We Can Strengthen Ourselves Through Jesus-Christ

Mom,

The first couple of weeks have been a little difficult as a missionary, but I know that I need to always have faith and trust in the Lord. Me and my companion have been teaching so many families and investigators. When people reject the gospel and our message of Jesus Christ, I'm not sad because they rejected it, I'm sad because they lost the opportunity to hear the truth and how we can return to our Loving Heavenly Father. 

Saturday was probably the most exhausting day so far. We planned to visit three investigators and two families, which most of them lived really far away. We visited them and none of them were at their houses. I think we walked about 19+ miles total, without counting the bus rides. We were able to make contact with a lot of people while proselyting but we wanted to get baptismal dates for the families and investigators. Sunday was so much better and it lifted both our spirits with joy and excitement. That night we decided to visit the Almeida family that we tried to visit on Saturday, they were there that night and one of the return missionaries wanted to go with us. While we were teaching the family the lesson of Baptism and the Atonement, we felt the Spirit dwell in our hearts and the love we have for the family was evident. We got a baptismal date for them, which is set for the 5th of December. We are excited about it and want to help them progress in the Gospel. Numbers don't matter to me, but it does matter that I help anyone who is struggling with the Gospel or has no hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Life is difficult, but we can strengthen ourselves through Jesus Christ and his Gospel!!! 

I remember the Hills and that is sad that Sister Hill died in Africa! Also sad that Grandma's sister died too! I will email her! Glad to see how Dad and Nicholas's birthday turned out and I miss that restaurant haha!! Great pics! I will send you more pics!! We will be spending Thanksgiving with our zone. It should be fun.

Love you so much Mom!!!

Elder Tellez

*****He shared this with Ava: "The grossest food I've eaten here is probably vegetables with mayonnaise that one of the families gave me for lunch, yuck!!!       PS: Chickens below!!!"*****

Serving in Cambaya with Elder Huff

Elder Tellez & Elder Huff

President & Sister Richardson

Wow that`s shocking to hear about all the negativity towards the church! I have a deep support for the church and I will stand beside it and always support their decisions!

Ecuador is such a beautiful place! It has humble people that love the gospel and especially Jesus Christ. I like my trainer and his name is Elder Huff (he's from California). Talking to the investigators has been such an amazing opportunity and I'm grateful to serve and act in the name of Jesus Christ. These experiences help me become closer to the Spirit and get better with my Spanish! Cambaya is a great area to serve in and it is beautiful! (I will get transferred every 6 weeks) They have good food and I haven't tried guinea pig yet. The food is also pretty cheap and I should be able to live just fine haha! I'm getting comfortable speaking in Spanish with others and I cant wait to speak it with our family. My purpose as a missionary is to bring the people of Ecuador unto Jesus Christ and help them receive the fullness of the Gospel and I'm so excited to do that. The only thing I'm worried about is getting sick. We aren't allowed to eat some fruit that we eat with the peel like peaches, strawberries, etc. The MTC gave us filter water bottles that last pretty long with drinking tap water. The missionary experience itself is very different but I know that if I do my best, many life's will be touched, I will receive blessings and it will all work out as Heavenly Father would have it be. Right now I don't need money and still have that $ that you gave me. I haven't had a use for it yet. The housing is so cheap and its $10 a month. I should be fine right now and I will let you know if I need more money. My stipend is $90 every two weeks for groceries. My companion loves toffee and cinnamon rolls, and cheeze its! My mission is such a great foundation for me to build on for my future family and I will do my best to serve the Lord! I will email you more pics! Send me more dried mangoes if you can. haha

Love you Mom!!!!!!

Elder Tellez

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Ava!!! 

I know, I am so mad I wasn't able to call Mom and talk to you! You and Mom look great in those costumes!! Glad to hear that Halloween was great. I miss eating those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. There are so many dogs in Ecuador and they are in every corner of each street! Where I live, there is a chicken coup underneath our apartment and there are a ton!!! So yes, I finally saw chickens haha! Love you Ava!!!!!

Elder Tellez

Arriving in Ecuador 

Outside the Mission Home 

Ready To Serve... 2 days left!

MOM-

I´m stoked to go to Ecuador and I´m ready to serve the people there!! I´m going to miss the MTC but I´ve been waiting for a long time!! Thanks for your compliment on my Spanish. 4 days left! I actually don´t need anything else in the package but thank you so much. Make sure you put a Virgin Mary stamp on the package. This last week has been great and I´ve been getting accustomed to talking to people in Spanish. In the MTC, I was able to speak Spanish with my companion while ¨practicing´´ teaching investigators. We taught the first discussion.They were fake investigators but it was such a wonderful experience.

That´s a great costume for Ava!! She looks awesome! I´m leaving the MTC Tuesday at 2pm and my plane leaves at around 5pm. I´ll call you when I land in Ecuador, so stay by the phone! That´s awesome Nicholas was called as 1st assistant! There is so much to do in Colombia and one day I think we should travel here. I went to the Temple for the final time and I'm going to miss it so much! Temple work is one of my favorite things to do and I'm going to do a lot of it when I get back. I love you so much and I can´t wait to talk to you and also email you about Ecuador!