My Dear Family, =)

It was so great to see you last week! I´m so glad that everyone is doing well and that no one has changed too much since Christmas ;) I´m also glad that everyone is healthy and happy, (or at least recovering and happy =) ) But really it was so great to see everyone. I´m so grateful for your love and support. 

This week was really jam packed (which made it zoom by!) But luckily we were able to manage to finish everything we needed to do. 

The biggest news is that the a group of missionaries left on Monday, and then the new missionaries got here on Tuesday morning. It was another small group that came, (just 8 missionaries) and our mission president is a little worried because 15 missionaries are leaving in May, so we´ll need to close some sectors, and close down a couple of mission homes which is unfortunate. But one of the new missionaries from Bolivia met one of my friends from Babahoyo who left on his mission about a year ago. He was assigned to the new missionary's ward! It really is such a small world in the gospel!

Another thing that´s kept us busy this week has been the preparation for multi-zone conferences that are going to be all next week! I can´t believe that 3 months have gone by so quickly, and that it´s time for conferences again! That will definitely keep us occupied for the next two weeks.

We got some interesting news about the choir today. So the area just announced that the Guayaquil South Mission is also going to be invited for the conference with Elder Rasband, so we need to integrate them into the choir some how. Luckily we still have 7 practices before the actual performance. Sadly it looks like we´ll need to cut some people from the choir so that will be really interesting to coordinate. I just hope that no one´s feelings get hurt because they told us that we could only have a certain number of people in the choir and we now need to add in another mission. I´m sure though that with prayer and patience everything will work out okay.  On the bright side though, the missionaries are singing so well! It really sounds incredible, and everyone is learning their parts really well! I´m really excited. =)

We also had a really great experience with an investigator this week! Working in the office does have some benefits, because we get to see immediately when we have new referrals from the church general offices. We were really surprised when we got a referral sent to us from Houston, Texas. It turns out that it´s the grand daughter of someone who lives in our sector here in Ecuador! What a small world I guess! She was really receptive, and we have another visit set up for tonight to visit her and her husband. Her name is Mary and her husband is Jorge.

I hope that everyone has a great day/week! and Emily I hope that you have a fantastic birthday!! I´m so proud to say that I have such a great, Christlike sister.

Lots of Love,

Elder Hales =)

Jonathan with Elder Norris