#71 NOCHE BLANCA (12/24/19)

December 24, 2019

Otavalo, Ecuador

Elder Mundell

Hello Family and Friends,I've got Stories now. Elder Mundell is awesome and we have the spirit. My last companion and I choked but he left and this week we found just as many new people as in my last 5 weeks with my old companion.23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?White Night(Baptism night)So at the beginning of the week we had 7 people with a baptismal date for Saturday. The Stake Pres thought it would be more but this month we hit the Zone record. Monday 3 people backed out but then we had some miracles in the Zone and 6 people got baptised last second (they were ready, just didn't want to make the decision before hand). I baptised Milton Ordonez and his son Steven and wow it was amazing. They got confirmed and we met his other 2 kids Daniel and Javier. It was a ton of stress planing it, but worth it. And now we are starting to teach his kids. He has already taught them a little.The Rodriguez family is better. We visited the whole family and the wife is still kinda upset because she doesn't want to show that she lost( ugh women. haha just kidding). But she was explaining that they had problems and we asked her what she wanted and she said ¨This. I want this. The Church, and my family forever ̈. AND WHAT THE HECK THE SPIRIT HIT LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN. I HAVE NEVER FELT ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN MY YEAR AND A HALF AS A MISSIONARY. We didn't have much time to teach the whole plan of salvation, so I whipped out my Temple magazine and she was like¨oh, I was studying about temples and baptisms for the dead ̈.Wow. Then we finished and they asked us how to pay tithing and I said, "ya we will explain that later ̈. She replied ̈no, we want to know, we want this and we want to be involved in it all." They started their papers so in about a month they can get married and baptised.Man they are the best.We found some cool new people, and on wednesday we went up to a house and like 5 little kids came running out but their mom wouldn't come out, so I gave the kids some balloons to play with and we returned Saturday morning and found the dad and offered service. He said no, so I played deaf and started working and it startled him like crazy. We worked till we had to leave and we explained that we are missionaries and we would be visiting their neighbor in 5 days so he said we could pass by to visit them as well.SERVICE!!!Merry Christmas!-Elder Hallsted