Week 36 in the Field - Baptism, Elder Alarcón, Agency

Weekly Letter June 29 2015

Hi everyone, hope you guys had a great week.

This week I got my new companion, Elder Alarcon. He is from Lima, Peru. He has been a member of the church for only two years and was introduced to the church by a friend. When he sent in his mission papers he was the only member of his family but just two months ago he was able to baptize his whole family.  He has a great testimony and being a recent convert and a brand new missionary he has a lot to learn but he's great.

This week Elsa Lima got baptized (I would put an exclamation mark but my typewriter doesn't have one). She passed her interview on Wednesday and had her baptism service on Saturday. Her son Daniel started going to church when he was twelve but she never gave her son permission to be baptized, being somewhat hostile towards the church. When Daniel turned 18 he was able to choose for himself and he got baptized and one year later left on a mission to Argentina. Daniel's letters to his mom each week softened her heart. She began really listening to the missionaries and attending church until she was finally baptized. At her baptism service she cried when we sang the hymn "I'll go where you want me to go", the same hymn her son sang right before he opened his mission call. After she was baptized she bore a teary testimony. A lot of people showed up for the service and overall if was fantastic.

My companion and I have continued to focus on contacting people in the street this week. We've received numbers and addresses for a ton of people. One lady we were able to visit this week is named Yisefia and we had a great lesson on the restoration. We found 6  new investigators this week and had four investigators in sacrament meeting.

This week I was able to study a little bit on the topic of agency. I love the words to hymn number 240, "Know This, That Every Soul Is Free." In the first verse we find these words:

Know this, that ev'ry soul is free

To choose his life and what he'll be

For this eternal truth is giv'n:

That God will force no man to heav'n

This truth is manifest in the ever-present analogy of Jesus Christ being a shepherd but not a sheep-herder. He leads the sheep but certainly does not push them along. He is found out in front rather than in the back.

The second verse of the hymn clearly explains this principle:

He'll call, persuade, direct aright

And bless with wisdom, love, and light,

In nameless ways be good and kind,

But never force the human mind.

God will not force us to heaven but he does expect us to submit his will to his to be guided safely there.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught:

"In yielding your will to his, God will tutor you in the successful use of moral agency. You'll find freedom to be, to feel, and to do."

Elder B.H. Roberts taught:

"The man who so walks in the light and wisdom and power of God will, at the last, by the very force of association, make the light and wisdom and power of God his own, weaving those bright rays into a chain divine, linking himself forever to God and God to him."

It is no wonder, therefore that Neal A. Maxwell proclaimed that submission to God's will is "the only unconditional surrender which is also a total victory."

I believe this verse of my own composition sums up my thoughts:

As sheep therefore, we follow Christ

Not for blindness, but because of sight.

And with eyes open we follow He,

who is the light for all to see.

Thanks to all of you for your love and support.

Until next week,

Elder Dawson

Baptism. Elsa is the one dressed in Brown.

Week 35 in the Field - Training Once Again, Tortillas, and Wisdom

Weekly Letter 22 of June 2015

We received the information about changes yesterday and I'll be staying here while Elder Uribe will be leaving.  I will remain as District Leader and I will also be training. I'm excited to see who my new companion will be. I will meet him on Tuesday at the change meeting which is held in Zone 6 of Guatemala City.  Elder Uribe was a great companion. He has a caring heart and a diligent attitude and will surely be missed here in Minerva.

This week I again had the opportunity to go on a division with an Elder in my district, this time with Elder Farnsworth from Fountain Green, Utah.  Elder Farnsworth is 19 and has six weeks less than I do in the mission. He serves in a relatively dangerous area called Tierra Nueva (New Earth). His area is about a thirty minute walk away from mine.  In the division we were able to talk to a lot of people in the street, I met former gang member who was shot in the spine and is now confined to a bed, and we met a nice older couple to whom we taught about the restoration and ate snow cones in their living room after the lesson. We learned a lot from each other and overall it was a great division.

We had a great baptism this week for Cristian Ramirez. The baptismal service held immediately after a Faith in God activity for the Primary children so we had a great turnout at the service and the primary kids sang and gave Cristian a warm welcome to the primary.

Elsa Lima has her baptismal interview scheduled for Wednesday and her baptism for this Saturday. She bought a coffee made with grains instead of coffee beans and hasn't had a sip of regular coffee since. Guatemala is a huge producer of coffee beans and pretty much everybody drinks coffee here. Interestingly, Elder Falabela, a seventy, is the owner of a company that makes a product called Morcaff. Morcaff is a coffee-like beverage made from toasted wheat and barley and other grains. It is cheaper than regular coffee and people say it tastes like normal coffee. Morcaff is a mix of the words Mormon and Cafe (the Spanish word for coffee). They sell the product in every super market and this is what Elsa bought to overcome her habit. We are really excited for her baptism and we know her son who is service a mission in Argentina is even more excited.

People always ask me what the food is like here so I guess I'll take a little bit of time to explain Guatemalan food. My daily diet consists primarily in the staple ingredients of bread, milk, cereal, peanut butter, cheese, beans, tortillas, sour cream, avocados, and vegetables. Bread, peanut butter, cheese, beans, and produce are largely the same here in Guatemala. Milk is different, normally sold as ultra-pasteurized milk that can be stored without need of refrigeration. Milk also comes in bags or boxes, not in jugs. Cereal is different because Guatemalans only receive certain American exports of cereal. I usually eat cap'n crunch while other favorites like Rice Crispies and Cheerios are non-existant and others like Lucky Charms have ridiculous costs. Tortilla play a huge role in Guatemalan cuisine, most people being unable to eat a meal without at least three tortillas. Tortillas are small and one tortilla costs about three cents of a US dollar. There made fresh in tortilla businesses that are to be found every hundred feet or so with absolutely no variency in quality or cost. Tortillas are made exclusively by hand. Dry corn is cooked and mashed and the mash is placed on a hot, round, stone surface over a fire. The tortilla is flipped once so as to be brownish on both sides and sold quickly becasue once cold they are not to be re-heated. Guatemalans do not eat tortillas like they are eaten in Mexican cuisine. In Mexican food the tortilla is used as a sort of food blanket to hold meat and other ingredients. In Guatemala, the tortilla is mostly used in between bites of other food. One bite of soup, one bite of the tortilla. A spoonful of beans, a mouthful of tortilla. In this way, the tortilla is much more of a nutritional addition to a meal that would normally be too little food to fill  you up. Anyways, tortillas are super cheap and help us bring food costs down on our missionary budget. The food here is different and more simple but it's not bad.

I love you all and I hope everything is going well at home. I'd like to end my letter with a couple quotes. The first is from Apostle Sterling W. Sill who said:

"Now there's a flaming sword placed in the Garden of Eden to guard the tree of life, but fortunately for us there is no flaming sword guarding the tree of knowledge and each one of us may eat to his heart's content. Now maybe you can think of something that's more exciting than this but I don't know just what it would be: that we can have all of the information that we want on any subject, including the Plan of Salvation and the process by which we win eternal glory for ourselves."

Boyd K. Packer shared a similar sentiment about the value of knowledge in this verse of poetry:

I'm quite content to move ahead

to yield my youth, however grand

the thing I'd lose if I went back

is what I understand

My invitation is to seek wisdom and understanding through the discovery and application of eternal principles. Eat to your heart's content from the tree of knowledge and keep looking forward.

Elder Dawson

Elder Dawson and Cristian Ramirez

Baptism of Cristian Ramirez

The hood. (Our rich Guatemalan neighborhood.)

Bags of water, a Guatemalan Oddity.

House

Does it take a long time to load pictures when we send them?

No, the internet place we go to is pretty fast. They load just about instantly.

From the picture you sent last week of the flood in front of your apartment complex - how often does that happen?

That´s the only time it´s happened so far. A lot of rain in a short amount of time. I always carry my umbrella though so it´s not normally a problem.

Week 34 In the Field - The work here in Minerva is going well.

Weekly Letter June 15, 2015

Hey guys, I've had a great week and hope everyone else's has been great too.

This week, due to many Elders being sick, our mission president changed a couple health rules and we are no longer allowed to pay members to feed us in their homes, which is what we and many other missionaries had been doing previously. This means we now have to cook, which isn't too bad but it is more expensive.

This week I had an opportunity to go on a division and work with an Elder in my district named Elder Cairo.  Elder Cairo has ten months in the mission and two years as a member.  He is from Peru and is an all-around great missionary.  He knows a lot, especially for being a member for such a short amount of time I really admire him.

This week I also had the opportunity to meet an amazing man named Victor Montenegro. He joined the church a year and a half ago and is in his sixties. He is very active in the church, already being a High Priest and having received his temple endowment. At a young age his mother died. His father was never around. Guatemala doesn't really have an abundance of social programs like orphanages and other things so he lived alone since childhood, selling newspapers to earn a living. At the age of sixteen he made the long journey through Mexico and perilously crossed the border into the United States. He began working in landscaping and other manual labors until he eventually came back to Guatemala. 10 years later he returned to the states, this time to New York and with proper documentation. He lived in Manhattan for 12 years, beginning his career as an employee for a church, being paid six dollars a week for maintaining the church property. He later worked on a submarine and eventually as a supervisor for a hotel. When he returned to Guatemala his wife stole his life savings and attempted to kill him with a machete. He now lives alone, his children having long since forgotten about him.  He lives in a nice home and loves with the missionaries visit him. He's a great man with a ton of amazing stories.

The work here in Minerva is going well. We should have a baptism this Saturday for Christian Ramierez Rodas. Our other baptism candidate, Elsa Lima, is still having trouble with coffee but we have a new goal for the 27th of June for her.

This week I have been reading a bit of "My Life's Review" the autobiography of my great, great, great grandfather. He served a mission in Hawaii beginning in 1853. During his mission, smallpox broke out on the island and killed some 4000 people, 400 of these people had received the gospel. My ancestor tirelessly gave priesthood blessings during this period, at times using 2 quarts of consecrated oil per day blessing the sick. Says he, "I was in great affliction, and marveled that the Lord would permit all his most faithful servants to die." As he consulted with the Father in prayer he heard the words "Sorrow not, for they are now doing that greater work for which they were ordained, and it is all of the Lord." My testimony is strengthened as I read the words of this great man who gave so much to the restored gospel.

I'd like to close my letter this week with a quote from Bruce R. McConkie who said, "I think that the noblest concept that can enter the heart of man is the fact that the family continues in eternity. I do not think that one can conceive of a more glorious concept than that."

I love my family so much and I am grateful to know that we are able to mutually lift each other up in every step that leads to the summit of eternal life. I will be forever grateful for their love and support. - Elder Dawson

Guatemalan flood in front of our apartment complex.

A kid named Esteban

Answers to Mom's questions:

Is there anything we can get you at BYU/Provo?

No, I should be fine. I´d love to get some more church books but I am not allowed to read them until I get back. Unless you find some old Ensigns or something, Ensigns we can read and a lot of times the old conference editions have some neat talks.

How is your rain jacket and umbrella?

The umbrella is really good, it´s compact enough to put in a backpack and light enough to carry around everywhere. 

Anything different we should get for Jayden? 

Get him a backpack. Shoulder bags are lame and no one uses them, at least in my mission, haha. One side of your body cannot support the weight. A durable backpack too, the first one I bought in Guatemala was a crappy Chinese one and it got destroyed in a couple months.

You don't like the microfiber towel - right?

It´s fine. Compact for when I have to go on divisions and stuff. You can get him a regular one and a microfiber one I´d say.

Socks good?

Yeah those socks are really good. Consider buying more though, they do rip after heavy use.

Pants holding up?

Yep.

How are your sheets?

No problems.

Week 33 In The Field - A Change to my Weekly Emails

Hey guys, I always feel bad that I don´t have a lot of time to write after answering the emails I get each week.

To fix that, this week I bought an ancient piece of technology- a typewriter!

People here in Guatemala still use typewriters and there are a lot of people who fix and sell them. I picked one up for like $50. I´m going to type my letters beforehand and send the scanned image of my letters through email. I hope this isn´t a problem for anyone, let me know if it is. 

Images 1,2, and 3 are my weekly letter. Images 4,5,7, and 8 are poems that I´ve written. Image 6 did not turn out well so I´ll type out what it said. It´s a poem I wrote based on my feelings on the Plan of Salvation:

An infant is born and life begins
Playgrounds, date nights, a couple of kids,
Retirement, nursing home, life comes to a close
As a gravesite is annointed with a final rose

To the mortal mind this is the plan:
Your time is short, so go as fast as you can
Learning´s only good if it gets you some treasure,
Life, after all, is nothing but pleasure

But have you ever thought: perhaps there´s more?
A life that comes after and one that´s before?
What if this life was but a mere blink?
In an infinite chain but one lousy link?

Maybe then life isn´t so much about pleasure
But more about families and staying together
Preparation, faith, and working for something better
Because life, after all, is something forever.

Love you all!

Elder Dawson and his Ward MIssion Leader's Son

My typewriter

That´s really neat about the family history stuff. I sometimes share Benjamin Franklin Johnson´s story of his first experience with the Book of Mormon with investigators.

What would your guess have been?

I would have guessed Taiwan to be honest.

So excited that Jayden is going to Colombia. Hopefully I get a Colombian companion soon so I can learn some stuff about Colombia for him.

Does someone still do your wash for you?

Yes, 120 Quetzales a month. About $15.

Now that you are closer to the temple, will you get to go?

Yes. Every other change (or once every 3 months).

Is it wetter and colder in Mixco? I can send you some warmer things. 

Yes it rains every day but no its not very cold. But don´t worry about it because I can get any article of clothing I want for like 50 cents haha.

Is there a Walmart you can go to on your P-days now?

Yes. The only lame thing is that we have to come back in a cramped bus so its hard to buy lots of things. But I can have peanut butter now and Dr Pepper and similar things.

Elder Dawson

Week 32 In The Field: "For my work is not yet finished" is really indicative of our message as missionaries.

This week we had a baptism! We were able to baptize Angelina Chin Barrientos. She is 74 years old and seems to be in the beginning stages of Alzhiemers but we were able to teach her the lessons, she remembered enough to pass the interview, and was baptized! Her son and his kids are members and after all these years she finally decided to get baptized.

This week my companion got a little sick but he´s been recovering.

We said goodbye to a companionship in our district because their area was getting dangerous for them to stay there. I am district leader and now have only one additional companionship beside my own in our district.

I´ve loved reading the Book of Mormon with greater emphasis this week. One verse I love is in 2 Nephi 29:9. The phrase "For my work is not yet finished" is really indicative of our message as missionaries. God is not dead, and he has not stopped speaking. He lives! He loves us and his whole purpose is to bring to pass our eternal happiness and he is anxiously engaged in our cause.

I forgot my memory card reader at home, sorry! I´ll send pictures next week!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Dawson

Baptism, filling the font

Angelina Chin Barrientos

Do you have an actual address we can send stuff to now or do we still send stuff to the Mission?

We do have an address but I have no idea how mail works in Central America. Never seen a mailman. Or a mailbox. Better to just send it to the mission. Haha. Thanks though.

Week 31 In The Field: Investigators are progressing well, we have a lot of member support and we´re working hard to get baptisms.

Not a lot of time to write this week, I apologize.

This week I had my second baptism interview. The first was like two weeks ago and it went really well. This time in the interview I had to say no because the guy wasn`t willing to pay tithing. He started to argue with us and it was really sad but it taught me a lot about obedience and it´s relation to covenants.

Investigators are progressing well, we have a lot of member support and we´re working hard to get baptisms.

Thanks everyone for all the emails and all the love. Love you guys a lot! Hope everyone has a great week.

Picture is of our study room in our apartment. Internet is slow, only have time for one!

Study room in our apartment.

Answers to questions:

How fun you got to work with Elder Rivera again! Wasn't he from Honduras? Why did he move to Guatemala?

Yes, he moved here to study English in a church program called Fumbal. He moves back in two weeks and he´s getting married.

What is your Companion's name?

Elder Uribe (OO-Ree-Beh)

How is his Spanish different than the Guatemala Spanish?

He has a very mild chilean accent. Talks quieter than people here, not sure if that´s a chilean thing though. He says ciao a lot instead of adios. Different things like that.

Do you still mostly walk everywhere, take tuk tuks or what?

Walking, unless we go to the stake center, then we talk a bus that costs like 12 cents. But its super packed and uncomfortable. US school bus with 100 or more people. Most people stand and hold on to rails while the driver goes crazy.

Do those American fast food places taste just like they do in the US?

Yeah, if anything they taste better because the workers are higher quality because working at one of those places is a great job. Menus aren´t exactly the same though, we get some specialty items in the US. Like the deep deep dish pizza from Little Caesars.

Now that you are in a nice area, is church attendance and activation improved?

Yeah we have 150 active members in our ward and two wards attend in our building. Retention and activation efforts are better due to the structure of the ward and member involvement.

Is the Priesthood more active in your ward  (or is it a branch?)

We are a ward and we have Ward Council every week and Priesthood executive committee as well. The leaders are great, most are return missionaries and have children on missions or children who have already served missions.

Also, wondering if people have to travel far to attend their meetings?

No, there´s another chapel about 5 miles away and most people have cars or motorcycles.

Will you go into the city more often now for meetings? 

Yes, every time there is a meeting in the city we will go. About once or twice every six weeks.

How long is your trip?

Depends on traffic. Heavy traffic 1.5 hours, light traffic 30 minutes.

Elder Uribe

Week 30 In The Field: I am now in Zone 11, Mixco, Guatemala.

Hi everyone!

I am now in Zone 11, Mixco, Guatemala. Basically a suburb of Guatemala City.

My area is really safe and relatively rich. We have a lot of gated communities and it is illegal for us to contact there. We also live in a gated community with armed guards at the entrance.

This area is radically different from Gualan but it´s great. We have a Walmart, Little Caesars, Taco Bell, and a bunch of other places.

The people are harder to contact and people aren´t as friendly but the percentage of new investigators who actually progress is much higher.

We met a couple this week and they`re really great. The man is Eliseo and the woman is Jennifer. Eliseo is a guard for our residential complex and he asked us if we offered bible studies. We told him we could pass by and teach him our message. We taught him about the restoration and he was really excited. He asked about 5 times if we were going to come back, always saying "I hope this isn´t the last lesson we have". 

He confessed to us that sometimes he is abusive to his wife and he wants to know how he can learn to love his wife and control his temper. We were able to testify of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to fix the problems that we have.

We have 5 baptism dates, 9 progressing investigators, and had 28 lessons in total this week.

Brayan Rivera, my first companion in the mission who finished his mission after my first change lives in my area! I was able to do a division with him and it was awesome. Just like old times!

I´d like to share this quote from President David O. McKay to end my letter this week:

There is no one great thing that we can do to obtain eternal life, and...the great lesson to be learned...is to apply in the little acts and duties of life the glorious principles of the Gospel.

I´d invite you to fill your life with the words of eternal life so that in every moment you can be doing the little things that lead you to the Celestial Kingdom.

I love you all, have a great week!

Did you get to say any final goodbyes to people in Gualan?

Yes, I was able to say goodbye to the 13 converts we had and also a couple families in the branch.

Did all your things fit in your suitcase?

Yes, it wasn´t a problem.

What happens at the change meeting?

Everyone who has a change comes and they bring their luggage. We have a farewell for the missionaries who are finishing the mission, we hear a message from President Crapo, and we get taxis to take us to our new areas with our lunch and stuff.

Where actually are you?

Zone 11 de Mixco. It´s kind of part of the capital but it´s also kind of like a suburb. We`re in a relatively rich area (by Guatemalan standards). Lots of gated communities with guards (not super nice houses but people pay more to be safe) and it`s against the rules for us to contact there or they´ll kick us out. We work a lot more with references and stuff.

Where is your companion from?

Chaitén, Chile, in the southern part of the country.

How long has he been out?

3 months

Do you feel safe?

Yes

What is your apartment like?

Pretty nice actually. A lot bigger. Two bathrooms, room for closets, bedroom, study room, kitchen, and an extra room where we have an ironing board. We live in a gated community with guards.

 How is your ward/branch?

150 or so active members. They help us a lot with the work.

Any good places around to eat?

We ate at Little Caesars today. Taco Bell, Mcdonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Dominos are all here also and they all deliver for free. Bunch of other local places too.

How is the work going in your area? 

We have five baptism dates and had four investigators in Sacrament meeting with us. harder to find new people but when you do they actually read and come to church.