The best way to express what I am feeling this week is this:
gratitude. I am so grateful for the many, many people that I have grown to love
and for the people that have loved me here in this beautiful country. There is
not even the smallest, detectable trace of doubt in my mind that I started
loving my mission and feeling sincere joy when I learned to forget myself and
my desires and focus 100% on the people I was called to serve and loving them. When I learned to give all. There
are some people in Ecuador that have altered my eternal future and life. And
there are some that, miraculously, I believe I’ve been able to help change
their eternal future and life. I love these people and I will never forget them.
I know I will never rent out the special spot they each own in my heart and I’m
near certain they would say the same for me.
I’ve met these incredible people all over the country as I’ve
traveled, grown, transferred, adapted, molded, served, and made efforts to
become a dedicated, consecrated missionary. I cannot list every single name but
some you may recognize from letters past:
La Familia Lopez Castellanos
Rosa Ortiz
Luis &
Soledad
Christian
& la Familia Ruano
La Famila
Calis
Kenny
Garcia & Gabriel
Hermano
Enzo Giron
La Familia
Tello Newton
Jefferson
Revelo
Roger &
Katherine Munoz
Pablo Maza
& Familia
Familia
Cando Mieles
Obispo
Sanchez & Hermana Laura
Lenin Rodriguez
Christian Montenegro
I am so, so grateful for every sector I have been assigned.
I know I went and did exactly what I needed to and that I met the exact,
perfect people that were waiting for me there. Meeting these people has been
the way God has taught me a principal truth: that those who have less are typically
more inclined to give all that they have. For example, we have had a few lunch
appointments that have fallen through this month and it amazes me that, time after
time, it is the same families, usually the ones with the least in terms of economic
resources, that step up first to help us. You might think it would make greater
sense for those families with greater resources to help, but that is not how it
happens. It is usually the people who struggle most for each and every dollar who
give us the greatest help. It’s those that can barely cover themselves who shelter
us so graciously, so freely, so perfectly, when we needed it the most. These
are some of the most Christ-like people I have ever met. It’s been clearly
taught to me that the more we have, the more we attempt to hold on to what we
have. And it appears to me that the less we have, the less it costs us to let
it all go. Coming to Ecuador I felt I had nearly given away everything I had.
At least I did emotionally and in terms of my personal wants. And here, I have
been living with close to nothing. Well, for me, giving everything away and having
nothing has a big part to do with why it’s been so easy for me to give all I
have to the people here and why I am able to love them so readily and so fully.
There’s a lesson in this for us.
My message for this week is a that we can all love and serve
others better. Even though it’s not how it usually happens, it does make more
sense for those with greater abundance to help more. Remember that as all of us
back home are blessed with such rich abundance of happiness and love. We can
make a huge different if we give with the ease of those who have so little. Let’s
love a little more freely. Unity brings peace and peace is found among those
who love.
I love the beautiful people of Ecuador. I will always love
them. I wish that I could be with them forever, almost as much as I wish to be
reunited with my family. Almost. I love you all.
EE
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