Elder Smith 2 Nov 2009

Hello Family,
How is everyone doing? Very well I hope. Today we had changes. I’m back in the same zone that I came from in Quevedo Sur, but I’m in another sector or ward so that is the good part. Ill have the opportunity to meet new people and work with other members.
In Portoviejo we finished the change with two baptisms. One was a young man named Clever, 14 years old that has been assisting the church for a while and he was getting ready for his baptism. We were teaching his mom too but she hasn’t been able to go to church because she is a nurse and has to work Sundays.
The other baptism was of a sister named Carmen that we have been teaching for a really long time. She has had about 4 different baptism dates and every time a date gets close she decides that she doesn’t want to get baptized. We were going to have to stop teaching her because she wasn’t progressing but when she kept going to church we felt the need to keep visiting her. Saturday in the afternoon we went to her house with the intentions of teaching her daughter and granddaughter but they weren’t there so we thought we would share something small with Carmen before going to our next appointment. Carmen offered the opening prayer and mentioned her thoughts about the baptism. My companion and I were kind of shocked because she was so against the baptism. So we shared a scripture about the baptism and we asked her if she had taken the decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to be baptized in His church. She said yes, that she had been praying and that she was decided that she wanted to be baptized. Excited by her answer we told her that we could prepare a baptism service for the 14th of Nov and she said that she would much rather be baptized that same day, Saturday. That was kind of impossible to make happen but with the help of a few members, the bishop and President of the mission, Carmen was able to be baptized Sunday morning before the sacrament services.
The hard part of the weekend was saying bye to all the members and converts in the ward. I hope that some day I will be able to come back to see them again. All and all it was a good weekend. And I’m excited to be in a new sector to keep working hard to help more people come unto Christ.
Looking forward to hearing back from everyone. Miss you all a ton. Until next week. Chao.
Elder Smith