May 25th

My Dear Family,

Wow! It sounds like you are doing a lot of hard work vacationing! 15,000-to 23,000 a day is no joke! I`m glad that you`re enjoying yourselves. =) 

To answer your question Mom, yes there is a huge catholic church here in Babahoyo, and in Vinces as well. When we went to church on Sunday we had to go past the Catholic members and it was funny to see all the people that went to church with their Barcelona or Emelec Soccer Jerseys hoping that going to church would help their team win. It`s a very different type of worship haha. =)

We learned a lot of great things about family history work this Wednesday. The whole mission came together for a presentation from the family history leaders for the church for Latin America. It was incredible to hear the stories of how the work for the dead has changed the lives of so many members. We`ve planned a temple trip with the new converts in our ward and a couple of families that just re-activated for the 6th of June. They`re all really excited to do the work!

We also were so happy this Sunday. For the first time since I`ve been here in Babahoyo we saw the chapel just packed. When we first got here the regular attendence was 115 more or less, and yesterday 151 people had the chance to go to church. It was such a sight! I was sitting up front on the piano like always, and I was so happy to see the people who had decided to make the effort to come to church. 

This next week we`re going to work hard in finding people as a zone. I`ll let you know if we have any crazy stories. Some people have incredibly interesting lives to say the least. haha =)

I hope that you all stay safe! Enjoy your stay in London this week Mom and Dad! 

Lots of Love,

Elder Hales =) 

May 19th  

Hello to my Great Family!

I´m glad that you were able to get in one more busy week, Mom and Dad, before you go on your fun trip! I´ll be praying for you that you can fly safe on Wednesday. 

I´m so happy that you´ll get this time for yourselves. =)

Congratulations on your run, Dad! I´ll make you a promise that when I get back I´ll do a half marathon with you. That just seems like such a great bonding experience, and I´ll probably need to get back into shape after two years of solid rice consumption. =)

Also the Payson temple just sounds so gorgeous. You´ll have to tell Nana and Grandpa to be on the look out for Elder Brady during the school breaks because he lives about five minutes from the temple.  

I´m so proud of our family and their love for temples. It seems like everyweek I get the chance to hear about a great experiance you´ve all had with the house of the Lord. It is such a great blessing to have in our lives. The missionaries in Quito don´t get to go once in all of their missions, and I know that we get to go more often than most missionaries.

Speaking of family history work, this Wednesday we´re going to Guayaquil to hear a family history message from Salt Lake! They´re sending two representatives so that should be really good. I heard that when the new converts are involved in their family history work and take names to the temple, their retention rate goes up by almost 40 percent in our area. That astounds me! There are so many blessings promised to us if we go to the temple.

Also this last Sunday we had a satalite broadcast from Peru (the area presidency) about ward council. It´s incredible how much the area wants our ward councils to be efficent and organized. That´s a large part of what we do as missionaries now is working with our wards to help them reach out to the members of their quorums. It´s been interesting seeing all the changes in missionary work during my time here. Just a year and a half ago President Monson added rescuing less active members as a responsibility of the missionaries.

I hope you all have a fantastic week and I love all that you do! Stay safe in Europe, Mom and Dad! Emil,y good luck in your classes! I know you´ll do great this semester! Joseph, good luck in your soccer tryouts. I know you play so hard. Isaac I heard you did a great job on your talk! I´m so proud of you. I know you´ll be a great missionary! Jacob, be careful with knives ;)

All my love,

Elder Hales =)