May 30, 2011: Fiesta en los cielos

Hola Family,

    This week was really such a great week! Yes, Gloria was baptized on Saturday and confirmed a member of the church yesterday!!! It was amazing. She is a miracle. We came to find out this week that before we met her, she had been praying to find the truth. She had assited other churches and said she still felt a void inside. Soon after that is when we contacted her in the street. We are convinced she is literally an angel. I think I told you that we always teach her ouside of this ancient Catholic church that is so beautiful and one day we were sitting below it, waiting for her when it seemed like she literally appeared out of nowhere. It was funny because my companion asked her, "When was the last time you talked to God?", referring to the fact that she just beamed down from His presence in that moment. She was a little confused, but we are convinced. She is amazing. Her baptism went so smooth and one hermano said in his prayer that night, "Sabemos que hay una fiesta en los cielos esta noche." (We know that there is a party in the heavens tonight). I really liked that and chuckled to myself when he said it.  Everything else is going so well. It`s very interesting because I think every mission is so different. President Montalti has asked that we invite every single person we talk to to be baptized in the first contact or first lesson. So that is just what we did this week. We are seeing great things changing and President is really so inspired. People accept to be baptized when we meet them in the street. So many people are just hungering for the truth. Last night we went to Richard`s house (he is the one whose brother was just killed last week). Well, let me give a little background. Every time we saw him this week, he just looked so incredibly torn up inside and wanted to know where his brother was and was worried because his brother was caught up in a really bad group of friends. So we had the pleasure of teaching him where his brother is and that families are forever. After that, we took him to meet the Familia Moran and we taught him about the Priesthood and about priesthood blessings, as we sat out on the balcony, overlooking the river and the city at sunset. It was so beautiful and the spirit was there. Then, Brother Moran gave him such a special blessing of comfort and afterwards, when we asked him how he felt he said, "I want this for my family." So last night we followed him to his house to teach his family. When we entered, there were about 15 people there in this tiny house all sitting and waiting for us. As we taught them about faith in Jesus Christ and how they could live with their son again, the whole room was just silent.They were all listening so intently, like they hungered so much for just a little bit of peace. Afterwards, they all said that they wanted to go to church with us next Sunday. It was so amazing. I love these people so much. The Gospel saves lives.  The other great part of the week was a conference with Elder Gonzales and both of the Guayaquil North and South Missions were there. It was powerful and I enjoyed it very much. Everything else is so great. Today we are with an Hermana who is leaving tomorrow and tomorrow we get to go to the temple and give a presentation to all the new missionaries arriving to the mission. We are so excited! I sure love you all so much. The Church is true and it fills the voids and the emptiness we feel. All have challenges in life, but we don`t need to face them alone. He hears every word we offer in prayer.

-Hermana Salmon