Week 85 - March 11, 2019

Dear Family,

This week was a super busy week for us.  To start the week, here in Ecuador there is a holiday called Carnaval.  During  Carnaval, all of the people have water balloons and buckets filled with water.  Sometimes they fill them up with paint or oil and the people just throw it on anyone they see in the street. So, Monday and Tuesday we couldn't really leave the house. We just stayed inside and studied haha.  Kind of boring, but it was funny to see all of the people in the street soaking each other with water.

And on Thursday and Friday, we were in Quito because a Seventy came, Elder Calderon.  He is from Peru and was the mission president of the Cali, Columbia mission.  He and his wife did such a good job, and I was able to learn so much from him.  My favorite thing that he taught us was about the Sabbath day and why we have it.  The Lord taught Moses that it was a commandment to keep it holy or in Spanish, It's to SANCTIFY the Sabbath day.  Sanctify means according to the dictionary, "A PROCESS for which a person frees himself from sin and becomes pure, clean, and sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ."  Later on, we learned in the sacrament prayer that it says, "O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and SANCTIFY this bread to all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them.  Amen." 

The Sacrament is the PROCESS that have to be better than we were yesterday.  It is so important to understand why we participate in the Sacrament so that we can be clean of all of the sins that have made us be impure or dirty during the week.  Maybe it's not always our sins that make us impure, but it can be the things of the world.  Like spilling ketchup on a white shirt will leave a stain, things of the world leave stains on our soul.  To be able to clean these stains, we must partake of the Sacrament every week and remember that it is a process.  Every time we partake of the Sacrament, we become better and better, more and more like our Savior, because we are literally letting him enter into our lives.

As well, I was able to say bye to my trainer Elder Ayuso for the last time... I'm going to miss him so much.  He helped me so much.  But the good news is that he's coming to the states to study, so I'll be able to see him again!  Also, while I was in Quito, I was able to see some members that were in my old ward.  I missed them so much, honestly some of the best people I've ever met on the planet!

Other than that, we didn't have much time to be able to work in our sector, but we were able to visit one of our investigators name Yoconda.  She is a single mom and has two kids.  One of her kids has the same heart problem that Mason Strickland has, and he's the cutest little guy on the planet.  His name is Mateo.  But we were able to talk to her about baptism and she told us that she would love to be baptized and that she would be willing to do whatever she has to do to get baptized.  So, we were able to put a baptismal date on her which was so awesome and helped us out a lot!  But, other than that, we didn't have too crazy of a week.  We worked hard and were able to see some miracles here in our sector!

But, the biggest news of the week is that the QUITO TEMPLE was approved and they are going to start the construction in May!  I'm so excited!  These people deserve a temple and have worked so hard for it!  I'll send a picture of the most beautiful temple on the planet.

Love you all, Elder Copeland