MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! DEC. 22, 2014 AND DEC.29, 2014

His Trunky blanket (as he called it) that I had made for him for Christmas!

Dec. 29, 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Oh boy, I have had a great P week! haha. Just kidding, we've been doing some good work out here! We had a way sweet day on Tuesday the 23rd. We took the whole mission and went through the temple and after we cleaned a bunch of church buildings as a mission and then we had an amazing dinner and Christmas program together as a mission with the president. (I have the greatest mission president in the world!) There was a bunch of missionaries that sang and played music and there is some good talent here in the Guayaquil north mission!

But as for the work, Junior is going strong and will be joining with the youth of the ward and go to the temple to do baptisms this Tuesday which he is really excited for! We also started to teach his mom and his sisters which is so cool, Awesome family, They also came to our ward party this last week and had a ton of fun! Javier is still making a ton of progress and will be an awesome leader in the church. As for Edison, we saw him drunk on the streets and we visited him Saturday and he was very drunk and super emotional. Its sad to see what alcohol can do to ones mind like that. But we visited him again yesterday and he was a ton better and we helped him understand the sabbath day so he can attend church with us! I'm really excited for him, He will turn his life around one of these days!

Talking to the fam was great of course and it looks like not much as changed! everyone is still their goofy selves! haha

But that's all for now folks! love you!

-Elder Rawson:)

WE ARE A HAPPY FAMIILLYYY!!!!

HAPPY SISTERS :) :)

HOHOHO!!!

Dec. 22, 2014 
First off, I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heaaaarrrrtttt!! 

  Yet another good week down as I approach my 1/4 mark (wowzers)!! But it is so hard to think that Christmas is coming and there is snow back home! I can hardly even remember that snow exists at times. The sun is blazing at this time of the year and its only going to get worse! ...Full fuerte ese sol! (haha me encanta la jerga aqui!) But other than that I love Ecuador! 

We baptized and confirmed Junior this week and I can already tell that he has so much potential to be a very strong member of the church. In one year he can be an awesome missionary himself! He always was super good at keeping commitments and has basically read through the gospel principles book already! After being baptized he bore his testimony and shared an amazing story. 

His mom is a super nice woman but had been getting upset a little for his decision to be baptized. One night he went in his room and began to pray and ask God that his mom would be comforted so he could follow through with his baptism in peace. Shortly after his prayer his mom came in and told him that she had been thinking and that she would be supportive to him in whichever decision he makes!
That was such a huge testimony builder to me! I know that being baptized and having the gift of the holy ghost he will be a great example to his sisters and his parents and perhaps one day they will follow his example into the waters of baptism!

Make sure you all remember the reason why we celebrate Christmas! Because Christ was born, and Christ was born in order to carry out the atonement and allow us to receive redemption from our sins and weaknesses in order to be clean and spend eternity with our families and father in heaven!

Love you all so much!
Elder Rawson:-)

HOT ELECTRIC SHOWER, Chontacuro worms for dinner, Baptism by Spiderman aka Elder Rawson (Week of Dec. 8th and !5th)

Why does this look super scary and dangerous to me??? YIKES!!!!

Dec. 15, 2014 

So I´m feeling pretty fancy and spoiled right now because we got an electric shower put in and now I take showers with hot water:) (Lo siento a todos mis amigos que están bañándose en agua fría todavía) but this would have helped me a ton when I first got here cuz the showers were terrible!! 

Anyways so this week we finally got to start teaching Edison. He's an awesome guy and is super humble. When he prays with us, he asks God to help him with his life because it is a disaster. I don´t know everything that is going on but he is married with a family but they all live somewhere else and he lives alone and we see him drinking a lot. He has been trying to stop drinking and really wants to reach out for God´s help in his life. I'm excited to teach him but he didn´t make it to church this Sunday even after we tried hard to get him there.

All I can say is DISGUSTING...YUCK!  I won't torture you all with the video!  He did tell me (his Mom) that he and his companion had the runs for several days after this episode!  Eww...I hope he learned his lesson!

So yeah in the title i wrote, (chontacuro) which is a giant worm type thing from down here. A member had some for us to try because Elder Cook asked for some. We went over and I wasn't going to do it at first but then I thought it would make for a funny video to look back on someday so I did it...... Sorry mom, im nuts! Then after the member looked up videos of everybody else eating them and in all the videos they actually cooked them! but oh well, im still alive so thats good! 

UGH!!!

 And yesterday one of the kids of the ward got baptized and he asked me to baptize him. I felt bad because Im sure his dad might have wanted to but I guess the kid jsut wanted to get baptized by spider man, Haha! Then this week junior is getting baptized and he is going to be an awesome member. He is already way active in the elders quorum. 

The mission is great. Love you all and Feliz Navidad!!

Spiderman (AKA) Elder Rawson workin hard

Dec. 8, 2014

Hey y'all

So this week Elder Useda the area president came to our mission to do some conferences in Guayaquil. The first was with the ward council of like 8 different stakes so there was a ton of people there! The topic was pretty much on how we need to focus on strengthening the wards before we can go out baptizing. Just like in our ward, Elder Cook and I have been working our butts off with the finding, teaching and baptizing and have been doing well for how hard of an area this is. But it hasn't had to big of an impact on our attendance so we are going to be searching out the less actives and get them to church. 

The next day we had another conference with just us missionaries with Elder Useda and man that guy is powerful! He is from Peru and he pretty much "macheteó" (corrected with sharpness) to all the Latino Elders that don't want to learn English and how God chose English to be the language of the restoration. So looks like if I ever get a Latino comp, he wont be hearing too much Spanish from me while we are in the house:) Even though I should work on it as well! 

But the work is going great! Love seeing the change in the people I´ve taught as they have accepted the gospel into their lives!

I think by that smile, he likes receiving mail!

                                                                                                            So I just wanted to send out how grateful I am for how much God as blessed my family at home! I must say it´s kind of freaky that I could have lost my sister but thanks to God´s hands she is alright! Thanks for the prayers of you that have offered! Please keep them coming especially for the other girls in the car because apparently Bay was one of the better ones off! 

Well at least he saved one of the 3 presents I sent him to open on Christmas!

Luv ya all, merry CHRISTmas:)

                                     Elder Rawson

Hey he actually put up his Christmas tree I made and sent him!

Coke and Pizza (Just like home)

Five Months Out

Looks like these shoes are getting a good workout!  I'm sure they have walked many many miles so far, and many more to go!!!

It looks like he has now received all 3 of my packages before Christmas and with no problems...YEAH!!!  He said he's saved at least one to open on Christmas!!!

I think he's happy that his Costco dried mangoes have arrived!!!

 Wussup,

So fantastic week this week. We were able to go to Guayaquil and go through the temple again on Wednesday!  My 3rd time here in Ecuador, (I´m lucky) and it was good because I could actually understand everything this time!  Ha ha.  But ya mom, I got my other packages!  DRIED MANGOES, oh man they are soo tasty!  December is also the time when the mangoes here turn orange and not green, and are super duper sweet and juicy!  I don't know if I have had a real fresh mango before the mish.   I do love them because there are mango trees everywhere here and we can just pick them off the trees as we walk around:)

 We now have finished baptizing the family of Veronica, with the baptism of her sister Melany last Saturday.  She asked me to baptize her and it was so cool because She has changed so much!  It takes a lot to change churches like that especially when it was such a big part of her life before! 

But all is well here in Ecuador and it gets better each and everyday!  To all the fellow missionaries or soon to be missionaries, obedience = happiness. (If you have Spanish scriptures, busque gozo en la GEE) y también Juan 8:29 (el patriarca en mi barrio me mostró esta escritura a noche:) 

Love you all!!! chao! 
Élder Rawson:)

Laundry Day