skinning guinea pig to cook, which I'm assuming was going to be the next plate. But yeah, we kind of didn't have time for that. At least we could do some service.

I'm pretty grateful for my companion - newbies are the best because lots of times they have way more faith than us old geezers in the mission. We went to visit Pamela, an investigator who'd had a baptismal date a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten to her date because she didn't feel ready. We weren't really sure what to do with her - as we started the lesson I prayed to know what to do and felt we should just open the Book of Mormon and start reading. So yeah, we did...but then she opened to like Alma 46 or something, one of those war chapters that just doesn't talk about anything at all. We read the whole thing and not a drop of inspiration had come. I was starting to get depressed about it but somehow the topic turned to baptism, I don't remember how. And then my companion just...invited her to a baptismal date!

And she said yes!

So yeah, she's pretty much locked in to be baptized for the 25th. It was a really spiritual day, honestly. I'm so glad my companion could exercise his faith and show me up like that.

This week we've also been studying testimony in the 12 weeks program, and studying that I've realized that testimonies truly don't need to be flowery or have really crazy experience. I've always liked a story by Brigham Young where he talks about how he listened to the missionaries for a while but never got converted by listening to the "powerful" testimonies others shared. But when he heard a man without much confidence nor eloquence bear his simple testimony, he felt the Spirit.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that this is God's true church. I know that Christ is our savior, and I know that He lives. Those are the things that matter most to me.

Til next week!

We have to cross this canyon to get to Imantag, one of the far-away parts of the sector.

 Eating doughnuts in Ibarra today.

Imbabura for the millionth time.

We went to see this lake, called Yahuarcocha, but it was kind of lame.

Power Hour!

As district leader every week I have to think about what I'll be training on in the district meeting that week and also a plan that we can implement as a district to help us with the challenges we have as a district. We've been having a really rough time finding new investigators, so I decided to focus on that, and with the help of our zone leaders, came up with the Power Hour. Basically the idea is that we just dedicate an hour every day specifically to finding new investigators, whether by contacting, looking for future investigators, etc...It went pretty well, and at the very least in OUR sector, we had some great experiences.

One day we went out to the part of our sector that's farthest away from us, in a town called Imantag. We were looking for a person we'd contacted a while back and were asking around to see if anyone knew her. Finally there was a lady who pointed us in the right direction, so we headed out to find the house. Turns out that the lady was her mother in law, and lived right next door, so she ended up walking us the whole way down to this person's house. We found the person we were looking for, but had to arrange for another appointment. Since it was Power Hour, I was thinking, "shoot, we need to find SOMEONE to teach..." And the lady who'd taken us there was still around, so I had the courage to talk to her...and guess what, we could manage to get a lesson! A new investigator!

Last night, we were also looking for a person my companion had contacted a few days ago. Turns out they weren't home, and it was late, so we started back towards the house. We hadn't gone a block when suddenly I saw a certain door with the lights on and had to stop. "Hang on," I said, "this door calls my attention." "Me too," my companion said. So we knocked on the door and a younger guy answered - we talked a bit and got out an appointment for another day. I think it was interesting just because my companion and I both felt that spiritual impression. It's been a while since I've felt something like that.

Unfortunately, our people with a date couldn't come to church. Juan got stuck in Quito with work, and it looks like Anderson's parents might've changed their minds from what they'd said - they'd told us it didn't really matter to them if he joined a non-Catholic church, but people have told us they've changed their minds. That was pretty frustrating, but at the same time, I know we're trying. Some things we really can't control. But we have the goal to have 3 baptisms this month and I know we can do it!

This week was a fun week for food, too. There's a sister missionary who gave us recipes for brownies and banana bread that don't need an oven (because very few houses in the mission have an oven), which has been awesome. I think of the 7 days last week I ate banana bread on 5 of them. While on divisions with my zone leader our lunch appointment fell through, so what did we make in the house to eat? ...Banana bread.

There's also this thing here called Pony Malta. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent in the States. It's a drink they make from oats (I think). It's never been my favorite, but my zone leader showed me that you can whisk eggs and then throw Pony Malta in there, and it turns out really creamy and delicious. So that's my new favorite thing.

This week in the 12 weeks program (the training for new missionaries) we were studying the Book of Mormon, and there was a part from a talk by Elder Holland that I loved. Of course it's better listening to him say it, but you can imagine his delivery:

For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it,unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”10

I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of offence,”11 a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man,” they declared. “Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.”12

Bam.

Anyhow those are my thoughts for this week. Love you all lots!

Cotacachi.

Doin' service.

Today I tried out rice with shrimp and concha (not sure what that translates to...some kind of shellfish). Darn good.

I got this sweater custom made.

See You On The Other Side...

It has begun.

My group of missionaries, the group that came here before us, and the group before that together make up a good third of the mission. And one of those groups finished their mission this week. It's just crazy how fast time flies. I had a bunch of friends in that group. We all graduate high school in 2014, came to the mission, started around the same time...and we'll be going back at the same time, too. Nuts. I saw a bunch of these guys when I went to Quito this week (we were there a couple days for visa stuff for my companion), and I can get a sense of what it'll be like to come home. I think it just happens...so fast, more than anything. So darn fast.

Anyhow like I said, we went to Quito, not only for visa stuff, but also for something called "verifications." At the end of a new missionary's first transfer, they bring him and his trainer back to Quito. They just make sure that the trainers are doing a good job teaching the newbies how to plan, use the are book, etc. It was a good experience.

In that meeting, President pulls out two small wood statues that he had made in Ibarra. they're of missionaries - one kind of unfinished, with a lot of rough edges still, and the other nice and shiny and finished. He talks about how we all start out with a few rough edges but eventually become like the well-polished, finished missionary. It's a tough process, and involves a lot of refining from the Lord's part, but it's oh so worth it in the end. Like it says in Malachi, "for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap." It testify of that, but I'm glad to say that I feel like most of my rough edges have been worked out and sanded off. I know that if we put our lives in the Lord's hands he will make something of us far greater than anything we would make of ourselves!

While I was in Quito I also had the opportunity to work with one of the missionaries in my group who's now a zone leader in Quito. It was cool working with him, but what most impacted me was the change that he had had as well in the mission. He'd told me a bit of his story from before the mission, and for me to see the change from what he'd told me before and what I saw was amazing. I testify that Christ can change us and His Atonement allows good men to become better! There's really nothing He can't do.

Learning about impossible things this week, I also liked reading a talk from last conference by Elder Arnold. While in the offices I finally got my hand on the conference Ensign. I like what he says about going to the rescue:

President Thomas S. Monson, who has sounded the clarion call to go to the rescue, noted, “Our members need to be reminded that it is never too late when it comes to our … less-active members … who could have been considered a hopeless cause.”

Like many of you, I have shared the gospel with some who are soon baptized or activated, and others—such as my nonmember friend Tim and his less-active wife, Charlene—take much more time.

For over 25 years I engaged Tim in gospel conversations and took Tim and Charlene to temple open houses. Others joined the rescue; however, Tim declined each invitation made to meet with the missionaries.

One weekend I was assigned to preside at a stake conference. I had asked the stake president to fast and pray about whom we should visit. I was shocked when he handed me the name of my friend Tim. When Tim’s bishop, the stake president, and I knocked on the door, Tim opened it, looked at me, looked at the bishop, and then said, “Bishop, I thought you told me you were going to bring somebody special!”

Then Tim laughed and said, “Come on in, Merv.” A miracle occurred that day. Tim has now been baptized, and he and Charlene have been sealed in the temple. We must never give up.

Never give up! I suppose we had our own little experience with that this week - we'd been teaching a less-active called Andres and his wife for a few weeks, but they'd had minimal progress. Well, none whatsoever, really. Yesterday we'd even planned on how to we would drop them in the next lesson we were going to have with them that night. When we got there, we followed up on their commitments, and weren't surprised to hear that they hadn't done anything. But something stopped me from sharing what we had planned. Instead, we read King Benjamin's speech with them, because they'd talked about how grateful they were for their blessings. I've always loved these scriptures:

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice,and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land;and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

Well we felt the spirit in that lesson and decided to keep helping them! I know that this is a labor of love, and we really want the best for these people.

Our other investigators with a baptismal date are doing well, which was a huge blessing, considering the fact that we had lost so much time in Quito. Anyhow, that's that. Hope you're all doing well at home!

We found a good encebollado place in our sector.

Coming back from Quito in the bus.

Some scenery in the sector. 

Indiana Jones Wild Ride

Don't have much time to write, because more people e-mailed me than usual but that's what I want anyways.

Wednesday, at about 3 in the morning, I was sound asleep until Elder Molina woke me up - right away I realized we were in another earthquake. It was pretty darn strong - my companion was actually kind of scared and already searching for his flip flops to run outside. We live in the second floor so we could definitely feel it. It went by pretty fast, though, so I just went back to sleep.

Later that day we had interviews with President. My companion was in his interview and I was talking with Sister Richardson when the second round hit. Like they say, it feels a lot like you're in a boat. Everything rocks back and forth. This one was strong too, and it just kept going. Sister Richardson was a little worried - she was telling me that a few weeks earlier she'd had a dream where she felt like she was in "Indiana Jones Wild Ride" and since then she'd been afraid of another earthquake. One of the assistants came over and she was like, "This feels just like my dream." The assistants and President and she all tried calling the missionaries in the coast, but the lines were down. Everyone stayed pretty calm, though. Later on we heard that everyone was ok. It sounds like it didn't do much damage in the coast, but it was close to being the same thing as last time. People have been telling us that according to the news channels we're in for at least another few months of this. Kind of crazy, but I can't say I'm particularly worried. If Imbabura exploded, that'd be a different story, because I kind of live right beneath it.

Interviews went well, by the way. It's been amazing seeing the progress I've had in the mission. I know that the Lord puts us through these trials to help us learn. I'm sure I'll keep getting as much as I can out of it in these last few months. Chao!

My companion taught me some Peruvian dishes this week. Here's some pollo estofado.

The house is a little farther up this road. That's Imbabura, on a rare clear day.

 It's been really pretty out lately.