First Off

First off-- shout out to all the birthdays that have passed that I missed saying Happy Birthday to: Brooke, Sarah, Pete, Danny, and anyone else that I forgot.

You don’t have to worry about the camera card. I haven’t sent it yet so I will just keep it here and yes I can find those cards here but if you want to send something my camera is Sony Cybershot 10.1 Megapixels DSC-W170.

It is very hard to believe that I have been out for 8 months. The time just seems to melt away.

About the letter you sent to President Sloan. First of all why do you have to be such a mom? Secondly I have a doctor’s appointment today in a couple hours so I will let you know how that goes. Did Sister Sloan call you? She told me that she had plans to do that when I talked with her on Friday.

This week is going to be amazing. We have President Nash from the Seventy coming to visit us and give missionary exclusive talks. We have a 2-hour fireside and a 6-hour conference this week.
Yeah, I don’t know how well prepared I was for what you could call the real world experience. Ecuador has been an eye opener to some of the horrible things people have to live with and the fear that exists in communities. I have never been scared of anything, in the sense of physical danger, since I have arrived but there have been many unsafe situations.
I have been thinking about Quintin. I guess it is weird for me to imagine how different we are. I always remember when we were little and he used to do everything the same. Same friends, clothes, food, everything and how much I got annoyed by it. I don’t think that there could be anything that would make me happier for Quintin now to experience and do the same things that I am doing.
This week especially has been amazing. We have two families and the fathers are brothers. They don’t really want to listen to us but the wives and kids have baptismal dates. This week has been full of experiences that have helped my testimony so much. I have felt that this week that the Spirit has been speaking through me. I have seen changes that are extraordinary. I have lived events that the families called miracles. I know that the Lord is in this work. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and had a couple scriptures that just hit me, I don’t know what it is but there are just moments when you need to hear something specific and the Lord lets you know through the scriptures. The first was in Alma 42, verse 23. But God ceaseth not to be God. Is it not so comforting to know that we have the most powerful force and person watching over us in every moment?
That he has experience and perfect knowledge and that he can never fail us. It reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the scriptures in Daniel, but if not. We trust that the Lord will deliver us from trials, but if not, we trust the Lord will give us the strength to overcome them, but if not, we will trust in the Lord. I love our Heavenly Father, I give thanks for the mercy that He has and will extend for me. I give thanks for the daily guidance He gives us. I thank our elder brother that through Him mercy can permit me to live with my family forever. The other verse was 25 of chapter 57 in Alma. The miraculous power of a just God! I know that God answers prayers. I know that He preserves us.
I had a baptismal interview this week and asked the investigator how he received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true. He told me that all those people that have dreamed something or felt a fire in their chest do not understand the power of the Book of Mormon. That not only to read the book, but to meditate in the message it contains will we know that Jesus is the Christ and the Joseph Smith was called to be His prophet in these days. The Book of Mormon is the most perfect book that exists on the earth, in whatever sense that it can be.
Thank you for your support. Sorry for the randomness of my letters I should probably plan them or something.
I love you all, I hope that I am the missionary that you think I am and you wanted me to be.

Élder Vomocil

PS I am going to take out more money I miscalculated the price of what I am going to buy.

HURRAY

First off I just want to tell you how crazy these last couple weeks have been. It has rained every single day and I still haven’t bought anything for the rain. There is just something about coming home and collapsing soaking wet that makes you feel like you are working hard. Two weeks ago I didn’t have time to write because we went to the biggest waterfall, at least I think it is the biggest, in Ecuador It is amazing. I have lots of pictures and I hope my first camera card gets home and back soon because the second one is filling up fast.
Last week I didn’t have time to write because we got a challenge from President Sloan, he is doing great, during zone conference to complete with 4 of the 10 norms we have as a mission. We took the decision to leave early on Monday to make sure we could do it. It was actually kind of a sad thing that the whole mission had to be asked to do less than half of the things that we should already be completing with every week. I am proud to say that this week I and Élder Olguin completed with 8 of the norms, only lacking a baptism and people that we met. So those are the reasons I haven’t written. This letter will probably be short since I have lots to read but I will try and tell you all the great things that are happening here.
Ah, before I forget, how much did you call to Ecuador cost? If it was more than $30 dollars I will call this time for Mother’s Day because that is how much it will cost me. Also I am still losing weight. I am not really sure how. We eat really well here in Quito and they have all types of American food but in two weeks I lost 3 kilos which brings me to my current weight of 167 pounds.

Changes were last night and Élder Olguin and I will be remaining together for the third change in a row, 4 and a half months. I am really happy. We have a lot of baptisms planned for these next weeks so I wanted to share the experiences with
One experience I had this last week that I have to tell you about before all others because it was really powerful for me and changed the way I worked this week and I hope for the rest of the mission. I have been having a lot more dreams than normal lately and most of them are just the random stuff that happens in dreams but one night I had a dream that at the year mark of my mission I got to come home for a week of vacation. The first day I was home I went looking for all my friends and found them in a huge group and they were all waiting for me and wanting to do all the things we could with the week. The first person I looked for was Nate, when I couldn’t find I him I went looking in his house. I found him at his desk and told him that we had to get going we only had a week to do all the things we wanted to. He told me that he couldn’t. He told me he had to study so that the second half of his mission would be better than the first; he only had a week to study without interruption to be a better missionary. I woke up right after he said that with one of the most awful feelings I have ever had. It is like I don’t understand and in that moment he did-- That life isn’t about doing what we want. That the mission isn’t about serving two years and then you are done forever. I don’t ever want to forget the experiences or people here. I don’t ever want to have to question the conversion that I earned here. I have to take out any thing, desire, or feeling that I can just serve and that everything thing will be alright. In my interview with President Sloan, he told me that only talking on a basis of numbers that I was one of the best missionaries, but he told me that wasn’t the reason he made me a leader. He told me he sees in me the catalyst that will bring this mission to the next level. I am not entirely sure about all the experiences I am going to have here. I can imagine all the rest of the miracles that I am going to see in the mission, but I hope that forever I remember the things I learned, that I am not only a return missionary that had faith but that I am a man of God.I had to opportunity to watch all the sessions of conference and even better they were all in English. It is so amazing to hear their council, to be able to testify to investigators that these are special witnesses of Christ. That they form the same Quorum of Twelve that existed as Christ organized it.
I have been studying a lot lately about faith and about conversion. I love in Alma 32 about how Alma says to us that we can not know of his words with a surety at first. Then tells us that there are things that cannot be seen with our physical eyes nor heard with our physical ears. Finally invites us to experiment this hypothesis-- that the unheard and unseen exist, that the sweetest thing that we can experience in this life starts with the desire to know it exists. I believe that the sweetest thing I can imagine is not to see Jesus, it is not to see someone raised from the dead nor to heal someone from a disease. For me the sweetest thing is a personal testimony and assurance of my salvation and that of my family. To know that my sins have been forgiven and that through the blood of Christ I have been made pure. Repentance and forgiveness are real and they are miracles. Conversion always has and always will come at a price, the price of faith. Faith comes through obedience. Obedience to the commandments of God is the only way we can find happiness. Obedience to the course that leads to never ending happiness gives of a taste of the indescribable.
I invite all that read this to read the powerful testimony of Oliver Cowdery that is found after Joseph Smith History, in which he is describing the experience to receive the Priesthood under the hand of John the Baptist. One touch of the finger of His love, one ray of light from the celestial world, one word from the lips of the Savior puts all things of this world out of mind and fixes our goal on that which is most precious, everlasting life. I have prayed and fasted to feel that touch, to see that ray, or to hear that word.
I promise that God lives. I promise that this is his work. That the gospel of Jesus Christ saves lives and that this is only a glimpse of what is to come. Don’t forget to do the little things. When we are discouraged it is because we have left behind the daily renovation we need from the Lord.
I love you so much.
I am sorry that I was not able to write.
I hope that you are doing well and know that I pray for you everyday.

Love Élder Vomocil