Week 27 In The Field: El Trio Más Mortal Que Gualán Ha Visto

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing great.

This week we had a conference with Elder Duncan, the President of the area of Central America. He talked about a lot of different ways to work more effectively and we have been super excited in the work since the conference. The day following the conference we had 7 lessons taught to investigators with a member present and we found six new investigators, it was a great day!

My companions are awesome and we call ourselves "El Trio Más Mortal Que Gualán Ha Visto" roughly "The Chillest Trio Gualán has seen". We get a lot of work done and manage to keep everything upbeat.

I love picturing my area as a stake one day and we are treating every investigator as if they are a future missionary or a future bishop. When you have that as your vision you will do whatever it takes for people to progress.

We had an activity this week where we taught a class about the parables of Christ. I talked about The Hidden Treasure and The Ten Virgins. We had 5 investigators in the class and they learned a lot.

I am working on memorizing this quote by Bruce R McConkie. I want to make it as a motto for my life (Yes, I realize it is pretty long, haha)

"To worship the Lord is to follow after him, to seek his face, to believe his doctrine, and to think his thoughts. It is to walk in his paths, to be baptized as Christ was, to preach that gospel of the kingdom which fell from his lips, and to heal the sick and raise the dead as he did. To worship the Lord is to put first in our lives the things of his kingdom, to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, to center our whole hearts upon Christ and that salvation which comes because of him. It is to walk in the light as he is in the light, to do the things that he wants done, to do what he would do under similar circumstances, to be as he is. To worship the Lord is to walk in the Spirit, to rise above carnal things, to bridle our passions, and to overcome the world. It is to pay our tithes and offerings, to act as wise stewards in caring for those things which have been entrusted to our care, and to use our talents and means for the spreading of truth and the building up of his kingdom. To worship the Lord is to be married in the temple, to have children, to teach them the gospel, and to bring them up in light and truth. It is to perfect the family unit, to honor our father and our mother; it is for a man to love his wife with all his heart and to cleave unto her and none else. To worship the Lord is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. It is to work on a welfare project, to administer to the sick, to go on a mission, to go home teaching, and to hold family home evening. To worship the Lord is to study the gospel, to treasure up light and truth, to ponder in our hearts the things of his kingdom, and to make them part of our lives. It is to pray with all the energy of our souls, to preach by the power of the Spirit, to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving. To worship is to work, to be actively engaged in a good cause, to be about our Father’s business, to love and serve our fellowmen. It is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to comfort those that mourn, and to hold up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees. To worship the Lord is to stand valiantly in the cause of truth and righteousness, to let our influence for good be felt in civic, cultural, educational, and governmental fields, and to support those laws and principles which further the Lord’s interests on earth. To worship the Lord is to be of good cheer, to be courageous, to be valiant, to have the courage of our God-given convictions, and to keep the faith. It is ten thousand times ten thousand things. It is keeping the commandments of God. It is living the whole law of the whole gospel. To worship the Lord is to be like Christ until we receive from him the blessed assurance: ´Ye shall be even as I am.´"

I hope that we might all strive to worship the Lord more fully this week and every week.

I hope everyone is well and that you all have a great week!

Elder Dawson

Answers to questions:

Do you pretty much read your scriptures in Spanish now? 

I pretty much always read in English because that´s a rule in our mission that personal study is supposed to be done in your native language. But if I have a free moment in a bus or before a meeting or something I only bring Spanish scriptures in my bag and I can understand them just fine. My companions will often ask me what words in the scriptures mean in Spanish and they´re natives so that´s pretty funny.

Are you hoping Jayden gets called to a Spanish-Speaking mission?

Yeah it would be awesome but it would be cool too if he spoke another language and we could teach each other our languages so that we could both be tri-lingual. 

Being in a trio is fun but yeah its a lot of work. You can look on Google maps probably but we cover Gualan, La Union, La Vainilla, Las Lajas, El Lobo, Santiago, Tempisque and Doña Maria and a bunch of others but we tend to focus just on Gualan.

Week 26 in the field: I'm in trio again and we cover all of Gualan.

Hi everyone. This message will be brief because we arrived late from an activity for P day and don´t have a lot of time to write.

This week the other Elders in Gualan had an emergency change and they sent us another Elder and now I´m in a trio again and we cover all of Gualan now. I am now also with Elder Perez. He was in my group from the MTC and is from Santa Ana, El Salvador.

We are having a great time in our trio, lots of fun and lots of work. 

We went to a cave today, pictures attached.

Love you all!

Elder Dawson

Elder Perez, Elder Henrriquez, Elder Dawson

Week 25 in the Field: Sometimes the fruits of our labors come later than we think they will.

Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing great.

This week we`ve had a few challenges but in the end everything will turn out well.

We lost two of our baptism dates with Hector and Alex of the Ramirez Diaz family this week. The parents and sisters have already been baptized, as well as the Grandma and the aunt and some other family members. This week, however, instigated by money problems, the Grandma (the recent convert) supposedly threatened to burn down her daughters house if they didn`t move out ASAP (I think the grandma wants to steal their land or something). The next day the hut that they lived in was completely gone and they had moved out to a small town 30 minutes away by bus. There is no chapel where they are going to live and the closest chapel is probably 20 miles away and would cost 15 dollars in transportation costs each week (for a family that maybe makes the equivalent of 40 dollars a month). I was really sad to lose four of my converts and 2 of our baptism dates by the greed of another one of my converts.

Other than that we`ve had some good lessons and have 7 progressing investigators, 4 of them with baptism dates.

We met a lady named Roxana recently and her two sons. She`s had a lot of trials in her life and has been asking God for help and direction. We met her in a taxi and set an appointment with her. In our first appointment she had a lot of questions for us and we were glad to clarify some misinformation she had heard about the church. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she loves reading it because she says it explains everything so clearly.

I also learned this week that sometimes the fruits of our labors come later than we think they will. About a month ago we knocked the door of a house that I had always felt we needed to knock and we set an appointment. At the appointment we taught them about the restoration, gave them two copies of the Book of Mormon, and invited them to institute and to church but they didn't come to either. We kind of dropped them because they weren`t keeping commitments and we had other people to visit. It turns out, however, that one of them is the Branch President´s secretary and this past week she started to talk with the Branch President about the Book of Mormon she received. She`s been reading it and is newly interested in visiting with us and learning more about the church. We`re excited to see where it will go with her and it seems that there was a reason the spirit told me to go to that house after all.

Love you all, have a great week!

(Answers to Mom's questions)

How long has Elder Henrriquez been out in the field?

Two weeks, I`m his first companion.

Is his family members?

His mom and sister are. His Grandma (Whom he lives with) is Catholic though.

What are his interests? What was his life like in Honduras?

He likes listening to music. He used to sell cell phones in Honduras as a job. He was going to college but then he decided to serve a mission. 

Do you miss having an English speaking companion?

Teaching is a lot easier but the apartment is a little more boring. Language barrier isn`t too much of a big deal but the cultural barrier is difficult. With an american companion you can talk about tv and movies and highschool and a bunch of different things but it`s harder to connect with Latino companions to be honest.

That is cool you get to go to a gym everyday - How far away is it?

It`s like a five minute walk away. Kind of small but it`s nice.

Anything you need and we can send you?

I don`t think so but thanks!

Love you mom!

Week 24 In The Field: New companion, Elder Henrriquez

Hey everyone, hope you´re all doing well.

This week I got my new companion, Elder Henrriquez. He is from Honduras, is 20 years old, and has been a member for 7 years.

We´ve been working really hard this week and got 5 additional people to commit to baptism on a specific date. We are hoping to have at least 5 baptisms this change!

I loved conference and hoped you all had an opportunity to listen to the messages. Study what was said and apply it to your lives.

We are very blessed to live in a time when prophets and apostles walk the earth. All of the past prophets wished to see our time in which we live.

Let us treasure the depth and breadth of information we have on gospel subjects. Neal A Maxwell said "So many honorable individuals in the world do so much without what we, as members, call gospel fulness, while some of us, unfortunately, do so little with so much!"

Let us not only have a fulness of the gospel, but let us have a fulness of faith, a fulness of diligence, a fulness of obedience. In this quest let us look to He who is the Fulness, the great and eternal son of god. This is my prayer for you this week. 

I love you all. Have a great week!

(Answers to Mom's questions):

I'm sure you will tell us, but let us know about your changes this week and tell us where you watched conference.

I just watched conference in our branch chapel on the internet. In all we had probably 40 people come to conference with the rest watching it at their houses.

Did you get the Easter package we sent?

Yes! Thank you! I gave some of the treats to kids while they watched conference. I also got the clothes, thanks for those too

(Answers to Grandma's questions):

Are you enjoying being the district leader?

It comes with its challenges but it´s also been rewarding and I can really see the fruits of our labors.

Are you ready for a new town to teach?

I really like being here so for now I´m good but when the Lord calls me away I´ll be satisfied with the work I´ve done.

What is your favorite meal there?

Churrascos. Grilled meet, sour cream, and grilled green onion in a handmade flour tortilla for $2

Are you getting lots of rain?

Not really. It rains a few times a week but when it rains it rains for less than 15 minutes usually.

Elder Henrriquez and Elder Dawson at their house in Gualan