Missionary work can be frustrating

This week was a weird week. It seemed like through the entirety of it all we were working we were always doing something, but at the end of the week there is not as much success as you would like. We receive probably a lot more referrals this last week than i have en the whole mission, but it is a pain to get into contact with people here and i do not know why. But we have a lot of new references that we need to contact and get a hold of so i hope this next week goes pretty well. The family that was in the yellow brick wall story quit answering there phone are never in there house. the one time they did answer they were lying about why we could not visit, because the story kept changing. Vanessa we have been trying to contact, but she has been really busy lately and when we talk it is only for a short time, but hopefully that changes this week. 

Love everyone out there and i hope that life is treating everyone well.

Con amor

Elder McCammon

Chatted with him through the email for a bit.  His letter isn't long but after chatting he seems good. He said the language is coming along way better.  He seems frustrated about the contacting but said he has faith that the work will move forward and baptisms will come. He said he loves the area he's in, it reminds him of home.  We sure miss him, but we're grateful for the opportunity its given our family to have a missionary!  We feel very blessed!!!  Thank you for your prayers in his behalf.  Doesn't he look great!!!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Jesse send me stuff written in Spanish and its making me crazy!!  Google Translate really doesn't have any idea what he is saying!!!    I hope this is close!!!

The language is improving, much thanks to my Companion.  It's a little different as a senior companion, but I'm getting used to doing this position I'm taking on the mission. Cuy was great. Have a taste that was like seafood, but very rich and I want to eat it again.

Then here is the second part of what
he wrote, at least this is in English!!! 

This week was a long week. I was expecting that Vanessa was going to get baptized this weekend, but that did not happen. This Friday we had a training from our president, he came and talked to us for a little bit and then did interviews with everybody. The training started at 8 in the morning, but we were one of the last to have interviews and by the time we got to lunch and changed out of our suits it was 600 and we had three hours left to work. This week like most has been a lot of contacting, because we have not had too many references coming in. 

I had a cool experience Friday in the morning when we were contacting. We were just walking around looking for someone to talk to before lunch and we came to a wall that had yellow bricks and I looked at my comp and said follow the yellow brick road, he laughed, but we walked down that way and found a man who was interested in the message and told us to come back to talk to all of his family. He, his wife and his 3 children 8, 5, and 2 or 3. We went back on Saturday and they all accepted a baptismal date for the 17 of August. The thing that I feel that we can all take out of this, is that we might be able to watch the wizard of oz in heaven, because it appears that the spirit likes the movie!!!

But that was this week and look forward to the next.

With love Elder McCammon

Here are the pictures he sent this week...

 Not sure why he's spitting off a bridge, lets just hope there aren't people down there!

What a handsome kid!!!  Looking Good!!!

Facebook Stalking

So I was on Jesse's Facebook account checking out who got mission calls or getting married or other such nonsense I keep him updated about and one of the girls that he went out on p-day with last week posted some of her pictures of the day.  They were different from the ones he sent me so I thought it would be fun to post more!!!

Enjoy!!
This first one is earlier before he got his new companion the day he ate Cuy! But taken by her.

He doesn't look nearly as excited about ice cream as I think he should be!!!

So much can change in 7 months!

Wow can you believe how much he's changed in 7 months!?!?  Crazy!!!

This was not the best week at all. Monday through Friday was legitimately all contacting, it was horrible. none of our investigators had time this week until Saturday. On Friday we found a group of kids who were fourteen, invited them to a ward activity on Saturday. They ended up coming on Saturday, the movie was Bedtime Stories, funny. Sunday they were not able to come to church and we ended up getting chewed out by the mom for inviting her kids to baptism and that they don't know any better and cannot choose for themselves, sad no. In church on Sunday we only had one person in church and it was from a member who brought a friend.This week really was not that great and to top it all off we were going to go to the museum with a couple of the members from the ward but the museum was closed. But there was a cool area around the museum that was pretty cool so we walked around there for a little, they had some cool birds and facts about the area. then after we went and got ice cream and now i am writing, that about tops off the week.

CHAO

Pictures from p-day today. We had a good time today, it was a great way to make up for the bad week.

 E Condori. Kevin, Nohelia, Elizabeth, E McCammon

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