Shoes are Destroyed, Powerful Testimony, Enjoying My Time

1/23/2017

This week is pretty fun. Elder Powell is from Ellensburgh Washington but moved to Oregon (his family did) he has just over  a year in the mission and he is pretty funny. We have gotten together pretty well so far. I do see he has just a slight issue with obedience but I am helping him. It isn't too major but I am trying to help out nonetheless so that he can get even better.

This last week went pretty amazing for us. It rained hard a few of the days and my shoes are already very destroyed so it can be fun. I can walk for awhile with dry feet and then the water enters bit by bit until I get soaked feet then I don't care. Yesterday and today were actually very beautiful days.

We had some great success finding new investigators We contacted a referral and taught them that led us to finding a family of three. That was really cool.The ward is doing very great and we still have received referrals and we have found new investigators. Unfortunately the people that attended are from two different families and both are unmarried, however there is good news there as one family called familia de la cruz are really close to marriage. They should be able to get married this change and hopefully baptized.

I am trying to stay focused and keep working hard. It just is sad to think how close the end has come as there are lots of great experiences that I have. One example from last week is when we went to the new family we went with the member that gave us the referral and he shared a powerful testimony. when he shared it the spirit filed the room powerfully as he shared his own conversion story. It affected the family greatly as they felt the power of the Holy Ghost and mentioned "Oh wow brother why did you never share us that experience before?" He said he had never felt to share before until we asked him if there was anyone he knew that could receive the gospel. He mentioned them and so we went. That was an amazing experience. There are many miracles here. Today we went to buy items etc so nothing too big. I will send pictures. I hadn't gotten to it as I didn't have my card reader with me.

The ward here is one of the better ones the bishop has helped us so frequently that it surprises greatly my companion. It is one of the best wards that I have had and has a great potential. They called a new ward mission leader as the last one left for over a month and showed no sign of returning.

Hopefully things move forward with the Lord's help.

I really am enjoying it here. Just keep encouraging the other family members and helping them. I love you all and hope you have a good week

Love you all,
Elder Throop

Elder Powell

Found New Investigators, New Companion, Still Not Trying to Think of Home, The Countdown Has Begun!

1/16/2017


Well this last week went pretty well for us. We were able to find some new investigators. One of them is a young man who speaks English and founded his own church He does seem rather interested. The other is a family of two that are unmarried and very Catholic. They might not progress but we did have some success there and we did find some more potential investigators.

Elder Wilson was doing extremely well and seemed a lot more encouraged. My companion got changed. I don't know why he left but I know it is part of the Lord´s plan. He went to Guranda and he is receiving another gringo. I have a new companion right now His name is Elder Powell He lived in the center of Washington for awhile. He has just over a year in the mission. That was a pretty interesting change. I hope to help him out and then I am not sure what will happen still but we are working hard. He seem pretty cool for now.

We are hoping to find new investigators this week and we hope that we can get some people to progress. We did have two people attend but they are unmarried. I do feel we will have more success but it has been a little rough these last weeks for us. I am hoping the member help will enable us to be able to have success.

That sounds great with everything at house. I am doing well enough and I just try not to think too much about home instead I try to focus on the work. I had a fun time with my last companion. Today we mainly were in the terminal and then we talked a bit but nothing else. There were a lot of people changed around which was interesting but yeah everything is more calm. I hope you guys have a great week, love you all,

Elder Throop

*Mom's Note
After this last change and looking at the new year calendar, I can calculate when Tyler should be getting home.  The outgoing missionaries always have their farewell dinner at the Mission Home on Monday nights.  This last one was on the 16th.  They have rotations every six weeks, so the next ones will be on 2/27, 4/10, and then 5/22 which should be Tyler's farewell.  He should be getting on a plane the next morning and be home on the 23rd of May.  It's hard to believe he only has two more changes after this one and he'll be on his way home.  The Countdown Has Begun!

Sick Companion, Raining A Lot is Hard on Shoes, Learning A Lot (But I think He's sounding Trunky Already)

1/9/2017


Well that sounds like fun at home. I did realize one phone call left. I think the last one happens about 9 days before I go home which is crazy to think about. (*Mom's Note.  This was in response to my note to him that he has one more Skype Call with us on Mother's Day)  This week was interesting for us. my companion has been rather sick so the nurses had us go to the hospital to find out what was wrong and had him do a poop test. They found out that he has a bad bacteria which incidentally is the worse one you can get as it can cause many other problems. They have given him some medication so he is doing better. He has been having a hard time recently spiritually and with the work. He had some talks with our mission president and a few other people but now he has his focus and knows his purpose better. Yeah things are a lot calmer now. It has been raining pretty hard these last few days and my shoes really aren't helping anymore. Still I keep working and I am enjoying it. This last week went pretty great for us. We found some new investigators that actually seemed interested in hearing us. We still haven't had anyone attend yet which is disappointing. The hard part is finding news and getting people to attend. I am not sure what is causing that. Still we are working hard with that. This Sunday we receive changes and I expect that I will stay here but you never know. We don't know if anyone will get baptised soon but we are working hard. We have had more success and the ward does seem excited to help us out

My companion has progressed a lot in teaching and spanish which is great to see. He has learnt a lot and I am happy to see that progress. This week for pday we didn't really get to do anything too interesting as it is the last pday this change. I am just hoping we have a great week and that we can have success. I have learnt greatly here and it has been a great experience. I am not trying to think about home and I have enjoyed a lot here despite how hard it can be. I hope you have a great week and everything goes well.
Elder Throop

New Year's Festivals Makes It Hard to Contact People, Giving Talks Since No One Showed Up At Church, Getting a Little Frustrated Here

1/2/2017


Well I hope you guys had a great week and a happy new year. Our week was pretty cool. We had splits with the zone leaders which was cool. We also had splits with the district leader. I think it is to help out with Elder Wilson and it was a great experience. It certainly helped his Spanish a bit so he is improving with that. This last week was a little hard as a lot of people weren't interested due to the festivals that they were having. Still we were able to help some people and we found a new investigator that seems interested. I am just surprised how hard it has been to find people here and how few investigators were left behind for us. Still we are trying to work on it it just has been pretty stressful sometimes. The members are willing to help we just have to wait for everyone to come back as everyone left for Christmas and New Years. This just is not a great time for us.

New years Eve we passed fine. We couldn't leave except for set appointments. We still had fun as we played soccer as a zone. That was fun. We hung out with the district leader a bit then we came back to our house to avoid everything. There were very few people in church. Us the missionaries got to bless and pass the sacrament to the few people there. I got to give another talk on faith as no one was left to give talks apparently. That was fun.

I am doing very well with Elder Wilson. I just have to try to be patient a lot. It has been extremely hard here, and sometimes I can be a little frustrated. Still I have been able to see a great progress in him and that he is doing better. That has been good to see. e is very funny and likes to learn a lot. He has progressed a lot and has a great potential. This Monday we went to the teleferico and we made it to the top. Although my shoes are definitely not meant for hiking(I don´t have hiking boots) I have some pictures of that., That was awesome just we went really fast so I was a little tired. Still it was a lot of fun. I hope you guys do well and can't wait to hear how you are doing.

Elder Throop

Pics from trip to Panecillo and Pichincha at the top

selfie

On the way up

On the way up

District (missing 2 Elders)

Tyler and Elder Wilson

Feeling pretty cold!

Tyler's Arizona style pose (Coat but shorts)

Windy and cold

Sign at the top

Made it

No Bus Ride for Christmas This Year, Christmas Skype Arrangements, Better Week, Bowling as a Zone

12/19/2016

Yeah so when I was in Santo Domingo it wasn't really opening but kind of because what happened there was that the elder had worked a bit in his sector but they combined the sectors so he worked a lot in the other sector. he knew our sector at the time but there was no program which is helping me a lot so the experience is helping me a lot.

Normally we take buses since train is usually only for tourists. The buses are kind of uncomfortable but they have enough room. I am happy about no bus ride this year  (Mom's note.  Last year, Tyler was in Santo Domingo at Christmas so he had to ride the bus all the way in for Christmas at the Mission Home). Our Christmas dinner will be the last Christmas dinner and that will happen on the Friday and Saturday it sounds like we have a Christmas dinner with some members in the evening as we can't work that evening due to the risk to us. For the Skype call 4 should be fine for us here. We have a member set up to help us local time

To talk about our week we had a better week. It still has been hard but we have located all the investigators that the sisters left behind and we did find 2 new investigators (called the Loor family) So it went better for us. It still was hard and we did have some hard days but Elder Wilson still seems animated. He is learning Spanish better and that seems to help him a lot. He has improved a lot and I have learned from him as well. He has had some interesting insights. We are hoping to get things moving better now. next week seems like we will have a lot more. We have had more success with contacts and we will be working more with members. Today we had a zone activity were we went bowling. That was fun (although I did not do so great) But I still enjoyed it. I am enjoying it with Elder Wilson and he seems great. I just have to make sure I am patient even when everything is hard. It has been really stressful sometimes but I am enjoying it though. I hope you have a great week and look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Elder Throop

Opening a Sector Can Be Stressful, Unmarried Investigators Slow the Progress, Training is Fun

12/12/2016

Well yeah it has been pretty stressful opening a sector. I knew some of the parts (like the church building because I was in Vargas but the actual sector I didn't know too well. There were two sisters working here beforehand and the ward seems very enthusiastic to help (bishop, ward mission leader, etc) are really ready to help. Our big problem this last week was a poorly kept area book. There were not exact addresses in the area book of really anyone and the maps were not very accurate. So a bit of last week we were trying to find the houses of the investigators and help people out. That was rather hard for us but we have found a good majority of the families.

Another difficulty which we might enfrent is that a good portion of the investigator families were unmarried and so they can't get baptized until they get married. We are unsure where they are in the marriage process, but I feel we will need to desperately find new investigators and especially families that are married or just people that can progress. so that is our main work. This ward actually seems pretty strong. We had members already helping us in this week and we have a new ward mission leader who is eager to help and also the Bishop was ready to help. We are hoping to receive some referrals because the members already seem to understand their missionary duty. This will indeed help us out immensely as I anticipate we will receive referrals(we have already received some here) and we will start to augment the program.

As for the part of training that was fun getting my trainee. I was in the capacitations (training) and there were a lot of trainers that I knew some incidentally from my own group (Elder Cox and Elder Rhees) so we had a fun meeting there. Elder Wilson is my trainee and he is from Highland Utah He is 18 years old and indeed he is a little taller then me. I found that very ironic. He seems very enthusiastic and animated to work. I don't want to disanimate him but opening the sector is hard and it might be hard to have success at first. I do see that he has a great disposition to learn and he wants to learn spanish pretty bad and he has made some great progress in these last days. I am helping him actively participate and I have enjoyed it. More than anything I am trying to avoid stress from opening the sector.

Our sector isn't too hilly in some parts but in one part there are some hills I just haven't gone there yet. We are still experimenting to see what ways we can find news and how to set up the schedule. I need to learn how to direct this sector and then help him to be able to direct the sector. I do have a photo and I will send that soon. To be honest I have not had any cuy recently the last time was in Santa Ana. I guess only really rich people serve that. We did have a turkey recently for a Christmas dinner as a ward activity. I really don't have any strange food stories. Quito is pretty tranquil compared to other parts. I hope you have a great week.

Elder Throop

Elder Wilson

Sixth Area, Opening New Area, Don't Have New Companion Yet

12/5/2016

Well we received changes on Sunday. I left Vista Hermosa. I am now assigned to a sector called El Dorado (which is in La Colon I feel like I have been here a really long time) I will be training and opening the sector which means that the two missionaries that were here before left. That is why I am writing a little earlier than what I expected. I don´t know at what time you normally write but there are a few occasions when this can happen. The thing is that I need to go with the secretaries tonight at 6 and normally we write from 430 to 6. However due to travel time we had to write early to give us time to be able to get to the offices on time. I am with two other elders of the district here. They are working in Vargas which was my old sector. El Dorado touches Vargas and is part of the same district. So it will be a little interesting. The things is I need to wait to receive my new companion who comes on Wednesday so I have to wait a bit. Still it should be fun. Our last week in vista Hermosa went pretty well. It still was hard with Elder Marquez but there was a great deal I learnt and I progressed greatly.

We had the stake conference there so that was also interesting. President filled out the ecclesiastical endorsement so that should be there. So that is the status there. it should be fun having Christmas in Quito. I just don't know what to expect in this ward because there were two sister missionaries working here beforehand. So this will make things rather interesting. I won't know who my companion is until the middle of this week so I will tell you then. Also about the ward because i have nothing to go on really. Still I am excited and this should be a great experience. I hope you guys have a great week.

Elder Throop

*Mom's Note
I got a sneak peak at Tyler's new companion, Elder Wilson before Tyler can post next week as Sister Christensen posts pictures of outgoing and incoming missionaries on her facebook group for Missionaries.  Tyler's new companion is actually taller than him, but if you look at their legs, Tyler still has the taller legs!

Tyler's new Companion (greenie)

Elder Wilson has the height, but Tyler's got the legs!