Elder Roberts in Ecuador: POKEMON GO

I have no clue how big of a thing Pokemon Go is in the U.S., but here in Ecuador it is getting to be huge. Not too many people have smart phones or anything, but there is like a sticker game going on. You can buy an album for 10 cents at almost any store in the streets and if you collect the 220 different stickers you win a big prize......my companion and I have already finished 2 albums. It is only like 1 cent for every 2 stickers, so it is pretty cheap and fun.....but everyone here is playing it, it reminds me a ton of my childhood.

Pokemon Go is a real thing

It has kind of been a desert here in Yaruqui and for the past couple of months, all of the farmers have been sad because the rain hasn't been falling as it usually does and it is affecting drastically a lot of the crops, but this week the heavens have poured down which everyone has been super grateful for. Even tho it isn't the funnest thing in the world to work in the rain, I am happy that the Ecuadorians are happy and that the Lord is blessing them and their lands, because the economy isn't the best here and prayers are really being answered with the rain here.

My companion and I were in a pueblo called Checa which is like 40 minutes walking from Yaruqui and the rains came down and we were walking back along the highway with all the cars coming by and we were soaked, but a nice car stopped and gave us a ride to Yaruqui. We contacted them gave them some pamphlets and have a visit with them scheduled this week. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

I believe my companion and I now have one of the biggest and most populated sectors in the mission. The sisters in Yaruqui left this week, one had to go home for medical reasons and the other got reassigned in a trio in another sector, so now my companion and I are covering 3 cities and a lot of villages, Pifo, Yaruqui, Quinche, Ascasubi, Esperanza, and more that we still dont know........but we have A LOT OF WORK TO DO. It is going to be nice working 2 sectors, because now we have to visit all the people that can really progress.....hopefully we can see some fruits.

The Hermanas had a baptism this week. It was a really great baptism. It was of a 40 year old man named Manuel. His wife and some of his kids are recent converts to the church, I interviewed Manuel this week and felt such a special spirit and it was a beautiful baptismal service. President and Sister Murphy came so that was cool having them there. I also sang a solo as a special musical number. I am not sure if I have really explained the baptismal font here, but the church here is a members house and the font isn't a font, it is a huge plastic tank container thing that is outside on the lawn. It was super dirty because it hadn't been used for months, so my companion and I spent Saturday during studies cleaning it for hours and it was actually super fun. It was a cool baptism. I think it would be cool to baptize in that tank, I am determined to work harder to be able to baptize someone in that thing lol.

My companion and I were in Quinche Friday and we decided to contact a part that we never really contacted. As doors continued getting slammed in our face we knocked a door and a couple of older women answered and invited us in. We couldn't enter their house since there wasn't a man there, but we sat outside and it was quite the experience. We were about to share the restoration when the woman said let me get my bible, she came back with her bible and started sharing verse after verse after verse with us and wouldn't let us talk. Turns out she was a Jehovahs witness that just wanted to contend with us. I was so tempted to just bible bash right there, but I overcame the temptation and we asked if we could say a prayer before we left and as my companion said the prayer the woman started saying her own prayer in a really loud voice and my companion wasn't sure what to do and it was actually super funny. I had a hard time not laughing and my companion had a hard time not laughing and then he started laughing like during the prayer and I started laughing but we covered up the laughing to make it seem like we were crying and the lady was still shouting her prayer and it was unforgettable hahahaha.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. You are all in my prayers. Please pray for our success here in the mission. I love being a missionary. I love knowing my Savior better and better every day. It is such an honor having his name on my name-tag close to my heart. I love my Savior so much and I know he loves me and loves all of you.

Love, Elder Roberts