How Great Shall be your Joy!!

This week was a long week of going to our investigators houses that are preparing for baptism. Wednesday was a pretty disappointing day. Two of the other children that were preparing for baptism did not quite understand the word of wisdom and thought they could just chug coffee until the day of their baptism, so needless to say they did not pass their interview for the 13th, but they are preparing for this Saturday and they are on track. Also on Wednesday we discovered that the other two people preparing for baptism that just needed to get married, did not set up an appointment for their wedding and just walked in hoping everything would go well, so they have a visit this Friday and should be good to go. The best part about this week is that we did end up having our first baptism. John Jairo Nicola Ramirez who is 11 years old is officially one of the newest members of La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santo de los Ultimos Dias. He was confirmed in church this Sunday, his dad is security in one of the malls, they are still waiting for there visit this Friday (I assume from the government about their marriage), the reason he got baptized without them was because the parents know that even if you have all your papers and you are good to go, something can always come up with the system, some people have to wait years for marriage because of this. The ones that missed out are getting baptized this weekend instead because of the coffee; they just got to make sure not to drink it.  It was such a great experience and I look forward to a similar experience this Saturday The only difference is I need to work on my pronunciation of some of the words of the baptism prayer, this is one of the only fonts I have seen without a plaque that has the words, so you are just going off of memory, but this week was a pretty good week.

Everything is fine and the same with body. And the meeting we had today was a zone meeting telling us that we need to be practicing more. Even though most days comp study is replaced by meetings. But so the APs came today too, like I said they like our district. The senior AP had us all teach him today too, it was funny. It was the will you be baptized on this day question and with his response if it is a yes you need to promise blessings, testify the importance, and verify the date with them. if the answer is no you need to ask what impedes with the date, then say if I understand well this is the problem, they say yes, then you ask if there is anything more, they usually say no, and then you ask what they can do to help the problem, then you give them words of encouragement and a scripture to relate, then re-put the date, they say yes and it is the same steps. We were the last companionship to go and with every other of the 12 companionship the answer was yes and I do not know why he changed with us, but he did he said that the two week date was really fast. I kept a smile was encouraging hit every step put a great scripture and got the yes, and then hit the three end points. blew his mind because people who have been here for months more than I have do not answer the yes the way they are supposed to, I was happy.

Also, to answer some of dads questions. I study the Book of Mormon and bible every morning, but I do not really have spots where I am at, right now I am almost done finding a scripture for every point for every lesson for every commandment answers to things that could impede with baptisms and scripture mastery. Speaking of study, in second Nephi, Nephi is building a temple to god; he uses gold, silver, precious ores. and tries to make it like the temple of Solomon, but said it was not as good as the temple of Solomon, because they did not have the things there they needed. How crazy is that. Their temple was probable thousands of times more beautiful than salt lake and he said it was not up to par, but they did what they could. I am also praying every second of every day, there is so much prayer, occasionally I forget to write in my journal, but I go back and write later. My goals right now are to finish finding the scriptures I need to and to practice the lessons more and more so I can learn the language quicker. 

I love you bunches mom. mmmmmmuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh your elder Jesse

Simple Week

So this week was a pretty simple week.
Tuesday- We had our district meeting in the morning, and for some reason our zone is one of the favorites of the APs and they came and talked to us about goal setting. Their main point was that you need to set higher goals, and if you cannot reach the goal, it does not matter because at least you were trying to achieve a higher goal. This was mainly for General Conference and getting people to attend. Our original goal was 9 the new that we were told to make was 22, we ended up getting 6. The setting the higher goal to get higher numbers theory does not work...who knew. This Meeting ended up going until two, an hour after lunch. We are allowed and hour for lunch and an hour for dinner or you can take two hours for lunch. Most choose the two hour lunch, because it is filling and then you can talk with the members. So we left there at 4, picked up a member, who is leaving for his mission in march, to come with us. We talked to one of the families in the ward and received three references, so far no luck with contacting. We stopped in at the house of Familia Heredero and no one was there. At 8 We went to the house of Familia Nicola and had a great lesson on Forever Families and Temples.
Wednesday- Had another meeting this morning on planing for baptisms. Received 6 references from our zone leaders. Went to the Mission office for an interview and the mission president could not make it. Made it to Lunch at 4 and left at 6. Our district leader wanted to do the interviews of all of the kids of the families we were teaching today, because the parents still are not married so baptism days are not guaranteed. Familia Heredero was still not in there house today, so the interview just happened with John Jairo. He passed.
Thursday- No meetings lunch from 1 to 3. Tried contacting our references. Nothing yet. Finally the Heredero family is back and we were able to teach them the third lesson on the gospel of christ. Then we were going to teach the Nicola family, but Antonio did not end up coming home until late and we could not go in the house so we talked with John Jairo and Saudy.
Friday- Weekly planning, lunch at 2 to 4. Then tried to contact all day, with no results. No lesson with Familia Nicola or Familia Heredero.
Saturday- Did not have the opportunity to go to conference. Had lunch in the House today. Had some cake at the House of Hermana Vallejo, because it was her daughters birthday and did not get to leave until 5 to proselyte. At that point it was making sure investigators were ready for conference.
Sunday- Left the house at 9 for conference at 11 because no one is ever ready for church. Only got Familia Heredero and Familia Nicola to attend. Did the same thing for the Second session and Familia Heredero came back. After that it was a follow up on what they liked from conference.
Monday- Pday rest day.

When we talked to Jesse on Saturday, Bill asked about tracting and they call it windowing...they aren't allowed to knock on doors if they don't have a reference from a member.  They just go down the street and talk to people they see in the windows or people sitting on the front porch. He also told me they lost a sticky note with a list of investigators from another missionary set because they weren't in their area.  I asked if he found it, but he said no and they aren't worried the Lord with help us find them!  Good Faith!!!  I asked how he liked conference. He said: could not understand conference i got a headache from trying to translate so much. it was not fun i also hated not being able to hear the voices of our prophets and apostles  we did not have the opportunity to watch Saturdays, we can read lds.org and read the liahona for the talks, at least that is what i was told.

Jesse sent these pictures and I asked him how come he's in a suit, I thought it would be too hot.  We have to wear a suit for conference. it was so hot inside i could not take of the jacket because the inside was darker than the outside and my shirt made it look like i just took a shower.

  This family Is the Nicola Family with Antonio, Saudy, and John Jairo. The tall guy is Jesse's companion Elder Martinez. The other two short guys are the mission leader in his ward and one of the mission leaders old missionary companions (Jesse said he's not sure why he's there)
 In the bottom picture is the same guys only with one addition and he's a recent returned missionary.

This is the Heredero family with Josefina, Wendy, Andres, and Julian.  This is Roque, he is the boy that is getting ready to go on a mission and hangs with the missionaries a lot.

This is a picture of the Internet Cafe Jesse uses to email and use the internet.

I have to go now I look forward to next week and the opportunity to talk again.
Love, Jess.

The Strange and Unusual

In a few of the past blog posts I have indicated that Jesse has had some medical issues and has gone to the doctors a bunch, but had assured me that he was fine had some inflammation they gave him an antibiotic, no big deal.  Its really hard to know since we don't get much communication about it.  I wasn't sure whether I was going to blog about this, its kind of personal. But...I am an open book about stuff and I want this in his book so he can read it and remember.  Documentation is a good thing, right?!?
On Tuesday, I received a phone call from the Stake President, he starts out with everything's fine, but... Well I don't care who you are those are frightening words when they come from the Stake President about your kid who's thousands of miles away and not readily reachable by phone!!!  "Jesse's has been having trouble with blood in his urine and he's been to 3 doctors in Ecuador and they can't really figure out what's wrong, his Mission President is recommending sending him home for more tests."  Ummm, what?  Sending him home...I thought it was a UTI and he was fine? He gave me the name and number of the guy in Salt Lake so we could get more info.  I was a mess at this point, so I called Bill and he called Salt Lake.  They were ready to close his case when they received a call that morning saying there was more problems, they were down to 3 things...prostitis, cystitis, or cancer. (We had talked to our doctor when Jesse had the problem when he first got to Ecuador and he told us not to worry, he told Bill these same 3 things but the odds of a kid Jesse's age with that kind of cancer was very very slim.)  But they would contact the Mission President and have him send us a number to reach Jesse at so we could talk this over with him.  Remember I said this was Tuesday...by Friday afternoon...still nothing!! I was a bit of a mess...I seriously need to think about being medicated!!!  Friday night I decided to send an email to his mission president, not sure that was okay, but I didn't think I could make it till Monday!!!   This morning he sent me an email back and said he'd talked to Jesse that morning and he told him to call me.
Jesse called us at 11am (noon there), it was soooo good to hear his voice, but he sounded annoyed!!!  The President had called him and asked if he wanted to talk to his mom, this was Jesse's reply...well sure I always want to talk to her, but I will talk to her in a month so why do I need to call her today?!?  He said no Jesse you need to call your mom she thinks you have cancer! Then he explained a little more.  That's not really what I thought actually, it was just one of the things on the list the guy in Salt Lake told us.  After talking to Jesse, what seemed like a major issue when hearing all these peoples versions, ended up being maybe a bit of overkill on the Doctors end in Ecuador?  He'd had this happen once before he left and we were told it was just a UTI they gave him medicine and he was fine. So here's the situation on two seperate occasions after going to the bathroom he had a couple of little drops of blood, the first time was the first week in Ecuador, the second time was just last Saturday (5 weeks apart) and he thinks he was dehydrated. After the first time he called the mission nurses and they told him to go to the doctor and get it resolved.  The doctors did blood work, urine tests, an ultra sound, and a CT scan, and had him sit in his apartment for a week (overkill??)  Jesse told me they've ruled out cancer so to not worry about that (I wasn't really...but we all know it was in the back of my mind...right?)  He even said they told him if he came home for tests it would just be for one maybe two weeks then he'd go right back, but a couple of the tests they wanted performed are better to do here in the states.
All in all its been a bit of a stressful week.  I prayed a lot and went to the temple, I am so grateful for the comfort of the Holy Ghost!!! One of these day's maybe I will be more in tune so I don't have to fret so much!  I have to say I wasn't really worried about his health per-say  more like the trauma of being sent home, even if it is only for a week or two. It didn't really help not having any details either.  Just vague descriptions of what might be happening.  I am glad I got to talk to him though.  I talked to our doctor on Tuesday and he gave me questions to ask that would cause red flags...nothing...no pain, discomfort, no major loss of blood (only a drop or two) no problems at all just a bit of an inconvenience.
After talking to Jesse we feel much better.  His mission president is out of the country for a few days and has an appointment to meet with Jesse on Wednesday.  We talked it over with Jesse and we feel like its not that big of a deal and they need to wait it out a little longer before they send him back to the states for more tests. Our doctor told us that prostitis and cystitis can be fixed with antibiotics so were not really sure why he needs more tests...just hit it with antibiotics!!!  We should find out in a week or so what they decide, but we are feeling much better now!!!
Now since this is out in the open I have to give you another of his stories!!!

So I knew he had a Dr.s appt (didn't know about all the tests) , I had asked him how he was feeling and what the Dr.s said...I got this picture in the email and this statement...i only have inflammation. it is from walking a lot and walking ¨bad¨ i have no clue what that means. i am supposed to drink water, take pills and quit walking like a retard. lol.

He makes me laugh!!!  I am sure this is more information than most of you wanted to read, but its for posterity!!! ;)
I just ask that you still keep him in your prayers that he'll overcome and be healthy!!!
Thanks!!!
Tammie

100th Day is now past!

This week was a slow, fast week. It is crazy how fast you can have days go by without even thinking about it. The reason it was slow is because we need more investigators and we have been doing a lot of contacting. When I first came in we had this many investigators, but now that they are all just in three different houses that are all close together. We have been doing a lot of window to window. So far we have a couple of maybes, but we need to go back and talk to them more. It looks like we should be having some weddings coming up here in the near future, just waiting on a couple more papers on both groups, but they should both be right around April 10th. The hardest part about weddings here is that the paperwork is a pain, most people can usually round up the money, but so much paperwork is asked for it is crazy. The worst part is if you have one detail wrong, you have to start the process over again, money and all. The best part about having families though is that you can usually have a much easier time getting them to come to church. This Sunday we were only missing two of our eight investigators. One of them is still on track for the 13th, but the other will have to wait another week for the 20th because they need at least two attendances before the baptism. Overall this has been a good week though and transfers are the 15th of April, so me and Martinez are still holding on strong.

My funny story for this week sucks. we were down by the nasty river that stops our sector, skipping rocks, did not work well because there is so much junk that if it hits one it falls. so we were trying to see who could get to three skips. then this guy walks up and starts to talk to us, meanwhile we are still skipping rocks. No he is by my companion and both of our backs are to him, somehow a rock was still able to come out of my hand late and hit him in the chest, it was small and not thrown hard, but all three of us stood there for a second like what in the world. i apologized about 50 times and then i think he forgot about it because the conversation just, carried on.

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you I decided to change my handwriting it is now more legible. I have a hard time reading what I have written before because i have grown accustomed to the new way, it looks more like dads hand writing i have been studying his letters to change mine. I'll send pictures! (Why doesn't he just write me a letter?!) Spanish is better, i always feel like i know so little, but the members keep saying i am improving so i guess i am improving. We do not have as many meetings so we are able to study as a companionship more. which is great.

Here is the pictures of the banners that we made for Easter...its a life line of Christ told through The Living Christ.

 This boy's name is Roque and he is a member there that's getting ready to go on a mission.  He's eating cake for Jesse's 100th day in the mission which was last Thursday.  (we won't talk about the mess that is his apartment!!!)

 These are a couple of pictures of the city of Guayaquil...you can see the top of the temple in the first picture.

He tried to send a new video, but it was too big.  He said he'd try to send it next week.

The most of love,
Elder McCammon

I got the package you sent it was not opened. I thought you might like the picture.(picture of the package) I need to print The Living Christ before I can solve your story line, we have it hanging up in the wrong order right now. (I put it in the order the website had it!, it was a great banner I wish he would have sent a picture of it hanging up) P.S. I have walked two days in your shoes. I have learned how to have a funny story every week. Week ultrasound, electrocution, retard, and now I have this. On Thursday I was cleaning out my left ear. I accidentally pushed the Qtip up to far and then I noticed something was wrong... I could not hear, anything in the left ear. My first thought was, why could it not be my right, now me and mom can not sit next to each other because we are both deaf in the left ear. So I went to the er just to find out I had caused inflammation like non other. I can hear now, but I still have ringing in my ear until it fully heals, stuff sounds a little quieter though, I am pretty sure that will get better too.

This week was a great week in the mission. We have been making progress with all of our investigators and have nine baptisms set and have found two more investigators. The only problem is the seven of our nine are all dependent on matrimony. We have a family of three and one of four. Both of them need to be married. So our baptisms have been moved to the 13th of April because both of them are missing a paper that is needed for baptism. Transfers are also next Monday so I am really hoping we don't get transferred before they are baptized because we have no baptisms for this weekend. :(  Because the only people who came to church were the ones that had the marriage problems. If I get transferred that is at a minimum of eight weeks without a baptism. (a little depressing) We still have hope for one baptism this week. She has attended church enough times and has the lessons, she just needs to have permission from her mother. Other than getting chewed out by the District Leader, Zone Leader, and Assistants to the President, for having to move eight baptisms for this week to the 13 of April, this was a pretty awesome week! We had a lot of success and lessons taught and people found, so at least we are able to have work...which in reality I think people want while they are on the mission, the more members, the better. That is pretty much all this week hopefully the baptism follows through and i will have some great news next Monday.

So I have been watching the readers on this blog and there have been more than a few from a couple other countries. I saw that it had been viewed in Ecuador and I asked Jesse if he'd looked at it at all.  He said no and then told me this story! "Only one person from ecuador has viewed that I saw, me, (he can't see the list that I see). Elder Duzzetts dad I know reads the blog, that was funny when we were in Peru and me and my comp introduced ourselves as the zone leaders and then he goes hey, your Elder Mccammon, my dad reads your blog!"  Too funny...so Thanks Elder Duzzetts Dad for reading my blog!!!

So this is the video that Jesse took from his balcony of the reenactment of the Triumphal Entry for Palm Sunday last week.  There is the St Paul's Catholic Church just down at the end of the street where he lives.  He said he thought it was funny that the Bon Ice guy was pulling up the rear to make some extra sales!!!  He Said he wondered if Thursday and Sunday they would re-enact the crucifixion day and Resurrection day.  We'll see next week I suppose!!!

 He said he sent me a skinny picture...his companion laughs at him, because he thinks he looks like Bobby Hill from the King of the Hill TV show.  I think he looks great!!!

This is the Easter Basket we sent him.  There wasn't a whole lot, I told him to go buy his own candy!!! I sent a great banner and went to a lot of work, but he didn't take a picture of that.  Oh well.

Back to Work!!!

This week has been great, one of the best so far. we had a great showing of 5 investigators at church this Sunday.  That night we also went to a family home evening at a members house. It is crazy how the spirit works too. These members were less active so we would not have seen them at church. We were walking back to our house and instead of walking the normal route home we decided to walk through the farmers market/street fair thing that happens every morning. We passed a members house, who usually just says hi and do not really talk for too long. After about five minutes these less active members walk by and invite us to their family home evening on Sunday night and we agree. At the family home evening they had their nephew there who is really interested in the church and thanks to the family knows a lot and is pretty much ready for baptism. Found him just by walking a different way then usual. It was just crazy that one path can lead to someone that is ready. I did not even think about it being the spirit at first, it was just, hey lets go this way.  We have also had a lot of success this week in teaching lessons to investigators who are usually not home and from that we have six commitments to be baptized on the 30th of March, but a possible eight. So this week has been great and everything is looking up. I should have my first baptism by the end of the month! I am not quite comfortable with the language yet but it is coming along better and I know a lot more, that is for sure.

Remember my leather shoes I brought down. I walked on a gravel road when it was wet with them because it had rained the night before. Well I went to grab them the other day (about a week later) and the bottoms were just moldy out of their minds it was gross so I ended up getting them resoled, but it was crazy.  I am always wet too, whether sweat or rain, but it was funny yesterday we walked so much that not only did i get a blister but i popped it to, thank you melagel. Also do you know the food that everybody has in their life that just makes them want to vomit. We went to a members house and they had spaghetti, not just any spaghetti but spaghetti with a green sauce on it. I assumed it was similar to a spinach cream soup they have down here and it was just a cream spaghetti. nope. That was the nastiest thing ever. I have never gagged on one bite of food like that ever. It probably would not have been that bad if I had not have assumed it would taste like something good, but I was glad people were focused on the tv and I could get some coke in my mouth before somebody saw. bleh. it was so bad.   I never want to eat green spagetti again. (say it like the girl who does not like green beans) note: for anyone who doesn't know what he's talking about, its a hilarious video on youtube, check it out if you get a second.

I asked about transfers, new missionaries, and the mission split.  Transfers are usually every six weeks, I came in a week early, but there was a mid transfer last Monday when I was on rest and we were fine so I am assuming every 3 weeks. We are going to have missionaries so fast that after I am here for 13 weeks everyone that is a transfer ahead of me will be a senior companion and every Latino in my transfer will be one, the next one or two after we are supposed to all be close to that state if not in it, but no there has not been talk about the new mission. I assume that they will just redraw boundaries and if you are in the boundaries you are in the mission. I hope I still have the chance at Galapagos though.

I never did send any recipes with him because we weren't sure what the situation for cooking was, well last week he asked for a few, I guess after being on rest for a week and not having people feed you every day its hard to think of things to cook!  He said: "Some of these recipes are hard because we have no oven so we would have to go to a members house. So for next week a cake from scratch recipe would be nice."  He tells me he has no oven, but wants a cake recipe!!  That strikes me as being funny!!!  Hardly cook at home just breakfast and when we could not leave, there is no microwave here just a gas stove, but I have to go. I love you so much and miss you all, 13 weeks down about 90 more to go and I look forward to every one.
Elder McCammon

He hadn't had a haircut since he left here...I can't believe they didn't do it before he left Peru!!!

 What a mop!!!

 Geez he looks older and 10 pounds lighter with no hair!!!

Jesse and Elder Martinez in their Aggie Gear!!!

Dr. visit makes for an unproductive missionary week

This week has been really slow. Our first baptism we were supposed to have, fell through. Her mother was very Catholic and did not want her to be baptized. This week we also did not teach very many lessons. There were a lot of meetings and a lot of our investigators were not home at the times that we would stop by their house. Me and Elder Martinez are going to shift our focus this next week to finding more investigators to teach and visit some old investigators whose situations might have changed about the gospel. We also found a golden investigator this week. He was a reference from a different missionary. He had been going to Church but in the wrong ward. The other missionaries had not really taught him, but they had given him a Book of Mormon and some other random church books like principles of the gospel and a hymn book and two Liahonas. He is half way through Alma, he has been reading principles of the gospel and cross referencing in the Book of Mormon, he loves that hymn book, and he STUDIES the Liahona, not just reads. He told us that he loves the church and it just makes so much sense. The only problem is he needs to get married to  his wife before they can be baptized... why does marriage have to be so expensive!! It costs $50 to get married here.  That's a lot for people here.
This is one of the things that happened this week that will make you laugh. Remember Scott's story about trying to make hot water with a rock and some wire. missionaries do dumb things. we had a fan in the house that hasn't worked and i thought to myself. i bet i could fix that. well i open up the fan to find out a cord has just fallen out. i thought i have messed with enough cords in my day to fix this, so i grab my leather-man and fix the fan. well what i didn't notice was that in fixing the fan i was letting the cords that need to be separated touch. so when i plugged it in there was a flash. i dropped the cord and started laughing. i shocked my thumb. the electricity in the cord had broken the cord in five different spots... the fan is now in the garbage. i was fine except for a blister on my thumb. I could not stop laughing i though it was hilarious, because like father like son right.

Had some medical issues this week and they had to stay back at their casa since last Wednesday. He said they cleaned the entire house, read My Heritage and Our Search for Happiness.

 a picture in front of our house on what we call pilsner day and there are usually twice as many crates of beer

my soccer jerseys of both guayaquil teams

 my scripture cases