My week, My week, My week

Still struggling a little with my companion, a little contention but I hope it will get better. so this week was a pretty good week we are finding new people and we are working hard. the familia albito are now ith there vacations so they are now more open for baptism and it looks like they will be going for the 19th of this month so that is great. the familia Maldonado is still having problems with marriage they also did not come to church this week. it does not look like they are progressing as much as we would like them too. i hope that we can find a way to help them get married and do it quickly. this week not too many things interesting happened. i would have loved it if they did. but it looks like we are going to be having baptisms in the near future.

In my studies this morning i was reading in the book that mom sent and it was talking about inviting people to know more about the gospel of christ and our religion. the biggest thing that it stressed was the need to invite. we should not get discouraged by no´s not everyone will accept. what needs to be done is just invite. that is the first word in the missionary objective in PMG. upon inviting people to come unto christ little by little they will. I know this church is true do not have fear to share its message.

i love you all have a great week,

Elder McCammon

I loved this...Bill asked if he'd seen any golf courses there in Ecuador.  We knew he had seen one, but he'd never mentioned any others.  This was his reply...There was the one i saw in cuenca but other than that i have not seen a single one. i miss golf. i miss grass too, almost nowhere here has grass.  it is dirt or houses in the majority of the places that can have grass, Loja is better with grass but it is not grassy.

 He didn't say, but this could be dinner later on!!!

 Rainbow in Loja

doing some laundry

Don't pray for Patience!

this week was okay, having problems with my comp because he does not respect others and he is very negative, oh well what can you do someones got to have him. but on the plus side i am in the same zone as Elder Duzett, i have not seen him since the MTC in peru so that was kind of cool. I had a great morning helped the sisters changes houses. us as elders have the lightweight stuff that if fairly easy to move, sisters on the other had have five heavy suit cases each all weigh a ton. have a washer, oven, dresser that weighed a ton 8 bed sets and a couch, the best part was the first house had a small door an walk way and stair case so it was a pain to get the stuff out and the next house was a third floor. my arms hurt. i also made an accident with Elder Duzzet and when we started to walk into the apartment complex we walked into a gay hair salon and realized we made a wrong turn. the best part was after all the hard work and complete lack strength from the work we were given a little cup of pop and a roll.... at least the roll had butter. Our investigators are not progressing too much they all come to church but the familia maldonado is not married and we are trying to work on ways to help with that and the familia albito said they will get baptized in July so only a maximum of four weeks more, yay. Fun story this week i had no baptisms, but i baptized the two baptizms of the sisters and the baptism of Elder Haslam. people love me. that is pretty much my week i also changed my bills to coins... good week. 

Elder Haslam's Baptism

 Hey its Elder Duzzet!!!  Front kneeling in the sweater!!!  Its the baptisms of the sister missionaries!!!

Another Week in Loja/Saraguro

This week was a great week. The familia Albito has started bringing their son to church, they still have not accepted a baptism date but it is great to see that more of their family has started coming to church. Also in Saraguro the familia Maldonado did not come to church, the supposedly went to a wedding ceremony but we did not find them later so i am not sure. Other than that we are not having to much success, but we are looking and contacting everyday and finding  many possibilities but as of right now none are progressing as they need to be. In other news we did have changes, but just our sector of zones, instead of being in the west zone we are now in the east zone. Other than that everybody is still in the same places. I hope this next week i have the ability to write about more success but for right now i ask for you prayers so we can have a lot of success here in Loja and that the familia Albito can accept a baptismal date this week.

I love all of you and wish that you can have a great week.

Elder McCammon

 

Convo with his Dad:

By the pictures that mom sent me you look like you would make a great pioneer.

I don’t know about that.  I enjoy showering and being clean lots more than I enjoy camping.  How is the World Cup reaction?  Did you hear that USA was ahead until Portugal scored in the last 15 seconds of extended time last night?  If they would have won, they would have clinched the next round.  Since they tied, they have to win / tie to guarantee the move.

the world cup reaction is great, me and Elder Haslam were together last night  and the game was on while we were waiting for the bus to leave from Saraguro. We said that we couldn't watch it or we would jinx the team, so we had our backs to the TV, but when the us scored we had to turn to watch the replay we were stoked, it ended 2-2 i believe, how sad.

That is how it happened.  Good thing you are following the rules and not watching it.  Is Ecuador all immersed in the World Cup?  Why were you with Elder Haslem?  Did you get a new companion again?

No we were just on an interchange every Sunday we do one so we can visit our investigators in Saraguro and not leave our investigators by themselves in Loja.  Ecuador is immersed in Ecuador and just watch the other games.

That’s pretty cool.  I think it would be neat to be in South America during this time since soccer is such a huge past time for the entire continent.  How is everything else going for you?  Are you picking up any new investigators

we are looking for new ones but ones that we are finding aren't that great so we keep looking.

Love you Jesse.  

I was never a missionary, I suppose that other things still interest you too, I guess I assumed you just think about missionary work, or maybe as a mother you hope they are putting their all into it.  Jesse is a bit of an enthusiast and once he becomes interested in something it can become a bit of an obsession even for just a little bit.  He traded some $2 bills I sent him, for a couple indian head pennies from 1902 and 1904, I have no idea why and he wants to know if they are worth any money.  That is what he talks to me about when he writes!!!  

I asked him the question below just before signing off...

So do you feel like you are doing all you can to be a successful missionary? Are you happy?  Are you getting excited to come home or not really thinking about it, because you are into the work?

I feel like i am working hard mostly but at times i do not always work as hard as i can, i am happy, i am excited to come home, but i do not think about it a lot.  I do not know if it is because i am dived into the work or because i am now here and i have gotten used to the mission. I need to go now i love you lots.

And he's gone!

I sure love this kid!!!  

No pictures this week though...Maybe Juan Pablo will come through for me! :)

A new week brings changes!

Sorry for the lateness of this post.  It was our ward Trek last week and since I was in charge of the food for it, I had a lot going on before we left on Thursday.  Its still no excuse, but it is what it is...at least its here!!! I got more pictures from Juan Pablo..have I said how great I think this guy is.  HE does an amazing job with their branch Facebook page...at least from the point of view that I can't read Spanish but he posts pictures of Jesse so that's all I care about, he's amazing in my eye!!!

So this week i have recently had changes Elder Contreras had changes to Guayaquil and now i am with another Bolivian Elder Villca. We have had a great week on Sunday we put a new baptismal date with Ivan, he is the son of Edwin Maldonado and Magali Salinas, they went to church last week and this week they could not come because Magali was sick, they would like to get baptized as well, but they have to work on marriage first so we are going to help them get their papers and everything done so they can get married and be baptized, they love the church and love coming. The familia Albito is not progressing as much as we would like them too, they keep coming to church and they are reading and praying and leaving all of the things in the past behind for the church but they do not want to commit to a baptism date yet, they want this to be the church that they stay in forever which i love, but they want to attend a few more times just to make sure.  But this week has been OK i am hoping for more success this next week. love you all and have a great week.

Elder McCammon

Jesse's Zone

 Elder Villca

 These are the pictures from Juan Pablo..my hero for information!!!  I think this was some sort of Childrens day celebrations.

 Face Painting

 Blowing 2 balloons at a time

 Musical Chairs

 Bobbing for Apples

WWWWWAAAAASSSSSUUUUPPPPP?!?!?!

so this has been a pretty good week the Mopositas are all confirmed and Pedro and Jonathan have received the priesthood so that is pretty great. the albitos are also doing well, but Franklin is having hard times with the idea of changing his lifestyle, his wife and daughter are ready and they want to get baptized but we want them to get baptized together and not him later. We are also teaching a doctor in Saraguro his name is Jander he is really interested in hearing and listening to what we have to say but him being a doctor makes it hard for him to come to church so he can have a testimony of the church. Also in Saraguro we found Edwin Maldonado and he came to church Sunday with his wife and his children of 8,6, and 7 months. they are not married but Tuesday we are going to teach them about the importance of marriage, but those are the people we are teaching, it is great to see the growth of Saraguro that i have seen. when i came there were 3 solid members and two missionaries, this last Sunday we had 16 people that attended so in 6 weeks that was a big jump and i am glad i have been able to see that change. but this has been a great week.

Prayer list.

Jander

Familia Albito

Familia Maldonado

we did not have a chance to talk with the entire maldonado family sunday so there will be more info about them next week.
Love elder McCammon

So is this picture too corny?

Amazing 2 posts in one day!

So this week went by fast like baptism weeks normally do. we were on a bunch of interchanges all week long so i actually only went to Saraguro once this week and it was to pick up the Moposita family so they could come to Loja for their baptism because there was the branch activity Saturday and it was a chance to help them meet more members and have a lot of people at their baptism. They all ended up getting baptized Saturday the problem came Sunday when half of the family didn't show up to church because they went with others and left the City of Saraguro and went to visit people in the communities outside the city. So next Sunday we need to work harder on getting them confirmed. 

In the week i have almost finished Leviticus,  and for those who have read it, it is weird! But interesting, i have also taken to read preach my gospel again from cover to cover. i remember hearing a talk in the mtc that said preach my gospel is not only a guide for missionaries, but as well for life after the mission, so we are going to see what i can find.

I love you all and until next week,

Elder McCammon

Baptism pictures of the Moposita Family, they are all in white then had some of their family members from Quito came to watch.

Jesse's story of the week...$300 of Sacajawea coins...why you may ask?  Well because they are boys for one thing, but he said "we use single dollars a lot and the coins are easier to use, bills can be irritating...take dad for example!!!  LOL!!!  Jess his comp and Elder Haslam each got some and it was $300 worth all together!  Hilarious!!!  Here's his bag of money!!!

Rama Loja (Loja Branch)

Juan Pablo is my new favorite person!  I got a notification that Jesse was tagged in a few photo's last night. So I signed on to his Facebook account and Juan Pablo, he's the branch president, had added them to the Rama Loja page, after perusing it I realized it was a Facebook page for their little branch there in Loja and it had some fun pictures.  There were some with Jesse so I thought I would post them here.  I'll be posting his actual letter later on when I hear from him but that's not usually until late afternoon. I wrote a quick note and told him thank you for tagging Jesse it was so fun to look at the pictures and in his little bit of English this was his answer back.  you have a good son, He is helping us a lot with the members and researchers, He has a good ideas I congratulate you for having such a good son.
Awww...thanks I'll keep him!!!

Branch BBQ and activities for the Children

 Total action shot

This was the caption for these pictures:
Actividad realizada para los niños de la primaria "Valientes", con la finalidad de que aprendan más sobre la obra misional y que puedan prepararse desde ya para su misión. De igual forma aprendieron a dar una charla sencilla pero que les permita compartir su testimonio.
Activity carried out for children of primary valiant class, in order to learn more about missionary work and can prepare now for their mission. Similarly learned to give a simple talk but allows them to share their testimony