Thanks guys so much for wishing me a happy birthday!! It really means a lot!  Sorry if I couldn't respond, there's just a short time limit I have. I know I'm grateful and love you guys! It's weird that it's my last one in the mission... but oh well I guess. This past week was super cool!  We had a baptism! His name is Luis Holguin, his son was able to baptize him!! It was so cool. He has years listening to the missionaries and finally got baptized! He brought a ton of his family!  Most of them had to travel like 4 hours. I'm pretty sure he is the only one not a member but not sure. His daughter isn't either, so we are going to help her as well. But he brought a ton a people!

Also there is a family in our ward who are always on the ball and knows how to work for the Lord. A sister brought 5 of her friends to church on Sunday!!!  She said to one of them that she should be baptized haha! She literally told her "Hey, you need to be baptized!" and yeah we told her what day and stuff and well on the 15th of September she will be getting baptized! Later that day we visited another couple who went to church also excepted the invitation to be baptized for that same day!!  There are a lot more families who we will be finding! There are so many miracles here in the mission when you really just sit back and look. I'm so excited to see what the Lord has prepared for the people here in Portoviejo! I'm just grateful to be able to be apart of it! I know that these things are true. Families truly can be forever. Love and cherish them. This Gospel bring more unity and resolves the problems and helps push through the difficulties.

Have a great week!! Bye!

Elder Pollock

Hello everyone!  This week has been in all places.  I had to travel to Guayaquil this past week for a couple days for a couple conferences.  The first one was for the new guys that got here, so that was for my comp.  Then the next day was a leaders counsel.  That one was very interesting.  It went from 8 in the morning until like 6 or 7 at night. But it was filled with lots of revelacion for the mission.  It was super cool!  My mission dad was there so we took a pic!  Also, everyone sang happy birthday for those who have their birthday this month!  That part wasn't my favorite cause, yeah, I've never been really excited about that stuff.  But I look weird in the pic cause my eyes were tired.

This Saturday we will be having a baptism. It was super weird because he's had a baptismal date for the 1st of September, but can have his baptism when he wants because he has a testimony and a lot of asistencia in the church.  He's been set on the 1st because that's when the rest of his family will be able to make it.  But then called me last night and just said hey, I want to move the date for this Saturday and what do I need to do now to be baptized on Saturday.   So I was like uhhhhhh.... well we need to do this and this and so on.  But it was kind of weird but I'm pumped!

Anyway, I love you guys so much and hope everyone is doing the things we need to do daily like saying our prayers and reading the scriptures. These things really strengthen us for the challenges we have throughout the day. Bye!

Elder Jackson

Letter From Jackson

Hey guys! this past week has been super crazy!  I'm now in a city called Portoviejo and I love it here! We have been working super hard to get to know the members and the people who the missionaries have been teaching before. This place is cool and is in the center of the mountains.  Just my style.  But it's a different type of mountains and is super hot. But, oh well.  My new comp is from Orem, Utah and is super cool!  His mom is from Salvador and before the mission he got to practice Spanish with his mom.  He actually knows a ton of Spanish!  He is very focused to which I love!  We are going to put in a lot of work here.  We were visiting a less active and he gave us some sweet hats!!  He's the guy in the pic I'll send with the horse.  He's wearing the hat that he gave me.  The pic with the horse is about 2 days before we visited his house.

Here there's a lot of less active members so we also have a lot of work to do to help out those people also.  What helps the best in our lives to stay active and firm in our faith is the prayer, reading the scriptures, and having Family Home Evenings!  I love these things so much and hope that all of you guys remember to do them!  I hope all of you have an awesome week and stay firm in these things! Bye!

Elder Pollock

Hey, everybody!  This week was a good one. Now my computer has a spot to send pictures this week!  Well, not a whole lot happened this week, but we did have tranfers!  My son and I get split up and we both got transferred out of our sector.  Now I'm going to be going to a place called Portoviejo! I will be district leader and training again too!  I don't get my compañion until tomorrow afternoon. I'm pretty excited, but I know I'm really going to have to put all I've got for the Lord and put my complete trust in Him.  Sometimes there's so many things to do I forget to think of the Lord and ask for his help.  I think that this is really going to help me turn towards Him more. So, I'm excited! It was really a pleasure to be able to serve in the area that I was just in. There are some amazing people that will be missed! Alright, hope everyone has an amazing next week and strives to remember the Lord in all things. Bye!!

Elder Jackson