Elder Tyson Dawson: Week 51 in the Field - Changes in the Zone and Family Kingdoms

Weekly Letter October 12, 2015

Update: Elder De La Cruz will no longer becoming with us, rather he will remain in his area and recieve two new companions, Elder Cubillos from Chile and Elder Perez from the United States. Disregard first part of the letter.

Well, another great week here in Guatemala. I hope everyone else has had a great week as well.

It looks like these next few weeks should be very interesting. From the call we just received from the assistants they will be sending us another missionary to our companionship, making us a quartet. The missionary's name is Elder De La Cruz and he is from here in Guatemala. He entered the misssion field the same day I did and is a happy, obedient missionary. It seems that due to some disobediences in other zones some missionaries (or perhaps just one missionary) are going home. This caused a chain reaction of emergency changes and President decided it would be best to send our companionship yet another missionary. We are actually really excited. We should be able to get a lot of work done and the relationship should be very interesting. Not looking forward to the bathroom situation, but hey, you win some you lose some.

Good week this week in the work. 15 new investigators and 71 contacts in the street. I've felt the spirit very strongly in the lessons we have had and I love being able to confide in the whisperings of the spirit. Often I feel like I truly am not the one teaching. The promises of the scriptures are certainly true.

We had two new investigators in church this week, Mario Zurdo and Pablo Sevillas. Happy to see furture priesthood holders progressing.

In recent years, we have been reminded the importance of the family unit. I think certainly it is important for us to remember that the family is so important because God lives in a family. Eternal life entails becoming like God and having eternal increase as he does. What a blessing it is that our Father in Heaven allows us to take part in the creation process and form little kingdoms analogous to the one he has.

Bruce R. McConkie taught, "Whenever the Lord has a people on earth he offers to make them a nation of kings and priests - not a congregation of lay members with a priest or a minister at the head - but a whole Church in which every man stands as a king in his own right, reigning over his own family-kingdom."

The glory of Godhood comes from the growth of posterity and the strengthening of these family-kingdoms.

"It is the blessed priviledge," taught James E. Tlamage, "of resurrected beings who attain an exaltation in the celestial kingdom to enjoy the glory of endless increase, to become the parents of generations of spirit-offspring, and to direct their development through probationary stages analogous to those through which they themselves have passed."

Brigham Young promised women of the church, "You will see the time when you will have millions of children around you. If you are faithful to your covenants, you will be the mothers of nations. You will become Eves to earths like this, and when you have assisted in peopleing one earth, there are millions of others still in the course of creation. And when they have endured a thousand million times longer than this earth, it is only as it were the beginning of your creation."

The joy of Godhood is the joy of the infinite. The power of Godhood is the power of eternity. How important it is to remember our divine potential and honor the family. There is a great lesson in the fact that God asks us to call him our Father.

Have a great week,

Elder Dawson