6 July 2015

July 6^th 2015

Well, there have been so many people- well, members, here in this area that have gone inactive, and they all have silly reasons, but mostly it is because they forgot the basics of the gospel and who they are, the joy that comes from discovering that! 

The branch here has been a branch for 40 years and in the last month and a half, the branch attendance has gone down by half!!!  Two weeks ago we only had 70 people at church!!!  It is very sad and it is hard to get the members here animated to help us...including the branch president!  But we keep trying and doing our best and it really is up to us! 

As we keep working and praying and having faith that there will be fruits from our labors, we will see the many miracles that He has promised us in every step along the way!!  It is an amazing opportunity that we have to be missionaries at this time to help hasten the work of salvation to all of our brothers and sisters in the world-- I just am lucky enough to get to love and help the beautiful people of Ecuador!!!

This week has been interesting, we had our mini conference on Friday and it was a very good conference- we talked about Helaman 46- about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty, and how Moroni put his reasons for fighting on the flag- and so our zone leaders had little white flags(of paper) for us and we wrote the reasons we are in the mission, the reasons we do the things we do, because they said that as missionaries we talk enough about the how of misisonary work but what is your why?

And as we thought about it, I thought about the members here in the branch and want to ask them the same question- why do you come to church? Are you doing the things you do because you know it is true and you have the desires to do so or are you simply going through the motions?   As we talked about this, as a district afterwards, there are so many members that aren’t even going through the motions- they just simply aren’t doing anything.

We finally got home teachers and visiting teachers but they still aren’t doing their job, they just don’t understand the importance of it-- there are so many people that if they had had their visits they wouldn’t have gone inactive, but we are hoping that one day they will learn the importance of it!!

Our district leader was talking to us the other day and said that in the next three transfers, there are like 80ish people going home, and that here in Pelileo, the people here are very difficult and don’t want to progress and that he thought that it was very possible that in the next couple transfers we could all be pulled out of here...so it will be interesting to see what happens!! 

We didn’t do a lot for the 4th either, but it was still good!  We made brownies and the elders made hamburgers and we were all dressed in red, white, and blue!  It was a very fun day to have all gringos in the district-- but it wasn’t all that big of a day.

Well, the best and worst of this week has got to be that we have been super trunky--mostly due to the fact that after this transfer, my companion only has one left… but that also means we have been talking about marriage quite a bit this week! Ha,ha!

We have also found some new people this week, so that made us quite happy, and we got permission to paint the walls in our house since they were a disgusting orange color, and we have been doing that!  It has been a lot of fun!!

The worst was the bus ride to Puyo for our zone reunion- and then back again... it is a 2 1/2 hour bus ride and the elevation changes and we are always nauseous when we get there and even more so coming home-- this week was definitely the worst for me! But all is good! 

I didn’t know that President Packer died until you told me, well, General Conference is going to be very interesting this time!!

I love you all soo much and I love hearing from you! I hope that next week I will actually get to hear from you, Katie, but I love you anyway!!!

Have an amazing week and don’t forget that the church is true and that your Heavenly Father loves you and is always there for you!!L

love always and forever-

karleejo