Half and Half

This week was a half good week half bad week. It was good because we are having success. We are finding lots of people, and we had five people come to church this last Sunday which was not bad. I believe out of these people one or two will progress to baptism. It was a half bad week because on Thursday I got to go on a division, my district leader came to my sector with my comp and I went to his sector with his comp. He went to lunch in my sector and apparently had a pretty good lunch, I went to lunch in his sector and I got food poisoning. So Thursday after lunch I was not feeling so good, but was able to work, Friday could not leave the house for anything. I was having a hard enough time to walk without getting nauseous, Saturday I was doing better so I left the house and did alright.The mission nurses gave me some pills, I am still having stomach cramps, but pepto bismol isn't working. I might call the nurses again, some of the members are telling me I have a stomach infection. Sunday I was grateful that we get to have our day of rest in the church, because you are still accomplishing something and you are out of the house. In church we had a family of 3 adults, husband and wife (not married) and their niece, their daughter stayed in the house. We had the girlfriend of a less active member in the ward (also not married, but together) and then we had a man come who is 72 and he loved it he stayed for the entire time. So hope for the best! 

This week in my studies I was reading in the story about the Talents, and how if we use and utilize our talents the Lord will bless us with more, but when we are not using out talent and we have it just to have it, we will lose it. We need to recognize the blessings of the Lord in our lives and use them to help our lives and the lives of others, if we do that we will receive more blessings. If we do not and we just receive the blessing, do not give thanks, do not utilizes it for good, we just let it go to waste, we never will receive more.

By the way mom, we didn't eat all the banana's...but almost!
 

Use your talents and have a great week

Elder McCammon

no pictures again this week :( 

Keep Calm....

Letter...I need to be better with the questions I ask!!!  My questions are first and his answers follow.

(The pictures you sent last week were pretty cool…where did you find someone carrying all those banana’s that’s too funny!) I bought all those bananas, best 3 dollars i ever spent.  (I also loved the pictures of the Christopher Columbus park…that’s pretty cool.  Is that like a mall or amusement park or something?) no it is just a park... with a really big boat right in the center. (How is training your new mission companion going?)  Training is going well, he is progressing pretty fast, i believe the secret is that he already knows spanish, haha!!! We do get along good, but he is working me pretty hard, he likes to work and not rest, so I think I have been doing a ot more walking and losing a lot more weight. (Isn't it the senior companion who is suppose to work the jr.?) (What can you tell us about Elder Quintero?  Where is he from, I assume he is fresh from the CCM?)  He is this Saturday turning 19 and he is from Cali, Columbia. he is very spiritual and has a big testimony of the church that he says he wants to share with everybody, and like I said before he likes to work.
(you said they put mayo on everything…like what? Don’t you just eat rice, soup and chicken?) i have had rice, chicken, salad, potatoes, corn, carrots, steak, ham, hot dogs, french fries, and beans all with  mayo, some at different times and some at the same time. (By the way don’t electrocute yourself in the shower with all those wires!!) I won't,
(ou said people are being more receptive to the gospel there that’s good news, we’ve been praying for the people you teach to be open to your message and that you can teach with the spirit and the spirit can touch them.  We know it can only be done through the spirit and you are just the mouthpiece!  Use your testimony and testify!!!  On one of the facebook groups I belong to for missionaries it said the proper music can help fill in a message of a testimony…so have you got a favorite hymn?) In the spanish hymbook "placentero nos es trabajar" 88 (can anyone help me out here!?!? LOL!!!)  (What is your favorite scripture?)   1 nephi 1 to moroni 10, but more specifically in Alma 26 when it is talking about the joy of the work in mission. 

This week has been another long week of contacting, we did have people in the church this week so it has been better than the last two. We also did find someone this week who liked listening  to the message that we had to share, especially when Elder Quintero was talking, she was a little ga ga for him. Then we found out on Saturday that she is an old investigator who got dropped because she did not want to commit to anything. She was smart and liked to listen, but not much more. We have been trying to contact more and more and find more and more people that want the gospel. Lets just hope that this week the work pays off.

Love,
Elder McCammon

Cool graffiti that i found here in Machala 

 the cool world cup glasses that we bought with our 60 cents and 4 coca cola lids.

Come Mr Tally Man Tally Me Banana's

I am going to answer your questions first this week.  (Are you sharing an apartment or did you have to find a new one since its a new sector?) We did get set up with missionaries in a different apartment, the apartment is not that big either so it is a little cramped but not bad because we usually do not spend too much time in the apartment. (No hot water, that's just so weird why is that?) They do have hot water, kind of...the shower head is electric and it has two cords sticking out of it so to actually get the hot water you have to buy the cords,but I tried that in Guayaquil earlier missionaries broke the cords to the shower head so I haven't bothered trying it yet here.(Did you go through the temple in Spanish or English?) I did go through in Spanish and I got the gist of the temple session, but only because I have seen it in English. (They have a new temple video here, do they have it there yet?)  Still do not have the new video. (You have bought so much stuff did you have to buy another piece of luggage?) I did not have to buy new luggage, but I did end up using the blue laundry bag for a lot of stuff so I did have enough room. (How does your new area compare to Guayaquil and Cuenca) Machala is pretty much the exact same area as I was in in Guayaquil, just a little bit bigger, but the members are nice and there are more here than in Cuenca and they are very nice. (how's the food?) I am back on the Guayaquil diet though. I do miss the houses where I ate with Americans and I got food that was not covered in mayonnaise  (oh how he HATES mayonnaise poor kid!!!) 

This week I have been studying a lot about how to use time wisely. Now that I have a companion that is new we are going over the basics a lot so that has been where we have been focusing. Before I felt like we were working hard and doing what we could to improve, but the numbers were just not there. This week we have improved greatly on that. We may not have found a lot of people this week, but we have had the number of lessons that does show that we are working and putting in an effort. (that must be the most frustrating thing about missionary work, proving that your working when the numbers don't show it because people don't want to listen.)

This week has still been a lot of contacting. The difference is here people are listening. we have put a few baptismal dates up and been let in the door of a couple of houses in our sector where the sister missionaries here have been shut out. We have not had a great showing to sacrament meeting as of yet, but what I have seen is that the Lord is preparing the hearts of a lot of people here. I may not have seen it in many contacts, but I have seen it in a few and it looks like us as new missionaries that were added to the ward may have been just what the Lord needed here in this ward. 

I love you all out there reading and I hope you stay tuned for next weeks episode of Jesse's mission to Ecuador!

Love

Elder Jesse William McCammon

 He said these two pictures were taken at Christopher Columbus Park

That's a bunch of banana's!!!!

The Temple and a Transfer!!!

Well my favorite part about this past week is I finally got to visit the Ecuador Guayaquil Temple. On Monday night I got a  call along with a lot of other missionaries that was told to pack my bags, bring a study journal PMG and scriptures to the bus station at one o'clock in the morning. President now wants before a missionary starts training a new missionary to start going to the temple. So now every time that someone gets to train they get to go to the temple. Me and my companion, get the opportunity of not living in Cuenca. Me and my new companion, Elder Quintero, get to open a new Sector in Machala. So I am in Machala now. The part that sucks is that two new missionaries get the 2 baptisms I was preparing for on Saturday! The first few days were really fun because we did not know anybody and we did not know our limits so it was contact and hope you do not put baptismal dates in anyone else's sector. That was really fun. we have been contacting like crazy here and i have learned that the biggest difference between here and Cuenca is that when contacting people are a lot more open to listening. so i have appreciated that a little bit, because majority of the time all you need is for people to open there ears. what i do not like about Machala is it is hot, all the time, I no longer have hot water, it is freezing, and my sector is small again, there are not museums or cool stuff in our sector like there was in Cuenca. The funny part is I came to the same zone in Machala that Elder Christensen was in, but I found that once I got here that Elder Christensen went back to Cuenca. So I am also getting to know a lot of new missionaries here, but this week here we have been looking for new investigators, but have not had the best week. hopefully now that we know the ward we will have a better week.

 Looks like a beautiful place! I am so glad this mission president lets them go to the temple. I know they are there to do the work of the living and not the dead, but its still nice to be able to go once in a while.

 This poor kid looks like his suit is on a hangar!!! I think he needs to look into having it tailored!!!

Beautiful!!

Strike a Pose

This week we did not end up having any baptisms. We passed by the farmacy of Juan Medina on Tuesday and talked to him. he loves the church he love learning about the gospel, but there are still some things in life that he does not want to change. So we will keep visiting him just with less frequency, until/unless he is willing to change some habits in his life. Then with Maira Quesada she feels like a baptism is what she needs to do but she just felt like she was pressured into wanting to be baptized on the 24th of august, but she is still looking forward to her original date for the 31st of the month of august. Evelyn Llanos also attended church this Sunday, so she will be able to get baptized this Saturday, she just needs to pass the interview. As for me and Elder Vargas as a companionship we are all good. my language is starting to progress a lot more and i am a lot more fluent that i was about a month ago so that is pretty cool. i find that i am actually starting to think in Spanish and there are some things that i have to translate into English.

This week in my studies we received a letter from president talking about how we all need to have more charity in our work and how we need to have more confidence with everyone. It is not our place to judge and when we do criticize it needs to be constructive criticism. he had us read the scriptures Matthew 8:13 and Luke 6:36-38.

i have finished the Book of Mormon. not in Spanish yet but i am working, it takes longer in Spanish, but i love you mom i got to go i look forward to writing you next week. mmmmmmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh (its my big kiss!!!)

Elder Jesse

 elder mccammon working with a new weight that just happens to match his tie.(i have been taking my measurments frequently i have not grown any taller, but i do lift weights)

 Elder mccammon in his barney stinson pose

elder mccammon being a normal missionary and eating top ramen

What a difference a week can make!

This week was a pretty productive week. We have started finding more people to talk to and we have been a lot busier than usual. We Have been teaching Maira Kasada, most of her family is members except for her so we have started teaching her and she has a very strong testimony of the gospel. She has attended church a few times and we are going to see if she can get baptized this week. We have also been teaching Juan Medina who seems a little bit too smart about the gospel for his own good. He loves the Book of Mormon and other books of the church. He read Gospel Principles in three days and was interested to learn more about the contents. He does have a little problem with the WOW, though but he seems to be progressing really well. 

Also I had a recent change of companions this past Thursday. My new companion, Elder Vargas, is fairly new in the mission His mission was actually in Brasil, he had only been there two months and he got bronchitis and had to come back to his home country of Ecuador for a little bit of time, they sent him to Cuenca to acclimate to the colder weather and then he will be able to go back and finish his mission in Brasil. 

This week in my studies i was reading in the end of 2 Nephi where the Lord is talking about how in the last days His word, His gospel, and He Himself will be rejected by the people of the world, but how when they decide to follow him, change there ways, obey his commandments, his hand will still be stretched out waiting to help them along. It does not matter what we say, what we think, or what we do. We will always have the opportunity in our lives to turn our hearts to the Lord and he will still be there waiting. I really liked comparing this to the story of the Prodigal Son. The son leaves and goes out and does dumb things, but when he comes back his father welcomes him with open arms. The Lord is our father who always is there for us and always wants to help us....we just need to let him in.

Love always, Elder Jesse

So sad no pictures, but he did tell me that his convert Marina, tailored 4 pairs of his pants, he said he wanted to send a picture of him in pants that fit, but it took her longer than he thought and he didn't have time.  He also told me he is getting more comfortable with the language it was quite a change going from an English speaking companion to a native that speaks no English, and his attitude didn't seem so good so I was worried. His new companion is saying that he has really good Spanish for someone who only has 8 months in the mission. That's good news considering two months ago his mission president didn't want to hear him speak Spanish because it was so bad!  I love hearing from this kid!!!  Today is a good day!!!

I love him very much and my testimony increases each week as I see him grow!!

How does one obtain an Ecuadorian License plate....hmmm?

This is what happens when your on vacation!  A week late with his letter so today will have two letters posted!!!  Can't really call this a letter anyway...its more of a note.  This is too frustrating.



This week was not the best week. the people that we had that were preparing for baptism all fell, because they did not go to church. We did have some people in the church, so this will be a week to build up what we have. We do not have too many to teach right now, but we are always looking forward to more.  This week was a lot of contacting and a lot of getting rained on so it was not too fun. Here when its raining and you're wet the bus drivers won't let you get on. That is the personality of Cuenca. But it was not that bad we had Pablo with us a lot so we almost always had someone to talk to. Lets just hope and pray that this next coming week is lots better.

Love, Elder Jesse