"...Que nos llevan a lo Alto!"

Family and Friends,

     These weekly emails come far more quickly then they actually should. Is it normal that I think yesterday I wrote about the rains of Guayaquil or is that normal? Maybe you all got sick of reading the emails anyway and didn´t notice. Eitherway: I feel that time is moving way to fast. I almost can´t stop to smell the roses ( o sea... if there were roses to stop and smell). The mission just keeps going... and going... and going... and going...

     The last week had its downs but with planning, a few phone calls, and an interchange everything was practically calmed down in the district. Every sector, except mine (we got ours under control a few weeks back), has fallen apart. The Zone Leaders are probably going to have baptisms in March but the others... we have a week before March begins to get everything under control. I am confident that everything will work out right but I really wish that people would understand that nothing I do will change whether or not other elders will have baptisms. If one wishes to baptise one needs to work, listen, and apply what the leaders say.

     On a happier note: We were blessed last week as we were buying food in the mall. I plan to use $18.50 every Monday to buy food, deoderant, shaving cream, and other basics each week. As we were shopping I made a HUGE sacrifice in my spending habits to buy a box of Captain Crunch Cereal (only imported from the USA, and it has the high pricetag to prove it). The box costs $5! What a waste! But I bought it anyway. As we where checking out I noticed that the receipt said that my cereal cost $1.50... thinking it was an error I asked the check-out lady. It was! Someone had entered the cereal´s price into the computer wrong. The lady told us that it was better news for us... she not knowing how to reprogram and reprice items in the system. Gleefully we re entered and bought 4 more boxes of cereal to have a total of 7 boxes in the house! All for $5. As of said shopping experience: I have been the happiest breakfaster for the past week.

     Norberto Rierra is just about ready for baptism. We finished teaching him everything yesterday and he boastfully told us that he has been raised paying a tithing since he was a young child. Tithing, normally being hard to accept, was for once, the easiest principle to teach. Maria, his wife, explained to us that growing up in the Catholic Church in Paute (Cuenca) they had to donate the best of their crops to support the local Father. Listening to her describe how they would pick the best of the lettuce, the best of the pigs, and the best of a few other things was monthly family ritual. I thought I was listening to a biblical story. Speaking of biblical: the Bible was not permited to be read here in Ecuador until around the mid 1950´s. How ancient is that? Just goes to show that world culture has never been equal. 

     The work really is progressing. Nothing truely new to report. I am fine and my health is good. We have everything at our hands to have success here in Portete. We are working hard and we will be having one baptism this week and one the following. The Lord is blessing us more than He probably should. I guess we will just have to work harder to merecer (to earn?) His blessings. All of the blessings are needed porque nos llevan a lo Alto! 

Me basta decir: Les Quiero,

--
Elder Robinson

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