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

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