New Missionaries & Ecuadorian Traditions

New Missionaries:
This past week we welcomed 13 new missionaries to the Ecuador Quito Mission.  The missionaries arrived on Monday morning and went straight from the airport to the Colon Chapel.  At the chapel, they received  instructions on mission policies, health guidelines, financial practices, etc.   While instructional training is taking place, each missionary is individually interviewed by President Barlow, the mission president.

After the interviews are over and the preliminary instructions are complete, it's time for the new missionaries to be paired with their trainer/companion.  This is the best part of the day.  The president invites each trainer missionary to the front of the room.  He then shares his feelings about the missionary and invites those in attendance to share their feelings about the trainer missionary.  After that, the president announces the new companionship and then the new missionary comes to the front of the room and formally meets his/her training companion.  It sounds so simple, but the Spirit is presence and the room is filled with unity and love!

Following the pairing of companionships, lunch is served and the new companionships have a chance to get to know each other better.  When lunch is over additional training takes place, luggage is collected, and the missionaries are off to their assigned sectors to work.

We are especially grateful for the new missionaries that arrived this transfer, six of whom are from the United States.  The week before their arrival, they had all been reassigned to other missions because of the violence associated with the transportation strike in Ecuador.  When the strike was resolved, it not only put our missionaries back to work, but it allowed the incoming missionaries to arrive as planned.

Ecuadorian Traditions:
This week the Ecuadorians celebrate "All Souls Day" or "Day of the Dead."  For some reason, I thought this holiday was the equivalent of our Halloween.  The truth of the matter is that it is more like our Memorial Day. "It is an occasion for remembering and celebrating those who have passed on from this world, while at the same time portraying death in a more positive light, as a natural part of the human experience."   (See https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/day-of-the-dead)

Elder Lewis and I were invited to join the Guerrero Family on Sunday afternoon for dinner and then again on Monday evening for Family Home Evening and to celebrate "Day of the Dead." The celebration included making the traditional drink of Colada Morada, and then drinking it with t'anta wawa.   T'anta wawa are bread rolls with a sweet filling that are shaped and decorated like a doll wrapped in a blanket. They are meant to represent the deceased.  

It was a fun evening and I've included a link to a recipe for Colada Morada that is very similar to the one we helped to make - Colada Morada Recipe.  Hint: You can use cornstarch instead of purple or black corn flour.

We were most impressed with the intent of the holiday - "to remember and celebrate those who have passed from this world, . . . while at the same time portraying death in a more positive light, as a natural part of the human experience."

The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches of our eternal existence.  Our spirit bodies were created by heavenly parents and existed in a pre-mortal state before we came to earth to receive a physical body.  At death, our spirit bodies leave our physical bodies and return to a state of happiness or a state of misery depending on how we exercised our agency - choosing good or evil in mortality. We remain in that condition until our bodies and spirits are reunited or resurrected through the power of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. Following the resurrection, we will each have the opportunity to stand before our Savior and Redeemer and give an accounting of our lives.  We will then live eternally in a kingdom or realm that we are worthy of and that we are most comfortable in.

How grateful we are to know that life continues beyond the grave, and that we can be sealed together eternally as families, through the ordinances and covenants found in God's holy temples.

Speaking of temples, construction continues on the Quito Temple. Below is a rendering of the future Quito Temple that will bring great blessings to the saints in this area.  Currently, the closest temple is 8+ hours away in Guayaquil, Ecuador.   The Quito Temple is projected to be completed in 2022.  A return trip to Ecuador in 2022 sounds like a great idea!