A Record of Elder Eastman's Missionary Service in the Quito Ecuador Mission

A Record of Elder Eastman's Missionary Service in the Quito Ecuador Mission

Monday, July 27, 2015

Feliz Cumpleaños, Elder Eastman!

Hey Dad!  Things are going really good.  The Spanish is going pretty good.  Some new words that I have recently learned include, ira, which means wrath and envejecer, which pretty much means to get old.  I'm sure there are more words but I cant think of any more specific ones.  Contacting in the streets is a bit difficult for me.  Alot of people dont want to stop to listen to us.  Most people do stop but it's always uncomfortable for me to try and get them to stop.  I like contacting doors more.  But it's always good to do a bit of both and get good at both.  
That's pretty sweet that you got to help clean the temple.  I also really like those scriptures in Romans 6.  It's always really interesting to think about the consept of the law, the mercy and the justice.  It really gives more meaning or purpose to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I also really like verses 22 and 23 because only through Him and His Atonement can we recieve Eternal Life.  Thanks for sharing those scriptures with me!  I'm going to study them a bit more in the coming days.  
Well I love you too and hope you have a great week!

Elder Eastman


Mom, 
Well it's just about time for me to get off the computer.  I havnt gotten an email from you yet.  I'm sure you've already sent me one but i just havent gotten it for some reason.  But I'll just say that this past week was a pretty good week.  We were able to find quite a few good investigators.  Unfortunately none of them were able to come to church.  But we'll see what happens with them this week.  We got our changes yesterday but Elder Aguirre and I are both staying here.  My birthday on saturday was wonderful.  The other missionaries in my district came over to my house in the morning to throw me a little party.  I also opened up the package you sent me.  Thank you very very much for it!  I liked it alot.  A nice member lady also made me a very delicious chocolate cake.  So it was a good birthday.   
Well I gotta go!  I hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Eastman

(I got set apart on Sunday afternoon as the relief society president of a newly realigned ward.  I had a lot on my plate Monday morning.  I went to the computer to write Josh, but I must have gotten distracted.  I let my stresses of the day make me forget about my son, and I feel horrible about that.  I didn't think about him again until Matt came home from work  at 5:00 and asked if I had read Josh's emails that had just come through.  I ran up to the computer and sent off a quick email asking him if he was still there at the computer.  I was ten minutes too late.  Man, I felt horrible.  I went ahead and wrote him a nice email and apologized for my epic fail.  Never again will I allow that to happen.  That was my first and last missed email!)

Monday, July 20, 2015

Johanna's and Tarquino's Baptisms

Hi Dad!  
I'm doing really good.  The weather here is really good too.  It doesnt rain a whole lot and most of the time it's nice and sunny.  I've been here for a month and a week.  We have changes this Sunday.  There's pretty much a 100% chance that I'm going to stay here.  
That's a really cool idea about happiness and success.  I really like it.  I think that's definitely true that success comes because of happiness.  And that can be applied very well to missionary work.  It sometimes is alot easier to look at all the negative things, but it's definitely better to focus on the positive things.  That's probably something that I could apply more in my life as a missionary.  
I love you too!
Elder Eastman

How many wards are now in your stake?  My mission president just asked me that.  Last week i told him that your ward split so that's why he is asking me that.  
Thanks!
(His mission president is also from South Jordan. Nine wards is the answer.)


Hi Mom! 
Yay it's my birthday on Saturday!  Luckly I got the package and your letter.  I'll open it on Saturday.  The Familia Pasmiño (if you remember them from Manantial) also sent me a little gift too.  I already opened that one.  It was a cool and colorful shoulder bag that says Ecuador on it.  So that was really nice of them.  
Well that's super cool that you got called as the Relief Society President!  I'm sure you'll do wonderfully with that calling.  Just remember 1 Nephi 3:7.  God doesnt command us to do anything that we arent capable of doing and without help from heaven. 
Wow that's pretty crazy that Ryan Ball had to go to the Philippines.  That would be tough with knowing absolutley nothing of Tagalog.  It would be a really cool experience though.  
Well this week Tarquino and Johanna got baptised.  Elder Aguirre got to baptise Tarquino and Johanna got baptised by her dad.  It was a really good experience too.  They both shared great testimonies at the end.  Then on Sunday I got the wonderful opportunity to confirm Tarquino.  That was something I had never done before.  So I was a bit nervous before, but it all went well.  That was also a really cool and spiritual experience.  I'll send you the pictures from the baptisms.  
Well that's just about it for this week!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Eastman





Monday, July 13, 2015

Katharine's Baptism

Hello mother!

Baños is definitely a super cool place.  If we every come back down here as a family we'll need to go to Baños. 

Lessons this week were pretty normal.  A good amount of the Restoration, Plan of Salvation,  Gosple of Jesus Christ. We also taught about the Priesthood, Temples, family history work, and stuff like that.  Most of the contacts that we do are just talking to people in the street.  A few people seemed promising but there still wasnt a whole lot of success with them.  

Yep, Katharine got baptised on saturday.  It was pretty awesome.  She was really excited about it.  My companion did the baptising.  The Spirit was definitely there, and she was really happy after it.  I'll send some pictures.  

Yes Im feeling healthy and eating alright.  
We had a member lady that did our laundry but she recently moved.  So today we did our laundry at a laundry mat.  
Yep my companion and I get along very well.  
Nope I havnt gotten any mail.  But I think it's just because the mission office hasnt sent us anything for a long time.  They're supposed to send us pamflets and Book of Mormons and stuff like that along with all our letters and packages.  But our zone hasnt gotten any of that in a while.  So hopefully we'll get that stuff soon.  

Well I think that's just about it!  I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Eastman

Hey Dad,  that's pretty exciting that the ward got split.  Do you guys still have some friends in the new ward?  And do you still have a few of the kids that you were teaching in your class?

I'm doing really good.  We have a ward here in Ambato.  And it's a good ward.  The Bishop is really good and so is our ward mission leader.  Our ward mission leader is a recent convert too.  He's been a member for just 10 months.  But he's really cool and does a really good job.  That's an interesting idea.  (going on HT splits with the members)  And a good one too.  I'll talk with the other elders about it.  

The food here is good, but pretty much the same.  Although there are alot of good restaurants here in my area.  There's even a Subway here.  

Yes I'm normaly happy.  When citas fall and there isnt anything to do it's easy to get a bit down.  Or just when somebody says that theyll do somthing like come to church but then they dont.  Stuff like that could get me a bit down.  
My district is super cool.  The zone leaders are part of my district too.  All good people.  

I love you too!

Elder Eastman




Monday, July 6, 2015

Baños

Hello mi mamá!  
Yep that's true!  People are going pretty crazy about the Pope being here.  Im sure it's much worse in Quito though.  There is a bunch of advertisments everywhere with his face on them.  Ecuador is a very Catholic country.  But there is a pretty good amount of people who are still open.  But also alot of people who are very closed off. 

Wow 500 people is a lot! (almost the number we have attending sacrament meeting)  My ward here is pretty normal and has around 170 people attending.  But I guess you guys do live in Utah so that's understandable. 
 
Teaching this week was pretty good!  Me and two other elders taught the Priesthood class this sunday.  We talked about home teaching and why we really need to do it.  People in my ward arent really doing it very much so that's why we talked about it.  So I learned a bit about the importance of always doing our home / visiting teaching.  We should really do it out of love for the other people in our ward and not to just say that we did it.  And that it can really help the ward / church be stronger if everyone does there part.  And things like that.  The lesson went really well too and I hope that the members are going to start doing it more now.  

Today we went to a place called Baños as a zone.  Baños is a super cool place with a bunch of trees and rivers and waterfalls and stuff like that.  We took a little tour bus thing down a road and stopped by a few of the really cool things.  It was super awesome.  I took a bunch of pictures.

Well that's just about it!  I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Eastman



Hi Father!

I'm doing super good!  That's pretty awesome that some deer came into the backyard!  That sounds like a super fun 4th of July!  Ecuador as a whole doesnt really have an Independence Day.  Just Independence days of the cities.  I dont know why it's like that.  But the Independence Day of Ambato is November 12th.  Pretty much what they do on days like these is lite off annoying fireworks and drink.  I dont really know much about the Ecuadorian history.  

I really like the story of Ammon and King Lamoni too.  Oh that's very nice that they (Matt's primary class) drew pictures for me.  

I love you too!

Elder Eastman