Took 7 months but finally ate Cuy

Not much happened this week. We have not had too many investigators so this week was a lot

Of contacting and visiting the few investigators that we did have. We did make it a goal this past

Week though to go and visit every one of our converts and talk to them and we were able to talk

To all of them but one because we could not get a hold of him this week, but this week has not

Been the best. Vanessa Had her surgery Monday so we did not have too many opportunities to

Go over and talk to her, but she is recuperating quickly. Patricio was working pretty much every

Night this past week and could only come to church on Sunday, so we did not really talk to him

this week, except by phone. Then Camila, the daughter of Omar Peñafiel, lives with her mom

During the weeks who is trying to find out more about the church through the internet, so she is

Being a little bit of an interference. We have a few appointments set up with these people throughout
the week, so we should do good this week. 

The biggest news is that changes were today and i have Been put with my first companion who does not know a lick of English and if that was not enough to help me learn the language faster, i am also senior companion, so it looks like i have some work ahead I love everybody out there though, and i love being able to hear from everyone, lots of love to all,

Elder Jesse William McCammon

the first picture is the cuy (gunea pig) i ate the other day

Second is some of Nohelia´s family, us, her, and elizabeth eating cuy

Good Week!

So this week was a really fast week. We went over to Omar and Marina´s house everyday to make sure everything was good with them for their baptism this Saturday. In our free time we were contacting. We found a couple of people who were okay for the first visit but for others they were not really there. On Friday we got to meet our new mission president and talk to him. So far he is a great mission president and probably will be one of my favorites!  Saturday we had to be at the church at five in the morning to start filling the baptismal font so it would be ready for our ten o clock baptism. There has been a bunch of girls from the states who have been down here for humanitarian service and they did two special musical numbers at the baptism and it was really cool so we had a big turn out. Sunday we had a few people in church and it was really funny and awesome too. Omar’s 13 year old daughter thought that everything was amazing and she loves the church and wants to serve a mission and asked us how she could. We explained that is was not that hard you just need to be a member and talk to the bishop and he can help you out. She thanked us and started talking to the bishop and told him she wanted to serve. He explained a little more and then she came and told us she wanted to be baptized, so she is going to get baptized the 20th of July. The best part is her dad now has the priesthood and can baptize her. Today we went over to Elder Chacon's house and had a barbecue. It was pretty fun and we were all very full.

I love every second of being out here. Sometimes you think of home and how much you miss people, but it is part of being far from home. I love it out here and I love the work and I would never change these experiences for anything.

Elder McCammon

  

Picture of our BBQ that we had today with me and Elder Chacon trying to start up the grill.

 The baptism of Marina llanos and her son Omar Peñafiel with his oldest daughter Camilla and his youngest daughter Valentina.

All of the people at the baptism. We had a bunch of girls there from the states that did some cool musical numbers so it was a fun baptism.

I don't like no picture weeks!!!

So this week was a boring week.

Monday- Stayed in the house and cleaned today, because it was really dirty, took a nap and bought some stuff for the week. Then we Went over to the house of Marina, Omar, and Evelyn Llanos and taught them The Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and Sabbath day, then we committed them to living it.

Tuesday- Today we had our meeting in the morning then headed over to lunch. After that, because we did not have any appointments until 5 we just contacted until then. After we went over to the house of Daniel Merchan. We taught him for an hour and a half, but he did not want anything, would not commit to reading the Book of Mormon because he did not want to say he would do something that he knows he would never do. After that we did some more contacting until 800 when we had correlation with our ward mission leader.

Wednesday- today we thought that we were going to go on an interchange, so at 300 we went over to the house of Nohelia so we could talk to her and Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was not there, so we talked to her for a little bit and shared a spiritual thought with her and left. then we contacted from 400 to 600 and went over to the house so elder Christensen could pick up his stuff for the night in the house of our district leader. We met him at the church at 700 so he could do a baptismal interview for Vanessa and me and his comp. went over to the house of marina and Omar, but Omar was not there so we could not enter and we just verified some of the commandments with marina and then went back to the church. They had already finished the interview with Vanessa. she is good for baptism she just does not want to be baptized right now. Then elder Leninger received a call from the zl's that they do not want the interchange to happen until tomorrow.

Thursday- We did the interchange first thing in the morning today. Me and Leninger did some contacting, then went to Pablos house for lunch and then headed of to our appointments. First we went to the house of Gloria Astudillo and talked to her and her two sons for a little bit. she is still unsure about a baptism, but we set up an appointment with her for Saturday at 400 and we will see what happens. We then went over to the house of Daniel, but he was not there so we walked to the other side of our sector to talk to Geraldina. We talked to her for a while and taught enduring to the end and then walked to the church for our appointment with Vanessa tonight. We talked to her about baptism, trying to find our what was in her way. she says she is still unsure of baptism, but is patient for her answer, so we will keep teaching and find out where it leads.

Friday- Got my comp back, then went to go to an appointment with a reference who was not there and then we went back to the house so we could plan for the week. Then went to lunch and contacted until 600 then elder Christensen wanted to talk to Geraldina so we went over there for an hour and then headed to the apartment of Carlos to talk to him and his family. he is a little bit upset because his 3 children are leaving to Canada for 5 years. We did the best we could to help and i hope it did.

Saturday- had a morning meeting then went to lunch and to Pablos house to see if he could come with us today, but he could not. Then we went over to the house of Gloria, but she was not there so we told her kids that we would come back at 600, then went and contacted until 600 and went back to the house of Gloria and talked about how Christ is the rock of our salvation. We are going to shoot for baptism for the 13th of July, we will see if she accepts on Tuesday when we go back. Then we headed over to the house of Marina and Omar, but Omar was not there. So, we did a plan for this next week with them of what we are going to teach and when their interviews will be, so they can be better prepared for baptism. Then we told her to read it over with Omar and see if everything works with both of there schedules and we could talk about it in church on Sunday.

Sunday-we had marina, Omar and Vanessa in the church today as well as two other people who left before we were able to get their information. Vanessa only was able to stay for sacrament, but marina and Omar stayed the entire time. after we went to lunch with the Lawton family and then went back to the church so we could go with our ward mission leader to the house of some less active members. after that Giovanny took us to the house of Pablo so we could do a family home evening and dinner, but Pablo and his family had to go after dinner to the church, so we just contacted our way home for the night.

Our mission boundaries have not changed much, the first area I was in is now in the new mission, we lost about 5 of the 14 zones. You asked about Galapagos...yes they are still in my mission. I have not heard anything about the new mission president yet. Your letters are great and I love reading them, I am feeling great, I love you lots, I will not get discouraged.

Look forward to next week.

Your boy

Jesse

Its a smile worthy week!!!

This week was a very eventful week.

Monday- We went to the house of a reference that we had of Marina Lanos and her son Omar Lanos. We taught them about The Gospel of Christ and invited them to be baptized and they both accepted baptismal dates for the 6th of July. Both of them were very open and loved the message and knew the need for change in their life.

Tuesday- Today we had our Tuesday zone meeting in the morning and then after we went to have lunch at the house of the Villa Family, but they were not feeling to well again and we got lunch in a Tupperware and headed back to the house to eat. Then, we went and talked to Elizabeth and taught her about the word of wisdom and read with her from D&C 89 now that she has her triple combination. After that we went to the House of Gloria Astudillo and her two sons to teach the restoration, both her and her youngest son are preparing for a baptism this week, they both just need to attend one more time and become a little bit more animated. After that we headed over to the church for the baptismal interview of Cesar Valverde whose baptism was Saturday of the 22nd. He passed the interview, so now all we have to do is get him his clothes and he is good to go for 22nd. Then we were supposed to have a lesson with Vanessa Rodriguez today, but she was not able to show up to the church.

Wednesday- Today after lunch we went and picked up Pablo so we could have our member with us today. Then we went and talked to one of Elder Christensen's converts that we had not talked to in a while. After that, we went over to the house of Omar and Marina Lanos, Omar did not end up being there but the Daughter of Marina, Evelyn, was there. We taught the Restoration to them and read a little bit from the Book of Mormon. Marina was interested the entire time, but her daughter could really care less. After that, we went to the church for the appointment we had with Vanessa for tonight and we went over the baptismal questions with her so she could have her interview tomorrow, but she had a few problems so we are hoping we will be able to have it next week instead.

Thursday- Today was not the best day ever. We had three or four appointments today, scattered across our sector and we assumed it would take the whole day for, but no body was in the houses or we had to reschedule an appointment with them for another day. So after all that we ended up having a FHE with Pablo and his family, because it was about 700 and nobody answers doors or is home at that time. We ended up watching the movie States of Grace and talked about the importance of Christ in our lives and The Atonement.

Friday- Yea!!! We got to run to the church and back to the house like four times today before lunch so we could get our zone leaders all the keys to the stake center because president was coming to talk to us today. We had an early lunch, because we needed to be in the church by 130 even though president did not get there until 300, he then talked to us about how he loved his mission and this is the last time we would see him, until 500. After That we hurried to the House of Sara Panjon, Taught Enduring to the end, then went over to the house of Marina and Omar, but Omar was not there and we did not have an adult male with us so we just set up another appointment. Then we went over to the church and got Cesar his baptismal clothes and we answered any questions he had before tomorrow.

Saturday. Today at 300 we had the baptism of Cesar. After he bore his testimony and it was really good. He talked about how we should not procrastinate the day of your repentance, because you never know what could happen and how life is short and you just cannot put off anything. Then we got the church cleaned up and headed to our appointment with Omar and Marina and we taught them the the restoration and the importance of prayer and then committed them both to church on Sunday.

Sunday- We had five people in church today. We even had a person that the zone leaders had contacted named, Daniel Merchan, show up and take notes on everything, he loved it. After church we did not have anyone for lunch so we went home made some lunch, then got ready for the day, did some contacting with no success and then went over to Pablos house at 800 for dinner.

Love, Your Son
Elder Jesse McCammon


I did ask if he was able to watch the Worldwide Leadership Training and he said the mission president didn't approve it so they weren't able to go.  Too bad, it was wonderful!!!   Here is a link to the press release about the new things missionaries can expect. And a recap of a little of what was said.  I know eventually it will be online, but I couldn't find it to add the link!!
http://www.lds.org/church/news/members-and-missionaries-to-partner-in-work-of-salvation?CID=HPL2P01W01032&lang=eng

 Cesar Valverde's Baptism day!!!  I think Jess needs to loosen up a bit for his photos though!!

Hard to believe its been 6 months!!!

Tuesday- Today when we went to lunch, the mamita was sick, so we just did Tupperware and ate in the house today. After lunch we went to our recent convert, Ana Maria, who has not attended church for the past six weeks, find out what had happened. She had been sick on Sunday so she had not been able to attend, but she says she will come this week. Then we saw that Ecuador and Argentina tied 1-1, so close. After that we headed over to the church for the lessons that we had tonight with Cesar Valverde and then for Vanessa Rodriguez right after. We talked to Cesar about Tithing and Fast Offerings and the importance of them. Then, we taught Vanessa about the importance of  Reading and Praying. She says both are coming along very well and she does seem to be feeling better about baptism for the 22nd.

Wednesday- Today started out with us meating the zone leaders in the church at 11 so we could give them the keys to the church, because they needed them for interviews with President Montalti on Thursday. We then had lunch with the Pinado family, which is always delicious. We then went to talk to Elizabeth and Nohelia, but Elizabeth forgot, so we shared a short spiritual thought with Nohelia and then headed over to the house of a member who had a reference for us of one of her friends, Marina Llanos. When we got there she said it was her son who was more interested in the church than anyone, but we taught a short lesson of the restoration and set up a time to come back when her son would be there.Then we headed over to the church for our coordination with our ward mission leader. After we were supposed to have another lesson with Vanessa on the Tree of Life, but she showed up a half and hour late and we had to have our ward mission leader talk to her, because someone else had walked in asking questions about the church and we taught him and set up another appointment and then found that he was from a different ward, so that was great. Also tonight we ended up having a zone leader and one of the Presidents secretaries come to the house and verify obediance. We passed again.

Thursday- Today after lunch we had interviews with President, which later turned into practices on inviting people to baptism. Then later in my interview i got criticized on my Spanish and kept being told me Tarzan you Jane, each time I tried to talk in Spanish. So it was a fun day from 3 until 6 when president left. then we had to go drop some things off at the house and then we had to go to our members house to pick him up for our lesson tonight at 7:30. We got to the church at 715 and the other missionaries that share the stake center with us were there waiting for their investigator who did not happen to show up. Then After they left Cesar showed up and we did not have much time because he did not show up til 830. So, we just verified his baptism for the 22nd and his reading and praying then shared a thought and we headed home.

Friday- Today we had weekly planing in the church, which took until lunch. then after lunch we went over to Elizabeth's house to see if we could set up an appointment with her, because our interviews with president were when we were supposed to meet with her, but we could not get a hold of her cell. So we went over to Nohelias house to see if Elizabeth was over there, but she was not. Nohelia also told us that her phone was stolen and the only way to get a hold of her was through facebook, great. Then we went over to Vanessa's house to teach the lesson that did not happen on Wednesday. She seems like she is a lot more ready for baptism now that she was a week ago. We were there until about 7 and then went over to the house of Marina Llanos to talk with her and her family. They ended up not being home and there house is far enough away we just walked back to the house, Called, and set up an appointment for tomorrow.

Saturday- Today we had our morning meeting on how many people we had invited and committed to sacrament meeting this week. After we went over to Gloria Astudillo`s house, but we are probably going to have to drop them because they do not attend church. Only her sons were there so we taught them quickly and then invited them to church and headed over to lunch. After Lunch we started heading to our appointments even though not a one of them turned out today and they were all on different parts of our sector. so we were pushing for time on every one of our visits. Well could have been a better day i just hope we have a good attendance to church tomorrow.

Sunday- Today we only had three people in church today Cesar, Marina, and Hermano Loja, whose entire family is a member, but him, but we keep trying. Then we went over to the Lawton's house for lunch today. After we went home got changed out of suits. Elder Christensen had to go pick up medication for the cold he got, then drop it off at the house. After we went over to Vanessa`s house to teach her a lesson because she did not attend church. She said she went to a little city out side of Cuenca for fathers day. After that we went over to Pablo's house and did a family home evening and watched a couple of videos from the church.

That is this week in Cuenca. I look forward to posting about baptisms next week, until then,

Love Elder McCammon

One of the other Elders in Jesse's area, Elder Evans leaving for another sector.

A Hookah and the Word of Wisdom!

Tuesday- this really seams to be our recent convert day. We taught Elizabeth today as well as ana maria. When we were talking investigators today, we were teaching about service and the question got brought up about pipa or in English hookah (I had to google it!) and they asked if it was bad. We think that a few people in our ward might like to do the pipa, but we explained that it is against the word of wisdom, So I hope we are good on that now. During the day we tried contacting some of our investigators, but we really had not too much luck. So that night we helped Ana maria close up her little candy cart and taught  day of rest, because she has missed the past few weeks of church.

Wednesday- Today we planned out a lot of contacting, because our investigators are always hard to get a hold of so we need more people in our program, but not to much luck today with that, at 8 o'clock we went to the house of Vanessa Rodriguez with our ward mission leader, and we were finally able to get her to accept a baptismal date for the 22 of June. We were happy for that, she has seemed pretty hesitant in the past and this time it took some talking, but she accepted.

Thursday- Today we did end up getting a new investigator in a lesson with one of our recent converts. His name is Juan. We were talking to his aunt and he came in like he always does but he seemed more receptive to our lesson with her this time so we decided we would go back tomorrow and see what happens.

Friday- This afternoon when we were contacting we found someone who was pretty receptive, but it was difficult too tell if he really wanted to here the lesson. His name is Wilson Mark, we taught him the plan of salvation and committed him to another visit tomorrow so we could answer questions that he had on the pamphlet we gave him. We then went to Gereldina´s tienda to talk to Juan. He likes to joke around a lot so we cannot tell how serious he is about accepting the gospel, but he did accept to come to church. Finished off today with some more contacting.

Saturday- We taught Wilson Mark again today he had a lot of questions some of them were odd, but at least he had some questions. We committed him to coming to church and he said that he would give it a shot. We also talked to Gloria Astudillo and her son Kevin Rodriguez today and committed them to come to church and we put to baptismal dates with them for the 29th of June. Then for the rest of the day we tried getting in contact with Juan Enrique and also with Alejandra Chimbo, but we did not really have luck contacting either of them today, but we were able to call Juan and invite him to church.

Sunday- We had three people in church that were investigators today. Cesar Valverde who is good to go for the 22 of this month and then two investigators from other wards. None of the people that we invited and committed showed up to church this week. It is very disappointing when you feel you have a good week and your attendance to church just ruins it. We have some work to do this next week. We then helped some people move today after church which took like 2 hours and then we went and had a family home evening in the house of Pablo and we watched the other side of heaven and then we went and talked with Nohelia´s family about how elizabeth is liking the church, because we did not have much time to talk to her today, but good news is elizabeth is loving it.

That is the week of elder mccammon

Love you all.

A week of no pictures, he forgot his card reader.  It makes me a bit sad!!  Can't wait for next week!!!

Its June!!

This week was a long week of inviting many people to church, because it was stake conference here as well, so we could have no baptisms. Tuesday we decided  we would go to the houses of all of our converts and invite them to the bring other people to the church, we did this mostly because all of our investigators were not home or available today, convenient right? Wednesday we tried having a couple of lessons with our investigators today, but it was raining and all of them had a reason not to be able to come. We finished off today with our coordination with our ward mission leader where we are now going to try putting in motion a movie night for the ward. Thursday we tried teaching these investigators again we had a new return misionera with us, because both of the investigators are girls and it would help getting to know her since they are of a similar age. Neither showed up so we ended up contacting for some more time today with no success. Friday - some how we keep getting stood up this week we tried teaching some of our other investigators today and none of them were in their houses so we ended up going in search of a menos activo with one of our mamitas and they ended up not being home, so more contacting. Saturday, we had a training on obedience in our zone today with Presidente Montalti. At the end of it all he sent leaders on exchanges and with everyone so they could check the whole house and every song people have, just generally to see if people are really breaking rules or not. I ended up going with one of our zone leaders, Elder Bruna, to his sector and his comp came to mine. By the time every thing was worked out after the training and people had got all of their stuff to their appropriate sector it was like 6 o clock. First we had to go apologize to their mamita for Saturday because we missed lunch and she ended up giving us a lot of food. She is a person that believes if they can finish it she did not give them enough. Elder Bruna is a very small elder as well, we ended up being there until 8 because she gave him more food than he is tall! Then at 8 we just went and verified commitments they had to church tomorrow. Sunday - we had about 42 people as a zone in church today. Pres. Montalti gave a talk about baptism and ended up putting baptismal dates with a lot of those who did not have them and then we talked to him after. Then went to lunch with the gringos in our ward and tried visiting some investigators and were only able to visit one of them who was double thinking baptism, but she did not attend church or read the good book this week and explained that is why. That is this week hopefully we are able to do better this week and getting more people to progress. The work is hard, but it is worth every second.

Love,

Elder McCammon

 this is Asian Jesse in front of the Ciudad of Cuenca

 This is of the stairs we had to use to get to the top of Turi, we had to do that twice today because Elder Christensen forgot to grab one of his bags.
[There are also 440 steps, they forgot to mark one]

i have bought a cool machete, decorative shot glasses, a cuenca plate, the marble turtle came with the two previously mentioned, a cool ecuador bag with a vulture, a cool table clothe for the table in the house.