Bucket Brigade Baptism-Loja Week Sixty Five

This week was filled with some pretty noteworthy and interesting things that happened to us here in the beautiful city of Loja. 

Visit from President and the Assistants

On Thursday the Assistents and President came to town to give us a capacitacion and to participate in the district conference on Sunday. Everytime that President comes to town or we get to here from him I learn so many things that I can apply as a missionary. We were able to talk with him about the zone, about our personal progress, and many other things. The assistents stayed with us the whole time and it is always good to see them and work with them in our sector. They are awesome guys that have a pure love for the Lord. One of the things that I learned in the meeting with President was the importance of the observance of the Sabbath Day. That is it not just the hours we go to church but the whole day. And if taught correctly in the home, the kids are more likely to stay in the church and not wander down unforbidden paths. 

Baptisms

Well this baptism was pretty crazy, I will not lie about that. First off, the guy that got baptized is named Lenin Criollo. A cool fact about him is that he used to be a pastor for another church a couple years ago. He was able to gain a testimony of the church and of the Book of Mormon and was baptized on Sunday after the conference. A quick story. On Sunday morning the power was out in all of Loja, so during the conference or atleast the first hour the speakers had to yell there talk and everyone was crowded into one room. Because the power was out we couldnt fill the baptismal font. However, in this mission we are missionaries of solutions so we found a great solution. Across the street from the church there is a fountain. So we enlisted the help of some members and used buckets to steal water from the fountain. Pretty funny and neat experience. Not only that we wanted the water to be hot we got a giant pan and starting heating buckets of water on a huge stove in the church. It was one of the most wild baptisms but it was all worth it. Hearing the testimony of this guy was a great experience. Something that I will never forget.

Elder Collins, Leniin, Elder Shanklin

Missionaries and the family of Lenin

Investigadors

Things always get better in the zone after President makes a visit. Just in a couple days we have seen an improvement. We continue to work with the people we have and many are progressing towards a baptism. We are finding more as well. The Lord continues to bless us and we know that he will keep doing it as we are obedient and diligent in the work of the Lord. 

Hope everyone has a great week and a great Halloween. Get some candy and then send it to me. If you sent like Reese´s that would be awesome. 

Thanks for all the love and support.

Life is a sport, Make it Count

Elder Shanklin

Fuerzas Espirituales-Loja Week Sixty Three

Well this has been an interesting week to say the least and we have had some pretty awesome experiences in the matter of one week. Also shoutout to my brother who will be getting married to Allison. Congrats to them. 

Trip to Zamora

Like I have said before here in the zone we have a sector that is 2 hours away from the zone. There are 2 missionaries there. They were having some problems and needed a little help out there so on Wednesday we headed out there to help them out. We did an interchange with them with the idea to help them get along better and have more success. Most people are happy when they have success. We went got to Zamora it was absolutely dumbing raining there. We showed up without umbrellas or rain jackets so we just took off running to the missionaries house. Needless to say we showed up very wet. All day I walked in the rain and was just super cold the whole day. The good thing was we enjoyed a day of a lot of sucess. The missionaries were happy and so were we. 

Elder Alder, Elder Shanklin, Elder Barney and Elder Collins

New People

Basically this week we have put in a lot of effort in finding new people to teach and to help change there lives. We continue to work with what we have but have also put the emphasis on finding more. There is no such thing as having too much sucess in the mission. Or a missionary will never complain for ever having to many people to teach. We find a guy who just recently got back from machala and had talked with the missionaries there. The missionaries were teaching him there and we are going to continue. He used to be a pastor so it should be pretty interesting what goes on. We also have been teaching a brother and sister from a small city called Saraguro. Everything is going good with them and hopefully in the coming week baptismal pictures will be sent.

Tshirts

Well in the next couple weeks we will be sending off an Elder from the zone.So in honor for his goodbye we made some pretty cool shirts. I will send some pictures and hopefully you will realize how cool they are. 

Elder Alder, Elder Shanklin, Elder Barney, Elder Collins
Spiritual Forces

Helaman 11:28  And it came to pass that it was expedient that there
should be a stop put to this work of destruction, therefore they sent and army of strong men
into the wilderness and upon the mountains to search out this band of robbers, and to destroy them.

Being silly!

Thanks for all the love and support. President is coming this week to Loja it should be awesome.

Life is a Sport, Make it Count

Elder Shanklin

Waiters, Menus, Chicken, Pork And Steak-Loja Week Sixty Two

Well this week has been a little more calm, nothing crazy nor adventurous has happened. So sorry. 

Travel

This week started out, well as you all know, with a trip to Guayaquil in order to participate in Leadership Council. For me it is a little taste of what General Conference is like. We wait all month to see who the new-bees are and what Presidente has to say about the mission and our zones. We always walk away spritually uplifted. Including this time we had the opportunity to go to the temple as the leaders. Lets just say it was well deserved after that miserable 8 hour bus ride in the middle of the day. Speaking of the temple I learned a ton in this trip and was able to reflect on what I lacked as a missionary, as a companion, and leader. Revelacion is real. The way home was probably even worse than the trip there. We left at 5 in the afternoon, made a midway stop in Cuenca to change buses and then headed to Loja. We spent all night in that bus. I am extremely glad for motion sickness medicine, if not for there I am pretty sure that I would not be alive right now. We arrived alive and happy to Loja and were able to get a couple hours of sleep in our own beds. 

American Food

This week because of our good numbers and baptisms that we have had in the branch our branch president invited us to eat food. I was just expecting something super simple, like rice and chicken. He took us to like the coolest restaurant in Loja probably. There were waiters and menus and lots of other stuff like the US. I nearly had a heart attack when I say the prices but he assured us that it was alright. We ended up getting like a large order of meat consisting of chicken, pork, and steak. IT WAS SO GOOD. I felt like I was in like a grill house in the United States. There are perks, not only spiritually but also temporarily for having success in the mission.

Investigadors

This week we are able to start over and finally find our old investigadores. It had been a long time since we had seen each other. We were able to teach him about the Book Of Mormon and recieving his own testimony. He has had some struggles lately but we are working side by side with him so that he can get baptized and continue onward. He came to church again and the members warmly recieved him like before. Always we have been working with a brother and sister, who are like natives here. They also were at church on Sunday and liked it a ton. Hopefully we can get them on the right bath and helped them even more. We recieved many blessings this week as we were obedient and trusted in the Lord. That is not to say that we had our ups and downs this week but we were able to overcome the bads with the goods. Hopefully we can keep that going. 

Thanks for all the love and support!

Life is a Sport, Make it Count

Elder Shanklin

Zone Leader Problems-Loja Week Sixty One

Oh family and friends...

Trips to Guayaquil

Basically these past few weeks have been filled with trips to Guayaquil. Like 3 in the last 3 weeks. Well make that 4 in the last 4 weeks because today we also have to travel to Guayaquil for Leadership Training. So basically we have to take another 8 hours drive today and then another 8 hour drive tomorrow after the council. Atleast there are a couple hours to catch up on sleep and enjoy some conversations with the other missionaries. You really get to know them in 8 hours. I am excited for what President has to say this month and should be a great learning opportunity. I am going with the new companion so we should both learn quite a bit in how to help the zone and the missionaries that are here in the zone.

Elder Shanklin showing off the Mural of Antonio Jose de Sucre(1795-1830)  in Loja

Conference

Lets just say that after every conference I walk away having learn new things and having been enriched spiritually. This conference I especially liked the talk on Saturday when the speaker asked the question "What else do I lack" (that is my spanish to english translation). I took the challenge that he offered in order to find out what I lacked as a missionary, as a companion, and a a leader. I was confident that the Lord was going to give me a huge list with countless things to change or to start doing. However, I felt impressed to do a couple things, or to change a couple things in order to be a better missionary or become the missionary that the Lord wants me to be. Pretty good and neat experience. I also liked the talk by Jeffrey R Holland about the Moms. I am so grateful for my mom in my life and contribute most of the success that I have had up till now in my life to her and to my dad. They talk my righteous principles and walked with me in the good times and the past. So a special thanks to them and everything they have done for me.

Elder Shanklin at the Gates of Loja

Zone Leader Problems

Basically as a zone leader you are in charge of missionaries and have to help them resolve there problems and make sure that the zone is funcioning and having success. For example this week in the zone we had 4 baptisms so we had to help the missionaries prepare and then help them carry it out as well. This week a pregnant lady of 9 months got baptized. We had to make sure that the water was super hot so that nothing happened with her pregnancy. We spent many hours in the week and eventually fixed the broken hot water heater.

A view of Loja

Elder Shanklin

Elder Shanklin in Loja

Don't ask me how or anything, but we did. We took it apart, placed new tubes, bought new batteries, and changed the gas, and then it worked. Baptisms always stress me out but after we fixed the hot water heater everything was good. We were able to have the baptisms here in the zone and they were super awesome. It is such a great experience to hear there testimonies about the church just moments after they got baptized. It strengthens my testimony everytime.

Well I don't have much time to write this week because we leave to Guayaquil in about 30 minutes. Hope everyone has a great week and thanks for all the love and support!

Life is a Sport, Make it Count

Elder Shanklin

I Feel Like I Am In A Lord Of The Rings Movie-Loja Week Sixty

So this week has been full of some pretty exciting things and I think you should enjoy the email and the pictures that I will send. Basically this week involved a lot of traveling. 

Changes

Basically, right now in this moment my old companion is sitting in his house probably watching TV or playing on his new phone. For that reason this week I have a new companion. His name is Elder Collins, and is from Payson, Utah. He has like a year in the misison and it is my responsibility to train him as a Zone Leader. He is a good missionary so it shouldnt be that hard of a task. The best part is that from here to Guayaquil is an 8 hour bus drive.  I showed up to get my new companion on Tuesday and was informed that he was in the temple so I had to wait with the assistants. Always a good time with the assistants because they are some good friends. After the temple, me and my companion had the privledge to attend the meeting for the new-bees here in the mission. We even got to bring one back to the zone with us. Elder Alder began his mission here in Loja. This guy is going to be a way good missionary in the near future. He works hard and always has a big smile. We all traveled together back to Guayquil. Lets just say that 16 hours were spent in a bus. Ask my mom how my relationship with long car rides are.

;

Elder Collins and Elder Shanklin

Elder Shanklin and Elder Collins

This time with matching ties.

Zamora and Saraguro

Here the zone is absolutely huge. The zone extends 2 hours to the north and 2 hours to the east. This week I had the opportunity to travel to both of those places. The trip there is absolutely breathtaking. It is filled with waterfalls, views of mountains. I feel like I am in the Lord of the Rings movies sometimes when I see some of the scenes. We took like 200 pictures so I am sure I wont send all of them but I will send a few. It is incredible to have a zone so big and with such different type of culture in the cities.

The Rest of the Week

After all the traveling finished we finally could work in our sector in peace and that is what we did. We worked super hard this week in order to find new people to teach and help. Although the success isn't what we would have like, we know that if we keep working the Lord with bless us with success, maybe even more than we were expecting.

Hope you enjoy all the pictures we took. Loja is an extremely beautiful place and the views are stunning. Thanks for all the love and support. 

Life is a Sport, Make it Count

Elder Shanklin