Hey everyone!
This week was a very good week for us. We had zone conference and interviews with President Sloan. I still don't get tired of those conferences. My companion and I had to do the training part of the conference. It went very well. Today we watched the game of Chile vs Brasil, it was a qualifying game to get into the finals of the world cup, sorry Jared, Chile lost 3-0. We then went to a nice little restaurant and I had a plate called Churrasco, one of my favorites. It is a big grilled fillet of beef, a portion of rice, a portion of fries, 2 fried eggs and an avocado with some lettuce and tomato slices. DELICIOUS. Even though it may not sound very good. haha.
I am really enjoying my time here in Otavalo. President mentioned to me that I will most likely get changed here in 3 weeks. Its alright with me, I just told him if he changes me I want to go back to the coast! haha. This week we had 9 investigators come to church! It was one of my best weeks thus far on the mission. We have a new family of 6 that is investigating, all but the father came this week. The dad wanted to come but sunday morning while getting ready his work called and had him go help, so he couldn´t make it. There are the two parents, which ARE married, not very usual here, and they have 4 kids, Estefanía 11, Diego jr. 9, Shayla 8, and Cristofer 1. I have had some really good experiences every time that I have gone to teach them. After we finished the first lesson, teaching about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we simply asked how they felt, now knowing that God has called Prophets here on earth again, and that he has restored the true church on earth. The wife got a big smile on her face and said "To be honest with you, I´m catholic, this is the first time that I have ever accepted missionaries into my house with my family. But I´m glad I did. I never would have known. I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I´m so glad to know this now, and that we have more scriptures to help us do whats right". As you can imagine, I was shocked. And we asked how the dad felt, he had the same thing to say. After the lesson we left 3 Nephi 11 for them to read as a family, two days later we came back, upon simply opening the door the wife smiled and begged us to please come in, she would gather the family. Within moments the little kids came running, excited to tell us about what they read in the Book of Mormon. So we re-read a little with them to be sure they understood it well, they did. haha. After the lesson we asked if they would like to come to church with us and they all got big smiles on their faces and said "we would love to!". So that´s their story, we have another appointment with the family tomorrow evening. We are going to teach them about the plan of salvation. We are going to put the baptismal date with them, for July 10th. We are really excited for them. We also have 2 baptisms this weekend here. One of the guys, is Juan Villarreal. He is about 45, recently divorced, has 4 or 5 kids, but they don't talk. His life was ruined because of a bad drinking habit that he produced. He over the years has been to the church a couple of times. He has had a copy of the Book of Mormon in his bookshelf for over 25 years as well. A member of our ward knew that he had been previously to church and had found out about the divorce and other problems. The member introduced us and we have been visiting him ever since, thursday afternoon he passed his baptismal interview to be baptised this weekend. He is very happy, yet regret at the same time that he didn´t decide to change sooner. I will be sure to send pictures of the baptism. And we will hopefully have a family home evening in a members house with that investigator family this week. I will be sure to send pictures as well. I hope that all is well with everyone back home. Thank you all as always, for the letter and pictures! Love you all so much!
Elder Matthew Morris