Email - February 20, 2012

This week is the great holiday called Carnaval. This is where I got water and paint thrown on me last year in Vinces. The good thing is, the majority of the people head OUT of Guayaquil to have fun and make a mess, our sector is dead empty. Carnaval is normally Saturday to Tuesday, no work, just play. It's like Llama Fest in Utah but with more paint, more mud, more eggs, more water, more days and an entire country playing. I still don't understand why... haha.

Last week was full of interviews and this week will be too. It's different not working too much in our own sector, but I must tell you that we are seeing many miracles. We saw miracles this week. We set a goal to baptize 3 this month. A week ago we had no one. We are coming into the last week of the month. We decided to fast as a companionship for our goal and for the goal of the mission.

Here is just what happened... a recent convert is from Colombia, he LIVED here alone... until his 17 year old sister came on Saturday. She went to church, loved it, has 2 attendances and is preparing for this Saturday! Straight up miracle. Another is a lady who also just happened to show up with member friends, loved the church, but then fell off the face of the planet! She had a goal for the 18th, but we lost all contact with her. Finally, after church yesterday, we ran into her and got to teach her something small. To our great surprise, she went to church during work trips, is finishing 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, will have a baptismal interview on Wednesday with hopes to be baptized this Saturday also! Keep them in your prayers please! The trick in being AP is that sometimes we have a lot of time in our sector, but then we take off for a long time with conferences and interviews. We were worried as heck, put ourselves to work, went to the Lord in fast and prayer and saw immediate blessings.

It has been interesting working here, but I have learned two really important lessons. The first lesson is something Pres. Amaya always states. 'There is no reason to get stressed, angry or down. YES you can worry, but the work of the Lord is faith in His plan and putting your head down to the work.' I am learning to accept all that comes my way with understanding His plan with a great attitude. The other thing he always tells us is 'We simply don't perform miracles in the Lord's work because we simply get lazy.' Wherever we are at, interviews, conferences, the office or our own sector, we are firm believers in simply giving 100% to deserve the Lord's blessings. It has been fun, it has been a lot of stress and a lot of hair loss, haha, but I love this work and I am beginning to see the personal, yet huge impact we have on the mission as we inspire, elevate and encourage missionaries and companionships individually. I love being with missionaries, I love this work, I love the Lord!

Let's hope for 2 baptisms this week! Love you all

Elder McGinn