La Virgen Del Cisne! (Our Lady of the Swan)

this week was crazy.

some top news of the week

there were a bunch of changes in the zone, some of the sisters missed their bus, had to buy more tickets, then sisters left, then elders got to the terminal for their changes, in other news we were in the terminal from 6 to 12, fun day not to mention that every inhabitant of Loja left because they wanted to walk from Catamayo to Loja with their idol the Virgen del Cisne, so every one was buying tickets for the bus to go to Catamayo and there was no breathing space in the terminal. I was tired and stressed.

In other news we are not teaching too many people so if you can pray that we can find more people to teach that will come to church that would be great.

Jesse said If you want to know more, Google it, but here's the gist of what I found out! He said she's a giant barbie doll that they worship that represents the virgin Mary. Basilica of the Swan is in Loja which is the Swan Province. The Catholics there say the virgin Mary appeared there in 1594. Apparently they make a pilgrimage...the section from Catamayo to Loja is 38km which it sounds like most people from Loja go to. Jesse didn't send a picture of the doll but check out the one below! The second picture of the people converging on Loja he did send.

Also today we went with a member to visit some of the waterfalls in the road to Zamora, so that was pretty fun i sent pics of the waterfalls.

Love Jesse

Praying for Progression

my week was okay. the people we have been teaching have not been progressing like we would like them too. they only seem to stay as investigators for one week and a few days and then they do not really want to hear anymore. i do not know why it is kind of weird, but we will keep working hard to find those that are really ready to have to gospel in there lives. this week we found a single adult of 24 years of age, his name is Edison Salcedo, he is having some problems in his live with his girlfriend, but he has been praying for help from the lord. and he told us that as he was praying we knocked on his door. so we are really praying that he will progress. as well we found someone who is 28, married, with a daughter, her name is cristina paute. as we were talking to here she invited us in to share more about the message we have with her. she wants to come to church, but was not able to make it this week so we are hoping for the best in this week to come. As for other good news in the week i was able to finish the book of mormon again. i love reading it especially the book of ether. i love reading about the faith that many of the people had. it really makes me look for ways that i can improve my own faith.

i hope everyone has a great week.

Elder McCammon

The work presses forward even in the night!

To clarify...last week Jesse said they got to sleep in the temple when they were in Guayaquil...that's not exactly accurate.  They have a "temple square" which has the temple and a hotel and such and he slept at the hotel, but people always say they are sleeping at the temple when they stat at that hotel.  I was trying to figure out where you sleep when you sleep in the temple and would it be spiritual or a bit unnerving!!!  He is enjoying his time in his new Zone but is finding out that being a zone leader during transfers makes for not a lot of sleep.  His zone is half of Loja and Zamora and there is not a ward but a few branches, and there are 14 missionaries including Jesse and his companion. He told Bill he didn't think being a zone leader would be so busy, they don't even have very much time to do stuff (I am assuming stuff to him is actual missionary work!) especially when there are changes...we are constantly at the bus station (Read below!) but then he said its a great chance to serve.

Here is his letter...

so this week was pretty fun. 

we got back to loja tuesday morning at four o clock am and had a fun 9 hour bus ride. then in the night we had two new sister missionaries come to the zone at 11pm, but they needed to go to Zamora, so they stayed the night with the sisters in Loja and we dropped them of at the bus terminal at 7 in the morning. Then later we had to got to Zamora to drop of boxes of BoM and pamflets for the sisters.  I got to stay in Loja with Elder Gonzales and my comp went to Zamora. Thursday, I went to Zamora again for an  interchange so i got to spend the day in Zamora and the night there. Friday back to Loja in the morning. Then in the night we found that elder Herrera had changes. So he had to come to Loja from Zamora and then to Guayaquil. He left at about 11 at night. Saturday was finally a normal day of work. We went and contacted the few people we had found in the week and re-commited them to church.  Sunday morning at four the missionaries came back from Guayaquil so we met them at the bus terminal and then sent them to Zamora. Then we go back to the house and sleep for a bit and then off to get people for church.

This week the people to pray for are

Katy Ortiz 26

Santiago Becerra 27 they are husband and wife

Griminesa Galvez 72

santiago ramon 13

lisbeth ramon 26

these are the ones that are listening for right now.

Elder Jesse

He said the pictures of the scenery are of Zamora and on the bus ride to Zamora. I didn't get any more details than that!!!
[The City pictures are of Loja from Jesse's new apartment]

 He didn't say, but I am assuming this is Elder Sanchez, Jesse's new Companion.  He has 17 months in the mission and is from Mexico.
[This is actually Elder Herrera from Columbia who had changes]

Still in Loja, but still had changes

I am in Guayaquil right now in the bus terminal, i only have a half an hour more to write. but we came because every first Monday of the month is a leadership counsel with Pres Torres. The mission is not bad i love it, strict at times but that does not make it bad, we have one of the strictest missions in the world that is why it baptizes so much, it just means that i will be more ready for life when i finish.
This is my week.

Monday, changes now i am with Elder Sanchez, he is from Mexico, in Rama Jipiro. I am now a zone leader, one week.

Tuesday, did a lot of contacting because we were not teaching anyone in this new sector. we found a family. The abuela se llama Griminesa Galvez. her grandson Santiago Ramon and other grandson Elian Tello. they are the ones listening now.

Wednesday more contacting, no luck.

Thursday same as Wednesday

Friday, 6 hours in bus had to take stuff to Zamora, fun day Zamora is beautiful.

Saturday. verify the people we had invited to church

Sunday our family that we found came to church, then we left to come to Guayaquil for leadership counsil, slept in temple

Monday leadership counsel.

love you all i will write with more detail next week.

No pictures this week, but what can we expect if he's in a bus terminal!!!

Zone Training with President Torres

So this week was pretty good. on Wendnesday Pdte. Torres came and did a mulit-zone training conference. and then he took us to a artifact museum here in Loja which was kind of cool. the training pretty much took all day but it was really great and i learned a lot more about what i can be doing as a missionary to improve the work. Then on Thursday he did interviews with all of the 30 missionaries or so here in Loja and he talked to us individually about what we can be doing better as missionaries and what his expectations are for each and every one of us. it was great being able to see president. This week i have also been focusing a lot in PMG chapt. two and some of the ways that it advises that you can improve your studies. i would recommend all those whom would like to have a more in depth study of the scriptures and get more out of them. read this chapt.

That was my week i hope everyone out there enjoys theirs as well

with love

Elder McCammon

This is what he told Bill today:  did not have transfers but they should be tonight. we left the familia maldonado for a little time because he is now working as a taxi driver and does not have much time on his hands and also his wife left with the kids of vacation to cuenca. so we decided that we would give them more time. as for other investigators we are looking and looking but with president being down here and the assistants staying we did not have much time to work, especially with going to Saraguro as we do.

Here are the pictures of the baptism from last week.  Only two of the family got baptized.  The dad isn't ready yet, he is still unsure but he still comes. The son works a lot and is ready but needs to come to church again before he can be baptized.  But these two were ready and did not want to wait any longer.

Writing is just not his Forte!

So apparently last week I forgot to post his letter, good thing I guess since he didn't bother to write one this week.  I chatted with him for a second though.  He hooked up his camera to send pictures and apparently the computer erased all of them.  He said its been 3 weeks since he backed up so he lost 3 weeks of pictures.  He had his baptism of the Albito Family, he spent his time at the Internet Cafe trying to send a picture from his comp, but apparently it didn't work.  He said transfers are next week so we'll see what the next week brings!!!

Letter from 7/14/14

so this week has been okay. we have been talking to everybody this week and we are seeing results. we invited the Leon family to get baptized this week and they accepted a baptism date for the 16th of august. they accepted pretty easily but we need to keep animating them so they can carry on with the baptism goal they have. the familia albito i also do not know how it will go this week, they were saying that work is going to consume their entire week and next week they will be more free so we are going to go tonight to see what wee can do so they can get baptized this saturday. but other than that normal week, got to move another house this week our zone leaders needed a new one so we spent forever changing it from 10 until 330, it was not to bad but it also was not that fun. oh well. that is my week.

jesse william mccammon

Oh well at least we know he's alive!!!

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