Earthquake (everyone is ok), Hammered and Chatized by Elder Hales and Elder Oaks, Ward Council Struggles

4/18/2016

Well with regards to the earthquake, Quito didn't get hit too bad. We were in the house of a member and it started shaking pretty hard. It felt like a very roller coaster ride almost. The thing was that we weren't sure to react as both me and my companion are from Arizona so we didn't know how to react. Quito did not receive any damage that I know of and I am not sure about how we will be helping the people here. I did hear Santo Domingo and a good portion of the coast got hit pretty bad which definitely wouldn't be fun especially if they can't write to their families. Our mission president still hasn't sent us any mail with regards to the earthquake but I am sure by this Thursday we should know something as we have district meeting. But yeah the excitement of the earthquake possibly will wake people up and do what they need to do.


Yesterday we had a multi-stake conference which featured as part of the speakers Elder Hales and Elder Oaks. They hammered people pretty hard here. Two speakers actually spoke Spanish for the entire talk but one had a reaaaaaaaly strong gringo accent (Bishop Davies) but they gave great talks. Elder Oaks did a kind of scary part where he mentioned that the suffering in these countries (Ecuador, Venezuala and Columbia) is coming from lack of paying tithing and if the people want to bring blessings on their nation they need to pay tithing. He mentioned that when Saints in a nation aren't faithful in general then they are cursed. I was thinking ohhh dang we are already in an econimc crisis here in Ecuador, but it could get way worse until people are faithful. Elder Montoya mentioned that when we fail to serve it is because our love for God is cold and considering the great commandment is love your God as yourself that was pretty hardcore.

The hope is people listen or there could be worse things in for store for them. I know our ward is really struggling. It's hard to get ward council as the members don't show up and they don't do too much to help us. Considering all that has been said on what they need to do if they don't do it we may need to bring down President Christensen and have him admonish ward members and ward council. We hope the work in that area can improve. I recently hit 10 months in the mission which was pretty cool. Pretty soon I will be at one year. I can't believe how fast it has gone so far.

Well I love you all and hope all goes well, Pics later.

Love,

Elder Throop

View from Quito in new sector

Another view

View of the Panacio from apartment

Elder Waldie

Elder Waldie as a pirate?

Slow Start to Sector, Working with Ward Mission Leader, Interviews with Mission President

4/11/2016


Well the work is going here it is just a little of a slow start.  Apparently we are the ones really starting to work hard to get the program going here. It has been a little rough some of the days as the ward members have very low confidence, but do have very strong desires to work. We have been contacting a ton and the hope is we can show to the members the disposition to work so that the members will be motivated to work with us. We talked about ideas for a ward mission plan and I shared a previous idea from Santo Domingo and they seem eager to work hard with us. The whole goal is to implement those plans to ensure the members really get to work. We have found some pretty cool new investigators but one goal we have is to get people with baptismal dates. We are really close with this one guy who is kind of like an eternal investigator and just acts strange sometimes but does know the church is true. I have high hopes for the sector.

We recently had interviews with our mission president and that went really well. I was super happy to hear that I am progressing with my accent as sometimes it is difficult to hear my accent and President Christensen was happy with my progress. He asked how I was trying to be like Christ how I am helping my companion be more like Christ and what were some things I learned from Conference. I shared I am striving to be diligent and humbly listen to the advice of my companion to learn how I could improve. Then I told him that I hope to instill in my companion hope and diligence as my companion sometimes can be discouraged as I was awhile ago. That was a great experience.

This last week was more work with contacts and finding news and we have had success. We still need to improve in some points but yeah it is working. The sector is a lot hillier then my last sector in Quito. The people are the same more or less as well as the ward. The weather is a mixture between cold rains here and sun in the afternoons. I use my sweater the majority of the time.

It is great Jorren´s birthday went well. Make sure to tell him Happy Birthday from me (even though it is a little belated) I hope you have a great week and I am enjoying it here and learning this sector well.

Love,

Elder Throop

Excited for Quito Temple, Internet Issues During Conference, Preparing People for the Temple

4/4/2016


Well it is certainly true that the Quito temple announcement caused quite a stir here. When they announced that,  everyone (including me) cheered like someone won the Superbowl. That was how excited everyone is. I don't know how long that will take to translate to people to want to work with us, but it is something we can use definitely. I know the faithfulness in tithing paying will go up here and hopefully we will be able to convince the members to work with us more. We did here the rest of the talk but only heard the Lima temple announcement as they were so loud. We did listen to Spanish this time which wasn't so much fun as my companion really wanted it in English and so did I. What happened is the satellite transmission didn't work for the building so they used the only computer for the transmission. Then of course the internet was bad sometimes.  During the Elder Holland talk the internet shut down which was extremely disappointing as we missed part of it. I wasn't so happy.

I do remember all the talks as I took very good notes. I plan on listening to them in English as it just isn't the same in Spanish.

Please wish Matt congratulations on the mission call. I was wondering when we would hear about that call. That is indeed strange that I will be more than a year in the mission when he hits the mission.

We enjoyed this week. The work is a little hard here but we plan on working a lot with members to get the work going here. Hopefully with a temple announced they will be more motivated. I have no pictures this time unfortunately as the batteries failed and so I had to get two new batteries and I only got that done today. I plan on getting pics this week. My companion is a little shorter then me but yeah we both are tall. We are staying diligent and things seem well. I definitely enjoy it as I play an active role in the sector and there is no real control of directing anything of senior companion. I  figure it rarely happens where the older person is junior companion but I enjoy working with him so I don´t mind.

I hope you all are well and we are certainly excited here!

Love

Elder Throop

Transferred back to Quito, Another Baptism (got to perform it this time!), Looking forward to Conference, Learning Humility and Other Lessons Learned

3/28/2016

Well so we got the changes. And I got changed! I am back in Quito in a barrio (ward) called Santa Ana which is in the stake La Colon. This is the same stake that the offices are in so we have a lot of ground in the stake. I feel that there will be some interesting changes coming later on this year after this transfer.  I don't know how big the sector is yet but I will find out soon.

My companion is called Elder Waldie. He is a little younger then me in the mission but is the senior companion, just two changes behind me. It is alright as I feel he should be a cool and great guy and that I have to learn. He will be teaching me the sector a lot in these next weeks. I look forward toward it.  He seems pretty cool.  He is also pretty tall he is at about 6 foot 3 inches which is funny. His trainer was even taller then the both of us. I am indeed sad to leave Santo Domingo behind but it was time to go.

We had 3 baptisms the last Saturday and I have the photos to show you. I baptized two of the people so this is the first time I performed that ordinance in the mission but not the first time I performed the ordinance. That was awesome. My companion Elder Brown is training and well we ended well enough which was great. Three Elders from our district went to Quito to different parts. One person from my zone was made one of our zone leaders which should be really fun. I am really looking forward to conference and I believe we should learn a lot. It should be interesting to start the change with conference. I definitely expect to learn a lot.

That is extremely sad with the funeral of grandma but we at least have the assurance of knowing where she is at. She now is a good place which is the most important part.

Here I have learned a lot about the importance of humility and listening to your companions, but I have even more to learn. I feel I perhaps have to pass a test of humility with this change and I plan to start well. It is pride to say that others are inferior or bad. That causes problems. I have seen here in the mission that the difference between a good missionary and a bad is how they feel about senior companion and junior companion. That truly will demonstrate the type of missionary they are. The good missionaries say and live that the senior companion is to guide but is not actually superior as the companions are to learn from each other. I am with someone younger then me but I must learn from him and I better do well. A bad missionary considers a senior companion as someone superior. The reality is that they are a guide and a help and the companions work together to learn well. You have to recognize your own faults and then fix it. Sometimes people ignore your counsel but you have to change at the least. I have learned a lot about change and it really is a principle of repentance.

I hope you enjoy your week and I will send you photos.

Love,

Elder Throop

The Canchingre Family

Tyler, Hector, Allison, Elder Brown.  Tyler did the baptism for Hector

Abel Muñoz.  Tyler performed his baptism

Abel giving 2 thumbs up!

Mom's Note:
It looks like his new ward is a newer ward, and isn't on the Mission Map, but since he mentioned that the mission home is in his sector, this is the best I can do for the location that he's at right now.

Baptism! (Finally), Feeling the Spirit, Working on Great Attitude with Companion, Changes coming soon!

3/21/2016

Well first things first we did indeed have a baptism last Tuesday of three people. They were confirmed yesterday but just barely as I had to remind the bishop of the confirmation before the talks. Fortunately that got done yesterday so now we have recent converts in our sector. That was a great moment for me both the baptism and the confirmation as I know they are making the correct choice and that they will continue in the way of God. So we finally have helped in this sector someone to be baptized.

I do remember however that baptism isn't necessarily a sign of success. Something I have learned in these last 7 months when I didn't have baptisms was that true success comes as a missionary comes when you have the spirit with you and I have felt the spirit many times helping me coniune in diligence as it can be really discouraging when you don't baptize or when the people reject you. But then I am reminded of the words Elder Holland has said to us asking why it isn't so easy. He told us that we have to truly gain a testimony of the atonement and we need to at least pass by Gethsemane and that missionary work as never been easy as salvation isn't something easy. That is something that really is important for me.

This last week was great with that and we also had divisions with the zone leaders as well.  I learned a great example of how a companion should feel towards another companion and the ideal relationship of companions. Some of the commentaries I mentioned to Elder Quinn (one of our zone leaders who I was with) brought him to say interesting remarks and he said some of the things I mentioned are indeed concerns with what is going on with my companion and everything. I still want to work with my companion and he is a good person and has a great attitude and serves but still lacks in the obedience and for me it is hard to be perfectly obedient. For example in contacts I have been discouraged to contact too much as I feel he doesn't even bother and he focuses too much on the wrong things. My hope is I can have patience and love and keep learning from the good things he has. I hope everything is going well with you guys. We have changes this Sunday if you were wondering. Photos to follow!

Love,
Elder Throop

Baptism

Left to Right of baptism kids, Melany, Solange, and Jamileth,.  Hanz is their brother (already a member)

Baptism Postponed, (again), Can't Get the Rolling "Rs", Shoes fixed, Umbrella Broken

3/14/2016


Well this last week did have its ups and downs. Unfortunately last Saturday the baptism fell but fortunately we got it set up for tomorrow for those three which is great. We also have 2 more people with a baptismal date the only trick will be to set up a time with our week as we have divisions with the zone leaders Friday and Saturday so we will have to see about those two.

The sector is going well and I am enjoying it. We get changes normally every 6 weeks (with the exception of this change as this change is 5 weeks long) and the next time we get changes is on the 27th which is in like 13 days. It is true that I have been here a while and I believe with this change I will be gone from this sector as this is my third change here, We are having a lot of progress. My Spanish is still coming along hard as I don`t know how to say the r and that kind of discourages me a bit as it is something I have tried to work on for the last while. Still I hit 9 months soon and I hope by a year I will have that nailed down. I know the grammar well enough but the accent still kills me. My companion is an interesting situation sometimes as he wants to work hard it just he also seems a tad bit controlling. I believe we should try to work with more unity but it is hard as he sometimes doesn't want to listen and due to that we might have more problems. For me it is extremely frustrating sometimes.

I did get both sets of shoes completely fixed up and they hold up better then before. Unfortunately my umbrella is broken so I need to get a new umbrella as right now it works like halfway but because it rains so hard it isn't the best. That is no fun.That is extremely sad to hear about grandma. I hope that things can work out better but of course if she does die we have the conciliation of knowing where she goes. I remember from the funeral service of President Packer about them talking about that part. For Easter nothing I have seen yet but this is the first time. I do look for conference but that still is a little while away. I believe that is all I have to say for now. I hope you guys enjoy your week and look forward to next week.
Love

Elder Throop

Adventures With Scriptures, Shoe Repairs, Baptism Scheduled, Working on More Patience

3/7/2016

Well with regards to the scriptures I always read in Spanish which is fun. The covers actually hold up fine. The only trick is not to get them wet as if they get wet they bleed into the pages (an unfun experience I had in my last sector). I now have plastic bags to protect the scriptures now which does extremely well for the scriptures. I do mark them up and I found some colored pencil things (the eagle scripture markers) and those work fantastic for differentiating themes in the scriptures. Just by seeing the colors on a page I can figure out what is going on. Since we were challenged to read the Book Of Mormon I get to mark them a lot and currently I am in like Alma 48 if I remember correctly and they are well marked. As for telling scriptures to people usually I have the reference in the memory but the only ones I have memorized memorized are James 1:5, Joseph Smith History scripture and Amos 3:7 really well. I have a few,  but normally we have the people read it. I do know where the scriptures are though.

This last week was fun although our contacts were  a little rough. It rained hard a lot of these last days. I sent in my other pair of shoes to get them fixed up as this place rips apart shoes a bunch with the rocks. No fun there.

Next week we got a zone conference with President which should be fun. We had 10 investigators in church so the members are helping a lot. And we officially have a baptism scheduled this Saturday at 1100 with 3 people. They should truly be converted as they have immense desires for baptism and their brother is doing well. We are working with some other people as we have quite a few good people in our sector.

I do sometimes get a little impatient sometimes as it can be tough but still I am learning and I have enjoyed the time here. Hope everything goes well with you guys and wish Jorren and McKay luck in swim.

Love

Elder Throop


Here's some pictures from the Conference with Elder Holland

Elder Holland 

Elder Holland and the Ecuador Quito Mission

Another view (can you spy Tyler?)

More pictures of Families in the area

Fun pictures with Zone and Companions

Clockwise from Tyler, Elder Diaz De Oropeza, Elder Eastman, Elder Brown (Tyler's Companion)

Bird on the shoulder

P-day with the Zone-(Note how much more yogurt the Elders seem to have than the Sisters!)