January 16, 2012

To everyone:

I have had some incredible experiences this past week, and have really seen that the Lord trusts ME with the salvation of souls...really big responsibility once I realized it. But since it is so important to Him, He is right there to help me do it.

I met a girl in a wheel chair the end of December, mariela. She just had an operation on her knee because of arthritis, even though she is 23 years old. Her niece lives the street above her, but stays with her most of the days to watch after her. We have been teaching the two of them and things were progressing slowly, but we stressed the importance of asking Heavenly Father directly and receiving a heavenly answer rather than a worldly one. Well, the neice, Estefania, asked Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon is true and if this is the true church of Christ and if He could make it known to her by means of a dream. Well, that night in her dream, Joseph Smith appeared and said it is all true and that she needs to get baptized! I was so happy! I was completely blown away, but then she asked, "do my parents need to sign something for a baptism?" sadly, yes, and her parents are FULLY against it and she was extrememly dissapointed.

Mariela, her aunt, while we were visiting her one day with a member, kind of had an ah-ha moment when the Hermano was talking. Mariela had some doubts about baptism, but I told her that I am not here in Ecuador by chance. First told her about mission application process and the probability of me getting sent to Ecuador. Then, the accident with Briana and that I shouldn't really be living. And the probability that I am serving in that very sector (San Juan) at that very moment. I said, there is no reason for you to not take the step of faith and get baptized. Well, she still wanted to wait until sunday to go to church and see what it felt like there. Well, she went, and Estefania too, and so we went to visit them after church. Estefania said, "I prayed like you asked me to in order to know when I should get baptized, whether I should wait until I'm 18 to not offend my parents, and I got an answer...the 28 of January like you invited me to. But, when my parents found out that I went to Church today, they said that if they see any missionaries or anyone from the church at Mariela's house, they won't let me see her again. " So that is the problem at this point, a mother/sister who is blinded and stubborn and is prohibiting the salvation of 2 of God's daughters. And, better yet,  I just got transferred today...I am now in a place called Ibarra as the District Leader. Responsible for the Salvation of more souls...what a ton of bricks...So, it would be great if you could pray for Stefanie's parents so they can soften their hearts.

Ibarra looks like a great place, but it is small. Not even a stake, just a district still, made up of 4 branches. what I have heard, it is the oldest district in the world (which goes to show that the members aren't amazing right now). It would need 5 wards for it to be a stake, so we are here to do our best to get things flowing with the members. My new companion, Elder Rocha, is from Brazil and has a cool accent in spanish. He came 9 weeks after me, and I think was in the Brazil MTC the same time as Elder Astle.

Well, Love you all

Elder Blackwelder

To Candice:

That was the best letter I ever got from you, and I feel so sad that I don't have time to write. I am in the terminal in Ibarra waiting for another missionary to get here I got transfered, very sad. But we had such a good last two weeks, especially this weekend. We had a "regalito" baptism of a less active dad's son who is incredible and such a smart 10 year old. Kevin Moíses Lavayen Vicente, I got to do the baptisma and confirmation. So, that was the only baptisms we had in san juan this transfer...kinda wimpy, but still amazing. The trip from Quito to ibarra is incredible...goes from the city of quito to a desert like Baja Mexico in the spring, to rolling volcanic hills with houses and cows to an epic view of a lake and then a wide valley known as Ibarra, but people here have goofy accents and say Ibazha basically. They don't say "rr" correctly.  I LOVE you and am soooo excited for those things too when I get back, but it would also be fine if you got married I think...but nonetheless, good times ahead. My new companion is from Brazil. Elder Rocha, and he got here 3 weeks before elder Comsa and so 9 weeks after me! Crazy that he and I use Spanish as our common tonuge, something that is new for the two of us. I am District leader, which is kinda gnarly for me right now to realize. I have to give training every thursday to 6 people, all, with the exception of one, of which have more time in the mission than me. Yikes.

Love Ian

Week 17

January 9, 2012

To the family-

Whoo, another week, they go by so fast. I loved everyone of those pictures you sent. So funny and sad to see you all together at Christmas.
This week we had a training meeting with President and I go to have an interview with him. He is so funny and calm, sooo calm. He taught me some good tricks for asking for references from the members, so we are going to start implementing that this week.
The weather was kinda rainy this week and I made a recording today of the thunderstorm, but I think I got rain in my recorder! Or the batteries died. I had some strange dreams this week about catalina, mainly because right before I go to sleep I remember myself swimming through the kelp with Thom and dad. Mmmm. My companion said he played a jazz thing on the island once with his school band when they were on a Disneyland trip.
Daniel and his mom have come back from Guayaquil and we set a baptismal date for the 28 of January. They are so interesting and different than all other Ecuadorians I've met. I was teaching about the holy ghost and how we feel it (she doesn't believe in God), and she said "kinda like a positive energy I'd imagine, right?" Totally! We read moroni 7:12,13 but she totally already understood that. We are teaching Mariela still, she's got the bum knee, well now it has a prosthetic, and she seems to be progressing fine, but yesterday a guy in the church that we asked to pick her up in his truck totally didn't and she was really bummed because she couldn't just roll herself down to the chapel, so she cant get baptized until she attends 3 times...now the next month. All is good here in San Juan, next week we will receive transfers...so we'll see how that goes. I imagine I'll stay here, hopefully with Elder Comsa.

Love Elder Blackwelder

Danny Charculean, funny kid

Quinoa soaked for 3 days, woops!

Mangoes, fresh and dry 

The Basilica behind me

UW and BYU hats in a shop. The owner is Korean, named Cho

my new Venus shoes (ecuadorian special)

 January 9, 2012

Candice-

So, this week was kinda hard for me too. I'm glad you cried too about that song, its so good! Ben wrote me! I was so happy. I love you too and I wish you were here! I'm just a lost soul swimmin in a fish bowl, well, not really. I feel like I've got all the direction I need right now. My poor companion, he's just dying from spanish. I try to speak 100% with him so he can gain some confidence. 

Love Ian

Candice's First Letter of the New Year

January 2, 2012

Candice-

Haha crazy, total bummer about the snow, never heard of Utah resorts having to make it....what a bust. Weather here is unusually sunny for December from what I hear. It's been so nice though, high pressure systems in the mornings that give way to some light rain in the afternoons occasionally.

Today was my first pday where we had extra time to do things, so we are writing early because we don't have anything else to do. we walked al around the plazas and found an old dood and his old friend (she was blind) playing the guitar and accordian. I got a recording, so I'll send that over to you.

We were in a cabina last week, oh, a cabina is the internet/or phone booths, and the kid working there was playing all sorts of music. He said do you like coldplay? YES I says, and so he put it on...oh sounded so good compared to some of the goofy Ecuadorian music. He ket plaing that then put on some classic rock like Hotel California and Stairway to Heaven, then...it started slow...but I knew what it was right away...the last song in Lords of Dogtown...."So, so you think you can tell, Heaven from hell.....We're just two lost souls swimmin in a fish bowl, year after year...how I wish you were here" I was practically in tears! It brought back every good memory I have! Ah, what a song can do to the mind.

So daniel, that nature kid, went home to Guayaquil for the holidays so we haven't seen him for a while, but he should come back this week.

So, they had everything here for new years. They make these big "dolls" I guess and call it the "año viejo" and they burn them at midnight to signify all the bad from the year before getting burned. Usually people make them out of old pants and shirt sewed together then filled with paper or straw and then they put a mask on to make it look like them. Each person makes their own usually, but sometimes people make one huge one of Bart Simpson or something, or the smurfs. They have tons of fireworks, but mostly just the ones that sizzle up then POP. Kinda fun, but everyone here has really nice speakers for their stereo, even though the would cost like twice as much as in the US, and they all play their music from their house...really loud. I got a recording from inside our house of what it was like to try and sleep that night...yes, this was the first year for a long time that I was asleep before 12.

I don't know why, but there is tons of fruit in the stores lately. A friend of ours gave us some mangoes and "guabas" to try. Fresh mangoes are incredible. And the guabas come from this huge green husk with like 10 sections inside that have what looks like a black bean the size of your thumb covered in a cotton ball. You can't see the bean, but ou suck off the cotton ball and eat that (it's really sweet and juicy) then throw away the bean. Strange.

We found 2 new investigators this week. One is 20 and just had a knee replacement because of arthritis. I had no Idea that people that young could have arthritis. What a bummer. SHe was moving from one house to like 3 doors down, so we helped her with that and then taught a lesson. THe mom was like, wow, I've heard a lot of religions preaching at my door but I've never heard anything as strange or different as that. And I told her that was the best part, that she could KNOW for herself by reading the Book of Mormon, pondering it, and asking Heavenly Father in a prayer and she would know for sure if it was false or not. She seemed willing.

That's all for this year. Love you

Ian

More Letters!

November 21, 2011

Candice-

Wow, thanks so much for the lyrics! Made me so happy, and sad at the same time. You totally were the mom that trip to Moab, and just mobbed it in Ivy's car! Hahaha :D How lucky that you get to be in california. I actually forgot about thanksgiving, so no, they don't celebrate it. nor do they have pumpkins. They just have Fiestas to celebrate the holidays, or everyone leaves Quito to go to the coast. There are some members in the ward who used to live in Utah for 5 years or so, so we'll stop by tonight to see if they made anything festive. There are a lot of fireworks at night, and that is something they do from nov. 2nd to january 1st. also, everyone has their fake christmas tree up already. the 6th of nov. is the usual day, then they take it down the 6th of january. kinda goofy. and they set up these huge scenes with toys and dolls around the bottom with jesus in the manger and wisemen and such and tons of animals...my companion, i'm sure, thinks i do a lot of weird things, but other than the way I dress on pdays, I think i'm pretty normal here. just tall. Well, thanks for the email, I love love love you. Thats cool that you write to Briana. I am learning to write with my left hand, but I just think about Briana. Sometimes though, when I write in my journal, I feel like I am writing to her.

Love Ian.

October 24, 2011

Dad-

It's tough out here and no one is watching to make sure you follow all the rules. I honestly have been surprised with my trainer. He is nothing like the trainer I expected, but I have learned a lot from him. And like you said, knowing where someone is coming from helps you love them. I have been constantly reminding myself of who he is. One thing that made me really mad is he told me he's eaten turtle eggs. I couldn't believe him. I couldn't believe that someone could do that to a threatened animal like a sea turtle. It was all I could do to keep from blowing up. I feel like I'm a patient guy, but I have learned a lot (: This week i had my first 24 hour divisions with another greenie from my group. Someone I don't understand very well yet (his parents used to live in laguna back in the 80's) from st george. In the provo MTC he stopped  speaking english and I admired his decision and dedication to spanish. But we hadn't learned much at that point, so he just didn't talk, nor make any sort of relations with the other elders. He doesn't know his sector for squat, doesn't know the buses to take to go to lunch with the mamitas...so we were lost for 3 hours and didn't get food and missed an appointment. phew, I felt like I was at scout camp with some of the goobers in our troop! Haha the other missionaries in our zone are tough on him, but I try to interpret for them. He was homeschooled too and just lacks a lot of social skills, but I love him still. Sadly he got changed today, oh yeah, today marked my first 6 weeks, and I get to stay in San Juan. You should look up my house on google earth or something: N11-68 Bombona and Guatemala, San Juan Quito Pichincha. . we get 14 new gringos tomorrow! I'm excited to see if I know any from BYU or something. Thanks for your love.

Elder Ian Blackwelder

An Update from the letters Brent and Beth have gotten

October 31, 2011

Mom-

Yeah, I do like my mission president, but I just don´t feel like he knows me well, which is something that always makes a difference for me. When teachers know me personally I do much better than ín classes with those that dont. the apostrophe key is kinda messed up, so sorry...and the exclamation key too. We had our 6 baptisms on saturday, we had planned 7, but one girl didn't feel ready and said no at the last minute...at the baptism. One family of 5 and 2 others, the one that bailed, Maria Fernanda is from the yupa family. All her family is so great. Moíses, 10, is really sweet and a great artist. He drew me a picture of Ammón after I taught the story to him and I gave him my poster of Ammon. The mom sells food and things, snack stuff, in the streets, but is going to take classes from the church. They offer just about everything there. Everytime I am at their house, i try to buy some of their snacks. Last week the mom only sold 2.50 worth of stuff and was stressing about things, but said she feels much better after her baptism. I"ve bought  like 2 bucks worth in the last few days to support them and also because I love her candied peanuts, they remind me of baseball games for some reason.  TELL THOM TO WRITE ME. Im glad you like the recordings...No i havent changed in some aspects....hahah. Everything is good here though. A new month, came so quick. We have some more investigators that we are really struggling to get to church so that they can get baptized, but when maria fernanda bailed on the baptism, I realized that I havent done what i need to do as a missionary. we didnt teach her well enough, she didnt have the desire, she was just kind of going along with it for a while, then realized we werent kidding...I think a lot of our investigators feel like that probably.

love you

Elder Blackwelder

November 15, 2011

Dad-

It's been hard like I said before to work with religious conformists like the catholics here...everyone really. But something I remember from the MTC president in Peru was when he said: well if you're not going to talk with and baptize the catholics, then who? the mormons?   I don't know if you knew, but our first mtc president in peru passed away like 3 days after we got to peru. well he left for surgery in the states 3 days after, but died 5 weeks after that. He called me and 2 other missionaries from my group to be district leaders, then left the next day. Lots of elders never even saw him.  I miss catalina so much, there is a pioneer movie by the church, I think its about john tanner, and there is a part that is supposed to be them crossing the atlantic, but no doubt it's catalina in the background with a bit of bird rock in view...ah i just die everytime I see it. haha.  Oh, I hit the 4 month mark 2 days ago, not bad. It really has gone by fast. We had a conference the other day with an area 70, I always thought they were just kinda normal guys, but he taught with such amazing power and inspired me to reach and chase my goals. On his mission he FELT that he should learn english, the language of the restoration of the gospel. At that moment on his mission, he bought english scriptures and hasn't used spanish ones since. What power! What determination! He also taught about L Tom Perry when he was called to the 12 and would sit next to Bruce R. Mcconkie. Whenever the prophet had a question about a scripture "how does that one scripture go...?" he'd say Bruce, what's that scripture....  and he'd recount it, and the next verse, and the next and so on until he was stopped. I was so inspired by that. In my patriarchal blessing it says my mind will be quickened and enlightened and I can accomplish whatever I wish. Well, that's what I wish. A photo memory like that. So cool. Well, I love you guys, thanks for the story about Jack too, He's sooo cute and sooo funny.

Love you
Elder Blackwelder

Hike Photos

December 26th, 2011

"Bean mustache and Christmas gift from Tess"

 So, I just talked to you guys yesterday, I know, but here are a bunch of photos I couldn't show you on Skype.
Things have been spectacular. The weather was nasty for a while and rained a lot everyday, but then all of a sudden some high pressure came in which made for amazing sunrises. We've been getting up and doing excercises in the morning sun and taking lots of pictures. However, the investigators aren't doin so hot, so our numbers of lessons taught were awfully low this week. We have a new game plan of teaching the members about the atonement of Jesus Christ and committing them to pray to receive revelation about a family they know that is ready for the gospel, then to invite the family over for some activity with their family - doesn't have to involve anything church related - and then in 8 days we'll come back and they are to have invited that family over again for a family home evening. We have a little paper to help them keep track of their goals with that. We have 3 appointments with members today, one at 6, one at 7, and one at 8. We're going to get this ward up to speed! Also, we want to make sure they are doing their weekly family home evenings and family scripture and prayer, along with personal prayer and scripture reading. 

I am sending some goofy pictures of me with this mustache made from this strange dip some members gave us. There is something called panela, which is basically the equivalent of white bread to whole bread, as white sugar is to this. I don't know if that made sense, but it is like whole sugar, soooo good. This dip is made from that mixed with beans....so it has a bean dip texture, but it's really sugary. Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of me with a hot chocolate mustache, but it wasn't dark enough, so I put that on my lip and took some photos. Good times. Also, here are some photos of my christmas packages stash. Thanks so much for the dried mangoes....so killer. There are mangoes here, but they always eat them green (super sour) with salt and it hurts my tongue!

Love Elder Blackwelder

"Giovanny with his mom and siblings"

"Us on Christmas Eve with former Quito missionaries who were in town visiting members"

"Christmas treats from the USA"

 View of Quito from our roof"

 "Quito and the nearby hills"

 "Sunrise"

 Christmas dinner with Mission President"

 "Fog rolling in on Quito"

 "Twin bananas"

December 12th, 2011

To Mom:

Wow, so, I ended up giving a talk on Sunday on the atonement, I was nervous preparing it, but it went okay. I told dad about it in the recording, so you can listen to that. I ended by reading the words to the hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" - what a special thing you were thinking of that same song. I wonder if it was at the same time.
I wish I had more time to write today, but I told dad in a recording most of the things I would tell you. 

Love 

your son

 "I was dying to climb!"

With the Duringers

 "My new companion, Elder Comsa"