EL HORNO DE AFLICCION

So, this might be a little lengthy, but this was a crazy week and probably one of the hardest weeks of my mission. I was in absolute physical pain the whole week, but fortunately the Lord was able to bless me with a ton of tender mercies throughout the week.

So for starters. Elder Godoy came to the mission this week and I saw him on Friday when he came to visit the zones here in Otavalo. He gave a great talk that was centered on how the Lord has confidence in us because we have been saved for these Latter Days to serve in such a special part of the world to help bring to pass the blessings that were promised to the Sons of Lehi. He told us we were serving in a very special part of the world and he testified that God is a God of miracles and we have a right to those miracles. Then he turned to President Richardson and asked ¨have you told them the surprise¨and President Richardson was like not yet and Elder Godoy ïs it ok if I tell them ¨. So Elder Godoy dropped a bomb on us. He said Elderes y Hermanas, Ustedes van a recibir alguin muy especial aqui en Febrero

. JEFFREY R. HOLLAND IS COMING TO MY MISSION. ALSKÑDJFALÑSKDJFALSKDJFALSKDFJALSDKFJASLDÑKJASDFÑLKAJSDFLÑAJKSDFLAKSDFASLDKFJASÑLDFKJASDLFKJASDFLKJASDF

I am so pumped, our mission is so pumped, it is going to be awesome. For realz, like He is my favorite Apostle and his talks have helped me a ton on my mission. A ton. Especially his talk A High Priest of Good Things to Come. But holy cow it is going to be so great. He comes in February.

So I was kind of scared this week that I was going to get sent back to the states. On Tuesday I had to go to Quito to renew my visa and I stayed the night there and Wednesday morning we went early to the government building that renews visas and had to wait in line there for hours and found out that me and some other missionaries from my group were illegally here, that our visa was expired one day before we got to the offices. SO. we had to spend like 3 days in Quito getting a ton of paperwork filled out and seeing lawyers and stuff to get around the whole expired visa thing to be able to be here, and it was like well, if you cant get your visas renewed you will probs get reassigned to the states. Well after three days of standing in a lot of lines and seeing lawyers we finally were able to be legally here and I will be able to finish my mission here in Ecuador. Ecuador is the best.

So last Monday we played volleyball, soccer, and frisbee with the zone and I got super sunburnt. I saw it Monday night but it didn't hurt and I as like well this is going to hurt tomorrow. I was in so much pain on Tuesday it was terrible. Not only the sunburn, but I got like something on my face. some type of infection on my left lip, I thought it was poison ivy, but I guess it was some other infection or something. But my lip has been like swollen and puss has been oozing out of it and it looks terrible and through out the week it got bigger and bigger and like started going into my mouth. the most pain I have been in my whole life. SO MUCH PAIN: I couldn't eat anything or like talk, but now it is getting a little bit better.

So in funny news Gladis lives on like a ledge of the volcano so there is like a 20 foot drop between her house and the street and her pigs were eating by the ledge and while we were teaching we heard this terrible shriek. Her pig fell off the ledge, it was the funniest thing I have seen in my life. Just seeing a pig like slide of a ledge and fall twenty feet. It was SO funny. It was totally fine too, it didn't get hurt, but my companion and I had to chase it down and bring it back to the house. Lets just say chasing down a pig is hard work hahaha.

Yesterday we went to a family that we have that is progressing and had a pretty hard visit with them. we found out that they have a ton of problems in their marriage so it was hard to see them not happy. I was feeling a little sad after the lesson thinking wow what if that was my family and then I thought about how grateful I am for my strong family for my parents that love each other and have taught us as children the gospel. I was feeling a little sad and then I got a phone call, I have only had a cell here for 3 days so I was wondering who had my number and it turns out it was some brothers form Tulcan that were passing by San Roque. They called the zone leaders and got my number and gave me a call and I got to meet up with them for a couple minutes. It was so good seeing them. It was definitely a tender mercy. They gave me the confidence that I was a good missionary there. That my work wasn't in vain, I found out that 2 investigators I started out with this last week got baptized. It was so good to see them.

My Companion and I are getting along super well, I am sad that this is the last week of the change, I hope we get more time together but we will see what happens. We are going to end on a good week. We are going to baptize Elena Montalvo this Saturday, so that will be really special.

Well I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and I know this is the true Church and that we are all special Sons and Daughters of God. Have a great week everyone. Write me and send me goodies.

Love Elder Roberts

 I ran into my bro Elder Plant, we served together in Calderón

I

I ran into my friends from Tulcán