Richard and Estefania's Baptism

Richard and Estefania got baptized this week. Let's Go. 

So who are Richard and Estefania. They are this amazing young couple we have been teaching since I got to Ambato. They were really drawn to the gospel because of the relationship problems they had. Like most people here they were living together and had a child but weren't married. So two weeks ago they got married. It was the first wedding I attended on my mission. But a ton of opposition came up that held them back from getting baptized. Until this Saturday. We visited them last night after the confirmation and they just had this light in their eyes. It was the greatest thing to be a part of. 

A quote I heard recently from a talk given by Russell M. Nelson was "Good students know what they don't know." That was how Richard and Estefania were yesterday. They were asking excellent questions and showing that they truly had received the gift of the Holy G

host.

Yesterday I gave a talk in Church. Giving talks in church is one of my favorite things to do. They told me a week ago to prepare a talk of 10 minutes about missionary work. Then on Saturday they called me and said to plan on 15 minutes which I was fine with because filling up time is not a problem. But I ended up only getting 5 minutes to talk. I prepared a big talk with 5 major points but when I saw that giving that talk was impossible I just wrote a talk in my head that would be 5 minutes. I talked about Encebollados (my favorite Ecuadorian food and translated into English it means onioned) and tried to relate it to missionary work. It went pretty well because everyone loves hearing about local food. 

This week I got sick again. It stunk. But I am all good now.

There are only two weeks left in September. We are trying to go all out here. Pray for us so that we can help some more people make and keep covenants with God.

I am doing great out here. I am having a lot of fun and learning a ton. I low key wish they would let me give a talk every week in sacrament meeting. I got some pretty good ones planned out. 

One of the strangest phenomenons here in the mission is that one of the missionaries will start saying a funny statement or notice something strange and then I will immediately notice it everywhere. Two examples: One of the Assistants currently is a Bolivian named Elder Loayza. He is great and a funny guy. When he came to do divisions with us this week he kept on saying "Nos Fuimos" which basically means we left. It was a super funny way to say goodbye but then I started noticing other people saying it as well. One person we are teaching was saying it to his kid to try to get him to leave. "You left, you left."

The other is the Kichwa words. Kichwa is the indigenous language here and they have a bank called Kullki Wasi. When my companion pointed that out I began to see it everywhere. Not sure what is happening.

Loving life and I am so pumped for the baptism of Richard and Estefania.

Elder Tucker