Really Growing to Love this Place!!!

The baptism of Carlos Francos, the Zone leaders were teaching him. This man is CHOSEN. He helped us teach less actives before he got baptized because he got his testimony so fast. This man is a huge example to all! He lost his legs a while back in a truck accident where he was ejected and stayed in the hospital for 9 months after! 

Feb. 23, 2014

Barely Surviving the Rice

Yup that's right.. The rice is killing me slowly, my health at least. But my companion on the other hand is still loving it!

So Elder McMinn is back up and running and we have been doing some great work! 

This weekend was stake conference and President Riggins came and spoke again like in my last sector. He is super famous here. Just cuz he is so funny and powerful as he speaks. But there was sooooo many people at this conference so there were like 2 extra rooms filled to the max where they watched on TV and me and my comp stayed in a back room with two other missionaries and the assistants and just listened from the speakers because there wasn't anywhere else to go! 

We finally helped an investigator Dora make the decision to go with us and now after nearly 4 months of investigating she feels comfortable to go to church with her husband, who is a member. She said she felt the spirit really strong at the conference and wants to keep going!

As for the rest of the district, they are all doing really well also. The sisters are champs and I love taking their reports cuz they do work. The ZLs are still doing fantastic, but there is one companionship that's kind of hurting because one companion has been struggling on his obedience. So we are going to be doing some exchanges and I'm going to go work with him in his sector for a day. Hes a great teacher and has a ton of knowledge but without the spirit that comes from obedience and love for the work, they will always struggle to be productive.

Missions are great and anybody that can should go! Love you all and peace out!

John 15:10

Elder Rawson:):):)

The FISH!! at El Parque Bocachico

 Some house that never got finished, but good for a quick pic!

       

Los Chapulos...Escaping a sketchy situation last week!!! A sick companion this week!!!

My comp and I in the clinic today!

A giant fish in my sector:)

Not so sure about this!!

Feb. 16, 2014

So I'm writing super late today because Ive been in the clinic my whole Pday with my sick comp. But its all good because I don't have a ton of things to share this week. Just that Tuesday my comp was talking to me about how he wasn't feeling to well and had a headache.  We kept working though, then the next day he felt really sick and stayed in bed all day. He ended up having a super high fever of about 40 C which is like 104 I think. One of the zone leaders, Elder Mendoza from Texas, stayed with him and I stayed out in the sector and worked with the my other ZL, Elder Alguera from Costa Rica.  Elder McMinn is getting better and his fever went down and is coming home tonight.  I feel bad because I was just with him in there today dying of boredom, trying to kill as many mosquitoes as I can.

I guess we also had transfers last night and I'm the new district leader. So that will be cool and all, to get to learn a few more things that God has in mind for me to learn.

Since I don't have too much more to share Ill share a thought that has been on my mind a lot lately.

 Basically everything we do that is good should come from the right reasons. 

1, because we love God.

 2, because we love the people we are serving. If its from anything else such as,( because its our job, duty, or to be better than someone else), it will not bring us or anybody satisfaction 

and as it says in 1 Cor 13:3, will be just as good as if we had not done it in the first place. At least in the eyes of God. If ye have not love...You ain't nuttin.

Peace out Fools:)

-Elder Rawson

Feb, 9, 2015

Welcome to the Jungle baby!

Haha...I am guessing he's imitating Brent and I from the pictures I sent him of our Jamaica photo shoot pictures!!

Heeeeyyyy,

 Reporting from crazy Ecuador. But I'm basically used to it but I know anyone else would say its pretty much nuts! 

But I forget some stuff last week so Ill catch up on that first. But last week we had a conference out here with President Riggins. He started out being himself and funny by making us laugh. Then he began to talk about what he calls, one of the worst weeks of his life. He told us how he had to go through a long process to finding a missionary that had made a mistake and ended up having to send a missionary home.... as a father. Yup, this elder messed up pretty bad. He has been stressing that we need to sanctify ourselves and especially as a mission. He also said that he will not be looking at numbers or stats to pick the new leaders. Just missionaries that are obedient and love the people they serve, which I completely agree with. Then after all that dumb talk of stuff that should never have happened, We enjoyed "Conozca a los Mormones" (meet the Mormon's) together. It was a great movie! I loved the messages that it presented while being very entertaining at the same time! Afterwards I had an interview with the pres and we talked for a bit.  He seems kind of drained when hes not in front of a lot of people, I feel bad he has had to deal with a lot of unnecessary crap!

But then this week on Saturday, my comp and I were on our way home at night finishing up when a car pulled up next to us with 2 guys trying to talk in English which usually just means they are messing with the gringos. I tried to ignore and keep walking but my comp kept talking to them and went up to talk to them. They shook our hands and he said he would pull over to talk to us. So he parked and the driver got out of the car while the other stayed in. I wasn't feeling very good and wanted to leave. He started telling us how he was a member but had been inactive for about 10 years and was talking to us about other missionaries that he knew when he was younger and stuff. I started to ease up but still had a weird feeling. He kept talking to us about weird stuff how he saw a bishop with a gun and how that's bad, and a bunch of other dumb stuff that I don't know why he was saying. Then out of nowhere he tried to take us home but we declined. Then he started to get all defensive how we don't trust him and acting offended. I put my arm around him and told him that we trusted him but we just didn't want a ride. after a few minutes he finally got in the car and we left. If you haven't realized by now, They were trying to rob us or do something! The more I have thought about that situation the more obvious it is that we got out of a sketchy situation! Glad I at least had the feeling (from the spirit) to tell me to get out! Don't mess with the missionaries!

Also yesterday we saw our bishop get released after 11 years in the calling! that would be nuts and the first thing that he said was "por fin" (finally) We all cracked up then he bore a powerful testimony. It was cool to see!

But I have written too much and got to go, 

Chao!!

This is a type of fruit here 

Elder Rawson:)

My sector:)

                             Rainy season has begun!!!

Cant tell but it rains SOOO hard here! I was walking in puddles INSIDE my shoes!!

The jungle!!!!

So made the ride out here to Quevedo and I figured out that Ecuador is pretty!! It´s super green. I´m in the city of Quevedo but my sector is on the very outside of the city and the jungle is like 200 feet away! I love it here. I´m lucky that i got sent to a sweet ward with awesome members so I don't miss all of my other friends back in Panorama so much. It was almost like leaving home all over again! But I can already tell that I will love it here as well!

My comp is Elder Tanner Mcminn from Layton Utah! He´s a hard worker and has an awesome testimony. He´s a pretty fresh elder as he just barely finished his first 12 weeks out in the field with his trainer. He´s got a pretty hard accent so he´s not too easily understood by the members, i even had some trouble at first, but we´ll get working on that. 

My sector that i work in is pretty confusing and I´m still trying to figure my way around but hopefully I can get it down! 

Oh and for a cool story this week. Elder Mcminn and I were walking down the street one day when a family called us over to there house. The older lady that was there was wearing sunglasses and the other ladies told us that she had been without her sight for 17 years! and the day before she had barely had the operation done to regain her sight. It was so awesome to see and be the first missionaries that she could see! she was actually the one who first saw us! which is cool how she recognized us so quickly! She also bore her testimony in church and it was really powerful!

The jungle!!!!

A moth that got in our house one day and we saw it when we returned that night!

Waiting in the office before heading out to Quevedo

Bus ride, chillin!

Me and the comp!