I am Loving Every Minute of it!

April 18^th, 2011

Hey Family

So this week was pretty good, exciting, and sad all in one. The sad part is that Elder Hicks is no longer my companion :( I am going to miss him, because we got along and had sooo much fun together, it made the work a lot easier. But some other exciting news, I got changed to a sector in the mountains called Catamayo! It is in Loja. So it is one of the hardest sectors in the mission because there are sooo many Catholics, but it is super safe here, like I can actually walk around with my camera and stuff. Elder Keables was actually here last year, which is cool! But ya we received our changes wayyy early. Like Thursday night we received our changes. I was really bummed at first, because I didn’t know where I was going, and we had some awesome investigators that were going to get baptized, and my companion was awesome as well. But then we got to the bus station where all the missionaries meet, and I found out that I was going to Loja I got super excited. I had to take a 9 1/2 hour bus ride to get to my sector! My companions name is Elder Linares, He is from Guatemala and has about 14 months on his mission. The first thing he said to me was that he was sorry, because he said he is crazy. So this change should be interesting. But overall I am super excited to be here; it is like California in springtime, it isn’t super hot, or super cold. I know you guys were complaining that I wasn’t sending pictures, so I made sure to take some alright! We have some all right investigators here; we are hoping to have at least two baptisms, if not more. Apparently Catamayo only had 6 baptisms last year, so it is a difficult sector, but I am super optimistic and I have faith that me and my companion can have success here. Almost everyone is super friendly here, they always say hi to us and it has a good feeling. But ya the ward is sooo small. I counted how many attended church and it was about 20 people. Crazy huh? But the church is super small; I think it only seats like 40 people. But my companion and me are going to be working a lot to strengthen the ward. The people that do come to church are very nice, Super strong. There are a lot of inactive people, so we need to activate them! But the limit to our sector is like 3 hours away in bus! So we have a huge area, lots of walking up hills and mountains, definitely some good cardio. But so far I am loving every minute of it. We actually have a meeting with an area Seventy today and tomorrow, that is why I am writing so early, because we have to travel like six hours today to go to this conference. So we have to go to loja at like 10 and then to Machala at 11·30 so ya. But the cool part is I should be able to see Spencer again in this conference since Cuenca will be there, so I will be sure to take a picture with him for you guys. Our house is super nice, like way nicer than the one I had before, Its pretty updated, I have like a closet dresser thing and a kitchen and it is all pretty nice. The only downfall is that the shower is super cold! Pretty much knocks the wind out of me every time I jump in the shower, But I guess that is a good way to wake me up! lol But anyway that is pretty much all that is new with me, hope all is well with you guys.

Love

Elder Tormenta

We Have 5 Baptismal Dates!

April 11^th, 2011

Hola Familia!

This week has been super good! We worked hard up until about Friday, and then my companion got sick. We think that he has a parasite of some kind, but we aren’t sure. But it’s all good, I have a clean bill of health so far here in the mission, so that is good (knock on wood). So we didn’t get to work a whole lot this week, but we are hoping for a much better week this time around. We have 5 baptismal dates; we are hoping that they will all get baptized this next week, so cross your fingers and your arms (pray) haha. One funny experience I had this week was when we were at Family Molinas house and Teaching them the gospel. And then at the end, Harrison, gets up and says, "I am going to dance with my cat" and out of nowhere he just picks up his cat by the front legs and starts flinging it around, I thought for sure the cat was going to die, but somehow it made it out of the "Carousel from hell" alive. Definitely something I wanted to get on video as the cats legs and body were just being flung through the air by a little 12 year old boy. He told us that he practices with his cat everyday; maybe they will be famous some day, quien sabe? Anyway that is pretty much all that is exciting this week. We had zone conference as well and it was super good, President Montalti is definitely called from god to serve us that is for sure. He stressed a lot on faith, because we really need a lot of faith in this work, without it we will not receive blessings or miracles, and the work will be a lot harder. So that is something that I need to work on, because sometimes it is hard to have faith, but without a trial of our faith we will not progress. Some other exciting news is that we got Air Conditioning in our house, yep you heard me right, AIR CONDITIONING!! It got put in on like Friday! Its actually freezing in our apartment, so nice, I need to buy some sweat pants now. The owner of our house out of nowhere asked us if we wanted it, and of course two of us gringos jumped at that opportunity. So ya we are definitely enjoying it until the bill comes lol. But we have changes this next week and I am NERVOUS. I don’t really want to get changed because my companion is super cool, and we are having tons of success in our sector. But speaking of changes, Elder Applegate (remember my companion from the MTC) ya he knows he is getting changed, but he is getting changed to the Galapagos Islands! He is super stoked, and I am super jealous, President Montalti told him during zone conference. It is one of the hardest sectors, but definitely the coolest. I am super excited for him though; he said he is going to buy me a shirt. But anyway, that is pretty much all that is new for this week. Love you all a lot.

Love

Elder Storm

I Really Enjoyed Conference

April 4th, 2010

Hola Todas Personas Todo esta bien aqui en Malvinas! This week was awesome because of conference, and the fact that we got to bring lots of people to hear the prophet’s voice. We had some baptismal dates fall through, but we are hopeful that we can put a new date with them, and have even more! This change is going by sooo fast, not even funny. I don’t want to be changed out of Malvinas, I want at least one or two more changes here. So pray that I will not get changed lol jk. But ya some funny things happened this week, well one in particular. There are always these drunk guys that hang out and just chill on this street corner yelling at people. This week they decided to make a band. Every one of them had a part, banging on the sidewalk, or a cardboard box. Their microphone was a rolled up newspaper, Gosh I want to take a video of it soooo bad, but its pretty dangerous in that part of Malvinas. I guess I will always have the mental image. But other than that it was a pretty normal week. We have an awesome investigator, Her name is Magali Espinoza. She is a single mom, but she is really interested in the gospel, she has been to church twice, and she is sooooo close to accepting a date. If you could pray for her I would appreciate it. Also Amado Mosqueda (the guy with one leg who was supposed to be baptized in January) has another baptismal date! It is for the 16 of April, and he seems super excited about it! So make sure to pray for him as well, he will need it. I really enjoyed conference, it was a little different since it was all in Spanish, but it was really good. the thing I missed the most was just hearing their voices, it is a different experience hearing someone elses voice. Me and my companion have a new hobby, bothering dogs! There are soo many here that we just love to bother them, it definitely brings a lot of laughter, we scare them, and it is freaking hilarious. Gosh its the little things that bring lots of laughter. President Montalti changed our goal as a mission from 200 baptisms, to 300 baptisms! woooh, its going to be a big undertaking, but I think we are going to be able to do it. But overall nothing much has changed, everything is smooth sailing. Our goal is to have 3 baptisms this week, We don’t have any secured yet, but we have faith that we will be able to do it. The Lord will definitely help us to meet our goal. But ya other than that everything is good, I don’t have a whole lot to write about this week, but I have more next week

Love 

Elder Tormenta

If They Just Come and Hear The Prophet...

March
28th, 2011
Hey
Family
Todo esta
bien here in Malvinas, Me and my companion are working hard and we had 4
baptisms this last week. Remember Kevin? well both of his brothers got
baptized this last Saturday, along with some grandkids of a member in our
ward. Juan and Harrison are the brothers of Kevin, and they were beyond
ready to be baptized. Juan had been attending church for over a year and a
half. Harrison has been listening to our lessons ever since I have been
here and he knew everything. We were having problems with Juan accepting
our invitation, he knew the church was true, he knew everything. But with
persistence we finally got him to accept the baptism on Thursday night! So
that was definitely a blessing from Heavenly Father. So we were super excited
to have all four of them get baptized this last Saturday. But everything
else has been super good, we are really excited to bring lots of people to general
conference this Saturday and Sunday. I know if they just come to hear the prophet’s
voice they will want to be baptized, but its always interesting trying to
get them all the way to the stake center. Just got to pray for them. Oh
and I forgot to tell you, but I got a package from the other storms this
last week, it was from Christmas, so if you could tell them that I got it,
and tell them thanks for me I would appreciate it. But ya me and my
companion are getting along really well, He has a girl waiting for him, so
he is probably going to get married, but ya he is going to be leaving with
Spencer. I hope I get to stay in my sector for another change that would
be awesome. Its like I want to change sectors, but only if its somewhere
cool lol. But overall I am very content here in Malvinas, I know this
place like the back of my hand, and the members are really good to us.
Just randomly yesterday one of the members flagged us down, and gave us some
jerseys, Super nice! But ya right now I am living of a steady diet of rice
and oatmeal. Gets kinda old sometimes, but it keeps me alive lol. We are
thinking about moving houses because our owner of our house is like
robbing us. We are like never in our house and we don't use like hardly
any power, and we are paying like 24 bucks a month (which is a ton here)
so the average missionary is paying like 6 bucks, So pretty much we thing
we are paying for him also. So ya we talked to him, and he said that we
will only have to pay 12 from now on, and he would pay the rest, which is
still a lot, but he is going to put in air conditioning! So we are excited
for that, but don’t know if we should stay. But ya with these last four
baptisms I have 13 baptisms so far in my mission. So crazy that tanner is
coming home in three days, wow it doesn’t seem like he has been gone for
very long at all. I am sure the Hickman's are super excited to have him
back, tell him I say hi. All right well overall everything is good, I hope
all is well with you guys, sounds like everything is bueno. Love you guys
a lot 
Love 
Elder
Storm

P-Day at Iguana Park

I am so Grateful to be here

March 14th, 2011

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! wow that is the best news I have ever heard, I am so excited for her! I am actually not surprised at all because she is absolutely amazingly beautiful, I just wish I could be there to give her a big brother hug! Wow what an excellent opportunity! That emily is definitely going places. Honestly she doesnt need to fret, she is going to win for sure. Wow I still cant believe that she is
going to NYC next week! I have some major butterflies in my stomach right now, I AM SOOO EXCITED! I wish I was there so I could go with her! I know she is going to make us really proud. Geez, how are the guys going to stay away from her while I am gone? Please wait till I get back to get married. Wooh, I dont know if I can talk about my week, because nothing is nearly as exciting as this news. Holy Moly,
alright need to calm down, deep breaths, innnnnn and outtttt. okay I will tell you about my week now:

So me and my companion were working really hard this week so that we can have tons of success for march and april. In our zone our main problem is finding new people to teach, usually our numbers are really low as far as new investigators go. This week the lord has really blessed us. We found 20 new investigators this week, and we had 9 in sacrament meeting. So me and my companion are pretty pumped because
this is definitely the highest amount of investigators in our zone. Some of our baptismal dates fell this week because they didnt attend church, we probably wont have a ton of baptisms for this month, but I know we are going to have tons of success in April. HOLY CRAP MY SISTER WON!! Anyway, me and my companion went to the iguana park this week and also to malecon again. The zone leaders said that we have permission for sure next week to go to the lighthouse. P-days are always so much better when we can leave our sector. I got a haircut today and the guy like totally butchered it, like it is just a wide mowhawk, but like dad always says "the difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is 2 weeks." so I guess I will just have to bear with it for two weeks, but its all good. So have you guys gotten any updates from Taylor, how is that kid doing? I am assuming Elder Keables is loving Cuenca lol, I miss seeing him every week. Ya we were in a state of emergency this week because of the Tsunami. We had no idea what was going on because our Zone leaders called us in the morning and said to pack up a couple days worth of clothes and get ready to leave. So we were in the dark as to why we had to do this, but apparently the Tsunami even hit here in Ecuador, but with minimal damage. So we all congregated in a church with President Montalti and we had a little training meeting. Apparently Galapogos got hit but not very hard, there was no damage, So that was a relief. I wonder how the Phillipines is doing, Because my roommate in college is serving there, did it get hit at all? Anyways other than that new and exciting news with a family here. Do you guys remember Kevin? He is one of my converts here in Malvinas. Well his mom and all of his family is like super Catholic, like they didnt want anything to do with the church. You will never guess what happened this week, They actually attended
church! The whole family (minus the dad) atttended church with us this week! It was soooo awesome, the Lord definitely softened their hearts. I am not saying they are going to get baptized anytime soon, but little by little we are chipping away the ice. Overall this week was really good. We worked really hard, and it really paid off, even though we are really tired, it is super satisfying to look back and
see the results. We can honestly say that we didnt waste any time this week, we used all the Time for the Lord and he blessed us for it. I am so grateful to be here, I am really starting to love it, the people here are so accepting of the gospel. The Lord has put so many people in our path, we are sooo blessed. Alright I love you all and miss you
a ton.
Love Cody