Thursday, March 24, 2011

Letter 34 - 12/6/10

Well we had a huge meeting this morning with the President and it took forever so I have no time to do anything today. I have only a little time to throw something your way and shoot off an email to the president.

Cool news....... I`m training!!!! Way cool. I found out last Monday night. So Elder Hernandez left and I got my “kid”.  His name is Elder Shannon and his first name is Nefi.  Not Nephi, but the Spanish, Nefi.  We had a great week.  I`m totally loving his geenie fire and it feels good being with someone who has that energy again.  I`m really not trying to mold him, but rather focus him.  He`s pretty impulsive because of his ADD.  I just laugh normally, but sometimes I have to calm him down/correct. There`s really a huge problem with speaking English.  Wherever we are he speaks English and at one voice level. So I`m trying to get him in Spanish mode.  We put up great numbers, but no one came to church this week. We totally made plans and everything and verified several times throughout the week, but no one was home. It`s still possible to make our goal, but we have to make sure that everyone else comes to church next week.

I wish I had time to fill you all in on more, but training is fun, and things are going well. Much better than in past weeks.  I learned a lot in those weeks, and I know that I´m going to be using that experience for a lot of my mission and the rest of my life.

Love you,
Elder Vuinovic

Letter 33 - 11/29/10

We had to stay in on Sunday for the Census. So I made the food then. It actually wasn´t that bad. Especially given that I made it in 20 minutes. I cried when I said the Thanksgiving prayer. But felt really good to eat stuffing. Surprisingly it was really good. The potatoes too. I missed the pumpkin and apple pie.  There´s no replacing that.



I honestly have no idea how the phone thing works. I´m really sorry, but I don´t have time to be able to look into that. I´ll see what I can do next pday, but I can´t take proselyting time to do that. What I´ve heard of people doing is just calling to their house and then having the family return the call. Phone service is really expensive here especially for a long call. I think it would be better if you guys bought a calling card and returned the call, but I´ll see if I can look into it more next week.



Dad told me about the Polar Express train. Gosh that would have been so awesome!!



It´s really awesome to hear that Tarl´s doing great. I´d imagine so. He did so much to get himself ready. He´ s going to be such a great missionary. Well he was actually already a missionary.



Well I really don´t have more time. It was a good week this week. Things are getting better. We´re moving the program forward and getting some more people. We won´t be going without baptisms this month of December and we´ll also be getting set up for January. Things are looking up. I´ll update you some more next week.



Love,

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 32 - 11/22/10

I´m glad you liked the stuff. I really tried hard to get something good for everyone. I think I’m gonna buy a scarf before I leave for me too. Son vacán! Thank you SO much for sending me that package. I´m so stoked. I´m gonna ask if I can take some time that day to be able to cook it and have a little bit of a Thanksgiving dinner. I just want a little something to make me think I´m with you guys.

BEST LEMONADE EVER!!! You really have no idea how good this stuff was. There´s this lemon that doesn´t export of out to the US because it doesn´t last that long. So you´d only find it around here. This stuff was all the things that one could possibly fantasize (spelling?). A lot of lemonades are pulpy or grainy from the sugar. Not this one. wow. pure. smooth. refreshing. sweet. slightly sour. Heaven! The family that made the lemonade, the Castro familia, is a family that we found that sells food. They´re such an awesome family. They accepted a baptismal date on the first lesson. They´re really humble people who really recognized the truth in our message. I´m really excited to see them progress.

This week was better. The numbers weren´t great, but I feel like we´re on a road to get better. We have plans to completely revamp the relationship between the ward and the missionaries. It´s been a really rough week to find new investigators, but I think things will be better as we work out this plan. I really have hopes to get the members in a missionary mindset, or at least think about people that we could teach.

So two cool things this week: One night we passed by the Vera family to teach their recent convert lessons. We were waiting outside for the husband, Douglas, just talking. Monica told me that one day there was a bunch of noise and she couldn´t calm down or catch a breath. She started reading the Book of Mormon and finished with a prayer. Afterwards felt an extreme peace. So much so that she fell asleep. She asked me what it was, and I replied as content as could be that it was 100% the Spirit. I then explained that now as a confirmed member of the Church she has the right to have that companionship forever and that she can always have those feelings, in accordance to her obedience. I was so happy when she told me about that. Looking back it feels like an Ammon experience. Such a blessing to be able to be the messenger that brought them this message of true happiness.

Ultimately, I´ve been working a lot on a project I have to collect scriptures following themes and mark them in my Book of Mormon. I´m almost done. It´s such an awesome experience. Lately I´ve been focused on our purpose and time here on earth and the Atonement of Christ as part of the Plan of Salvation. It´s so incredible how clear things are in the Book of Mormon. I feel like I´ve learned so much. Well, it´s things I already knew, but I feel like my testimony has been greatly fortified. I have such a love for studying this way. Instead of thinking of the Plan, and my testimony thereof in its stages, I look at it more fully and I feel like my understanding is much more complete. I truly view this plan completely as a manifestation of the great and incomprehensible love that our Father in Heaven has for us. I know that Christ is our Savior and that a full and true happiness comes from repentance and obedience. I know that God is our Father and loves us intensely. I know that this is the Restored Church of Christ that He placed on the earth to bless us. I pray that we all recognized these great blessings and our Savior in this celebration of Thanks. I love you all very much. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :)


Elder Vuinovic

Letter 31 - 11/15/10

As far as Christmas goes, I do need more sole inserts. And I would like some pictures of dad and me with the whole family. Could you send me a recipe for pumpkin pie and apple butter? The patriarch lives in our ward and he´s an ag freak. I wish he could see Sacramento around harvest time. He asked me to take him to the US. I would love to give him the chance to go to Slough House and Apple Hill and all the ag markets in Sacramento, but for now if you could send me those recipes that´d rock. He made something like it out of guava which really made me miss the Sacramento fall. Oh btw I want a mini US flag. That´s all.



Things have been rough again. I´m ready to not plan any more and go just contacting all day long. Any missionary would call me crazy, but I´m losing it. We barely teach. It doesn´t bother Elder Hernandez, because he comes from an area that doesn´t teach. I know the potential of this area and I want to max it out. I feel really stressed because I know I need to help him and I also know that I have to be the one that pushes us to get lessons, but I feel like we can´t move fast enough. I feel stressed because I don´t know what to do. If I knew what I had to do to get things right I would just do it, but I´m having a hard time figuring out what that thing is. I really can´t complain too much. We had six baptisms this week. It was really awesome. An entire family, except the youngest, and two other brothers got baptized, as well as another from Independencia. It was really cool. The family is totally prepared and Douglas has a lot of interest in the priesthood and really wants to understand it. So we taught him about it in depth. It was really awesome. He understood it all and they´re already wanting to go to the temple to be sealed. So things have been slow lately, but now we´re going out full speed to try and find some more people and get them ready for December.



Ecuador moment:  So we´re in the bus going to this pier on the Guayas River. We´re stopped at a red light and I see there´s smoke coming in the window. I thought, "How odd." I looked out the window, and what did I see? (not popcorn popping on an apricot tree) A semi´s exhaust pipe pouring toxic fumes into the bus and them when it accelerated it shot a bunch of black dust into the bus. It really stunk. How I didn´t get cancer and die right there I don´t know. It was one of those precious moments.



Well family, that´s all for this week. I love you all SOOOOO much. I´m gonna miss Turkey Bowl and Thanksgiving, and Christmas lights a lot. But just know that I think about you all the time. Especially when I see those fake Christmas trees and hear this retarded Flea Market quality music. Haha!



Love you all have a great week.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Letter 30 - 11/1/10

The theme at the mall today was "Make Elder Vuinovic Super Trunky Day". Wait.... Embarassing moment... Just happened… I´m typing, ya know, doing my thing, and the key board and it´s tray just fall right out of the computer shelf in the cyber. There was no playing that one off!  It was inevitable.  I looked like a stupid gringo. Why am I always a klutz?  Anyway, let´s go back to my story . So it all started with "With or Without You" by U2 and some other good 80´s hits that made me think of Dad a lot, like "I´ll Be Watching You" by Sting. Then we went into the Mega Maxi and there was this aisle with straight Christmas stuff and Christmas music (apparently “ commercial-itis christmatus” has infected Ecuador also!)  I had to stop myself in the aisle to try and soak it up.  I know that it´s as Christmasy as its going to get for me. It was kind of tough thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to sit around the Christmas tree with you guys, but I know I´ll be alright. Anyway so what song comes on? "My grown up christmas list". One of my favorites.  So we´re (Oh btw I have a new comp. I´ll explain in a sec, but let me finish my story). Anyway, so what song comes on NEXT??? “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men. That was the limit. You don´t know how hard it was for me not to lose it and go straight mo-town on those people. Sad thing is that I´m the only person in that entire building that appreciated that song.

So my comp! Elder Márquez left. That was really hard for him, and when we told one of the convert families she started to cry and told me I was joking. I felt terrible but we both really tried to comfort her. I think we´re going to stop by to make sure they know that they still have the missionaries´ support. My new comp is Elder Hernández. He´s from Guatamala.  Guatamalans are the second most common, second only to the North Americans. He´s really awesome. I´m stoked to be working with him. I can tell he´s someone who really wants to work and have success. Luckily from this last change we did a lot to prepare, and this change we´re going to reap the harvest! haha. He has a change (6 weeks in the mission) more than me, but we´re going to be leaving the same day because of my time in the MTC. He´s someone who’s really easy to get along with and is very focused. We´re going to see a lot of success I think. I´ll have to send you some pictures soon. I was going to send pictures but I wouldn´t be surprised if this computer was straight dial up. Lame.

So this last week was pretty rough. We somehow had lessons, but we had a rough time finding new investigators. By the end of Friday we only had 1 new investigator, which is really rare for this area. I honestly think I spoke more this week than I have at any other time in my life. We worked on almost every contact possible. Situations where we normally didn´t think to contact we would work, struggling to teach someone. We would come home and just sit at our plastic table wondering what we were doing wrong. We finally found a few more people on Saturday. One cool thing that came out of our search was we contacted this guy whose eyes were crazy off axis. Like they guy from Mr. Deeds. I´m mean were talking 45 degrees off.  I couldn´t tell who this guy was talking to. (WAIT! Remember how its Try to Make Elder Vuinovic Trunky day?  Okay, "Only One" by Yellowcard just started up. Talk about a throwback! Wow..... that one brings back a lot of memories.) Ok, let´s move on. So we ended the change fairly well. I can look back and know that I did all that I really could. I really truly worked hard. We only had two baptisms. I don´t know why. We set a lot of baptismal dates and had great people that were progressing. They´re still in the program, and we´re still working with them. They´ll get baptized soon, I guess it just wasn´t their time this last month. We´ll see how this month goes.

Hey random disclaimer. I´m sending out the Christmas package next week. I bought stuff at this artisanal market where it’s almost all handmade stuff, by the natives from the Sierra and stuff. It was cool the first time I went, but this last time was SOO stressful everyone was in my face and there was just so much stuff. It felt like even the products were screaming at me. So I tried to get something for everyone. If I forgot someone or if you think it´s lame I´m honestly sorry. I sincerely tried.

So this week we had a lesson with a family of Evangelicals, they´re almost the equilvalent of Southern Baptist, but with a pentacostal twist. Anyhoo, so we sang a hymn to start the lesson, “I Am A Child Of God”. When we finished they said, "O cool. We have songs too." Out ‘no where they broke out in this song, that if I tried to describe in English would take away from how funny it was to me. This one girl went straight up Beyoncé on us and at the end the member that was with us, Bolívar Guaranda, shouted "Yaayyyy!" and applauded!  Elder Marquez and I knew he was being completely sarcastic, which made it even funnier for us. As soon as we started to talk about prophets it turned into a scripture "sharing time".  So we couldn´t even really finish talking about the Book of Mormon. After the lesson Elder Marquez and I sang that song for days. It gave us some good material for when we were getting tired.

I feel bad writing a long time because my new comp´s family doesn´t write him. So I´m going to wrap it up. I love you all so much. Hope you all had an awesome Halloween and that the Giants win the Series!!!! Wahoo!! PS- mom please give Mrs. Finley (a huge Giants fan) a hi-five and a what´s up.

Ok loves! Have a great week.
Elder Vuinovic

Letter 29 - 10/25/10


The pictures were so awesome!! Steve´s a dad!!! Wow!!!! I´m so sososososososo happy for them.  I know that they wanted kids badly. How awesome!

Elder Marquez (new comp) is from here in Ecuador. More north in an area called Esmeraldas. I didn´t get the Halloween package, but I´ll know tomorrow if it came or not. I think it should be. As far as Christmas goes I just want family stuff.  Like I said in the last letter,  pictures,  cookbook,  stuff like that.  Maybe beef jerky or stuff from our traditions.  The clothes that I need I should just buy here because it´s cheaper and I don´t want you guys to pay shipping for that.

Well this week was really, really good. We finished strong and were able to report strong numbers. First of all, I had an Ecuador moment this week. Everyday there´s this huge market produce, flea market quality toys, sandals, dead chickens with their stomachs hanging open, etc. It´s really cool. Anyway this guy´s walking around trying to sell toothpaste, but he´s advertising this stuff with only two teeth of his own. I thought, "Dude, obviously your product doesn´t work." I mean, buying toothpaste from a guy with two teeth (that are barely hanging on might I add) is worse than buying weight loss shakes from a fat guy, or taking fashion advice from the blind. "Trust me... it works".

Also something totally awesome is last week we went to the store and I saw this offer. Buy two bottles of Axe spray, and you get this free pair of Axe boxers. I thought, “sweet! I need deodorant anyway. Why not snag some awesome boxers along the way!”  So I get home and open up the shrink wrap package that had the boxers and they were these tiny male booty shorts. hahaha. So every now and then I´ll throw em on just to freak out the Latin missionaries. There´s a greenie in our house from Colombia that I’m sure thinks I´m a freak. haha!

On a more serious note: We had some awesome experiences with the Vera family. Last Sunday the dad told us that he wasn´t on very good terms, because he and his wife had been arguing, and he didn´t know if he was going to continue with us. So all day during the last p-day I was thinking about how to help them. We decided to do a family home evening with them to do something fun with them, but I was still thinking about them. Finally I thought that we should show them how we do an inventory in our missionary companionships from "Preach my Gospel".  I wrote it down on a card and brought it to the lesson. The dad Douglas told us that he wasn´t going to be continuing with us because he didn´t feel like there was support from his family in trying to progress and especially overcome coffee. The whole time they were throwing verbal punches and slides.  So, we just taught the "comp inventory”, hoping that they´d do it with love and with the intent to overcome the problems together as we had explained. Turns out they did it, and it totally worked. They were holding hands in the following lessons and the dad was much happier. We did a family home evening with the bishop,  then last night again with the bishop and his wife we set a baptismal date with the entire family. I´m so grateful for the prompting to share the comp inventory with them, not only for the baptism, but because now they are happier and have a way to resolve future conflicts.

Well that´s pretty much the highlight of the week. I´ll let you all know how that baptisms turn out. We still got a lot of work to do with maintenance and all, but everything should go well.

Love you all so much and have a great week.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Letter 28 - 10/18/10

Mas del Bautismo
Baptism of Hna Abril Ordoñez
First of all, last night these people below us were having too much fun with their music. Their singing was the worst. I'm fully convinced that drunk people and music do much more damage than drunk people and cars.

So today we had our cleaning. The entire week we've had this gnarly smell in our kitchen and an army of fruit flies in the entire house. It's been soooooo annoying. Well, I cleaned the kitchen this week. We cleaned out the trash bins thinking that the banana peels were the source of the flies. No. I found a bag of super old, super rotten plantains. They were in liquid form and fermented. Hence the stench and the fruit flies. Man it was so gross. It was like a huge bag of snot. Forgive me for being too graphic.

This six months thing hasn't really sunk in. It was just a normal day in the mission. That's the way it should be though. Things are going pretty well. It's the last week of the change and if all goes well we'll be having four baptisms this week. We'll be completing the Ordoñez family (Finally!) which will be a huge blessing to be a part of, and the three nephews of José Albuja will be getting baptized. I´m really excited for this week. I would honestly be totally fine staying here for another change. I love watching this ward grow.

This week there was a four day conference for the senior comps and the zone leaders. So I stayed and worked my sector and with another elder, Elder Márquez, in his. He was having a really rough time with his mission so we spent more time in his sector and by the end of the week he was feeling a lot better. We found some good people and I talked to him a lot about just stuff. It felt really good.

A really cool experience this week was that at the start of the week I really didn't feel good. I felt semi trunky (homesick) and kind of out of it, and I really didn't like it. So finally I just prayed and right as I asked for help getting back on track I felt so much better, and love from my Father in Heaven. When I finished praying I felt recharged and we finished off with a really good day. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and I truly know that it is that direct communication with our Father in Heaven, and that we all should pick up the line a little bit more.

Love you all and have a great week!