Week 62 in the Field - Baptism, Temple, Islamic Man and Christmas

I apologize in advance for the short email, we went to the temple today and I didn´t have time to write the letter beforehand.

We had a baptism this week! Sandra Sabán got baptized and was the last member in her family to do so. Her son baptized her and 94 people showed up for the baptismal service, basically unheard of in Guatemala. Great experience.

Afterward Sandra´s husband came up to me and asked me if it was possible for him to be sealed to his son who passed away a couple weeks ago in the temple now that his wife is a member. I told him that yes, absolutely it was something that they could do in the future. With teary eyes he told me "that was exactly what I wanted to hear". Tender moment that taught me a lot about the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week a random Islamic man wandered into our chapel. We were in ward counsel and a bearded guy in an orange tunic appears in the window and the bishop says "hey look it´s Osama Bin Laden´s cousin" and we were really confused. Anyways, we go out and talk to him and he doesn´t speak Spanish very well but his name is Dada and he was born in Italy and he has been an Islamic missionary for 30 years and as mysteriously as he entered he left. Very strange.

Christmas went well, lots of fireworks and lots of tamales. We spend some time on Christmas Eve with members eating and playing UNO. It was fun and overall a great Christmas. Of course, talking to my family was the best part. I love them so much and I´m glad they are doing well. 

My short spiritual thought comes from an address by Jeffrey R Holland titled "Living After the Manner of Happiness". He says:

"Happy people aren’t negative or cynical or mean so don’t plan on that being part of the “manner” of happiness.  If my life has taught me anything, it is that kindness and pleasantness and faith-based optimism are characteristics of happy people.  From the words of Mother Teresa, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.  Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”

Be kind in 2016, the world needs it. 

Love you guys, 

Elder Dawson

Sandra Saban's baptism with Elder Perez.

At the Temple on P-Day.

To Mom:

Where was your companion by the way?

He was just in the other room, I´m pretty sure he said hi at some point. He called his family afterwards.

What do you need?

Think I´m good. Got the package you sent last night. Thanks! Lots of awesome stuff. Tie is super cool and the Christmas decorations are fun too. Treats are always nice as well and I loved the tie hanger thing. Thanks so much!

Do you need shirts? No, I can get cheap ones here. How are your shoes? Doing really well, bought another pair that´s really nice and had soles replaced on my hush puppies for like $5. Doc Martens are holding up nicely.

This is what I mean by a Guatemalan Nativity set.

It might be hard to find one like that because I´m not in a turistic area but I´ll see what I can do. We went to the temple today and had no time to shop but I´ll see if I can find one another day.

Love you lots mom, have an awesome week!

Christmas Skype at the Saban Family's house

I got to Skype at the same time with Jayden! 

Photo Cut Outs of Jayden and I. Grandma Jane had them made for my family.

My family on Christmas Day

Week 61 in the Field - Sandra, Tamales, and Christmas

Week 60 in the Field - Goals met, Prophets, and Luis

Weekly Letter December 14th

2015

Well, I hope everyone's had a great week, I've had a pretty wild one.

This week we were again able to meet the mission goal as a companionship, finding 17 new investigators, doing 70 street contacts, and placing two new baptismal dates.

We arrived at the home of one of our baptismal dates this week and her grandson handed us a note she had written us. She said that she no longer wanted to meet with us because we taught her that there is only one prophet on the earth at any given time. She says that there are lots of prophets and despite teaching her clearly she can't handle this one crucial doctrine. In Guatemala there are probably thousands of people who say that they are "prophets" and go around people's houses making prophecies and asking for money and charging to cure diseases. This makes it really difficult to teach about what a prophet, seer, and revelator really is and that only one man can receive revelation for the entire world. Despite what everyone else here thinks, "God is not the author of confusion." (1 Cor. 14:33)

Several people this week have also asked us why  you have to deny Jesus Christ and accept Joseph Smith to join our church and we had a preacher who was holding a church service in the street yell at us as well.

On the bright side we had a mission conference this week and as a Christmas present from President Crapo we got to watch Frozen which was neat.

Unfortunately, I'm going to end this letter on a sad note. First, allow me to give a little bit of background information. Just about every week we visit the Saban family. Roger, the older of the two children, is 19 and was the first in his family to accept the gospel. He was baptized just over a year ago and has a mission call and will be going to Cancun Mexico shortly. Roger's brother, Luis, and father, Cesar, were baptized  about 8 months ago. The mom is still waiting for her answer and has not been baptized yet. This is one of the greatest families I know and Roger and Luis are almost like brothers to me. Just a few days ago we were over at their house and I sat on Luis' bed while we talked and he showed me some funny pictures.

On Saturday December 12 at 6:30 in the morning Luis, who is 14, and Hector, another member of the ward who is 22 went out for a jog. Along the way, an unknown, out-of-control driver jumped a curb with his car, traveling at some velocity, squarely hitting my little friend with the full weight of his vehicle. Likely, death came almost instantly. Hector, by some miracle, suffered no injury, but the mental and emotional scars will last a lifetime.

Truly my willingness "to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9) was put to the test. The moment they brought Luis' body in a coffin is the saddest scene I have witnessed in my entire life.

Luis was loving and kind, innocent and yet mature enough to reach out to others. His smile and laugh comforted me in times of need. He was my friend. With a broken heart and tears in my eyes I solemnly testify that I know that Luis is one whom we call dead, yet indeed his spirit lives, he's only gone ahead. Like his brother, Luis too has been called to serve.

How great and glorious is the promise in this teaching by Joseph F. Smith: We will meet the same identical being that we associated with here in the flesh - not some other soul, some other being, or the same being in some other form, but the same identity and same form and likeness, the same person we knew and were associated with in our mortal existence.

I will strive to live in such a way that I might be worthy to meet Luis again in the first resurrection. I will continue to teach the Saban family so that they will be able to be sealed to each other and sealed to Luis through temple ordinances so that they too might meet him, hug him, and hold him again, never more to depart.

And should we die before our journey's through,

Happy day! All is well!

We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;

With the just we shall dwell.

But if our lives are spared again

To see the Saints their rest obtain,

Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell -

All is well! All is well!

- Elder Dawson

Week 59 in the Field - 10/15/2/2, Brenda, and Wandering

Weekly Letter December 7th

2015

Hey guys, I hope you've all had a great week.

We got the news about transfers yesterday and Elder Perez and I will be staying here in Lo de Fuentes. In our zone Sister Call is finishing her mission, Elder Carter is going to a new area, and Sister Elizondo is going to a new area.

In the mission we are focusing on a goal called 10/15/2/2. We want to have 10 contacts with new people in the street every day (Normally by giving them a pamphlet or pass-a-long card and asking for their address and an appointment) 15 new investigators a week, place two new baptismal dates a week, and have two baptisms a month. This week we had 72 contacts, 15 new investigators, and placed 2 baptismal dates, successfully achieving our weekly goals. We're excited about the progress in our area.

This week we had a lesson with Brenda (our 14 year old investigator who is 8 months pregnant) and she told us she got her answer that the book of mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was a really neat experience and she's showing a lot of progress.

Today is a holiday know as "The burning of the devil" here in Guatemala. From what I can understand it's a day for people to clean their houses and burn their trash. Stores around town are also selling pinatas shaped like devils to that you can burn them. I think we'll buy one today and burn it for a P-Day Activity.

This week I'd like to write a little bit on the topic of wandering. Often, wandering is thought of as punishment, such as the forty years of wondering the Israelites suffered in the wilderness or the wandering from the sea to sea to seek the word of the Lord during the apostasy. However, I'd like to discuss wandering as a choice that God's children occasionally make. This type of wandering as a choice is evident in Jeremiah's rebuke of Israel; the Prophet says that these chosen people of the Lord "have loved to wander (and) they have not refrained their feet." In the vision of the tree of life there were those "who had commenced in the path" but "did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost".

Wandering is often attributed with a lack of purpose. Its companion is idleness and brings a false sense of freedom and a lack of responsibilities.  Wandering is the byproduct of a lack of faith, as it hints to the fact that the wanderer hopes or expects to find happiness and/or peace in something other than the gospel plan. Wandering is the cousin of perdition and its looseness and selfishness are in direct opposition to God's plan of sealed family units and family and church obligations.

It is to no surprise then that Kind Benjamin's hope for his people was that they would be "steadfast and immovable". It is no wonder that Christ is referred to as a rock and that he is the good shepherd that searches out the lost sheep.

To some degree we have all strayed from the fold of God. Perhaps by nature we all tend to wander. I love the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount Of every Blessing" as it is truly the prayer of every human heart:

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee

Prone to wander Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above

Have a great week,
Elder Dawson