Week 66 in the Field - The Prodigal Son Returns, Elder Garcia, and Happiness

Weekly Letter January 25 2016

Hey guys, I hope everyone has had a great week.

Well, I got transferred and I am now in Teculutan, Zacapa which is in the Motagua Zone of the Guatemala City East Mission. Perhaps the name sounds familiar because I started my mission in this same zone; which means that despite having almost a year and a half in the mission field I still have only been in two out of the 12 or so zones in the mission. Most of the people who started the mission with me have  about 4 or 5 zones that they've been in but I'm content to have only been in Bosques and Motagua, two of the safest and coolest zones in the entire mission.

This area was also the former home of Elder Flygare so it's cool to tell people that the gringo that was here before is a childhood friend of mine.

Anyways, Elder Flygare and Elder Espinoza were the missionaries that were here previously but they both were transferred. When a missionary is called to come to an area where both missionaries have left they call it "opening" an area. So I'm opening an area with Elder Garcia who has 10 months in the mission and is from Honduras.

Elder Garcia and I are getting along well and are getting to know the places and people here in Teculutan. Together we are two of the four missionaries assigned to the Teculutan branch which has an attendance of about 70 - 80 people.

We had 3 investigators attend church today (Sunday) and have already found some 14 people to teach here. Luckily people here tend to know each other so we've relied heavily on asking random people if they happen to know any Mormons or anyone that the missionaries have visited previously. We've seen that the Lord has helped us to find people who we're looking for and we always seem to be in the right place at the right time.

This week I'd like to share a few things from a talk I enjoyed by Bruce C. Hafen (former member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and former President of Ricks College) that was delivered at Ricks College in 1990.

In his address, Elder Hafen briefly relates something he saw on Sesame Street. The Cookie Monster and his wife had just won a televised Quiz show and the host says "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Monster, you have just won this quiz show and now you get to pick between three fabulous prizes: you can have a $200,000 dream house next month, a $30,000 new car next week, or a cookie right now. You have thirty seconds to decide."

The clock now ticking, Mr. and Mrs. Monster discuss in mumbled voices which price they will chose. When the 30 seconds are up the host says, "Well the time's up, what'll it be: the $200,000 dream home next month, the $30,000 new car next week, or the cookie right now? The camera zooms in and with beads of sweat on his furry brow he greedily says, mouth already watering, "COOKIE".

Elder Hafen goes on to explain, "Now there's nothing wrong with a good cookie. The problem is not that the cookie is bad; but that its satisfaction cannot last. Not that it shouldn't last or might not last but that it cannot last. A cookie is like a piece of cake - you can't eat it ad have it too. But you can live every day in a dream house and have it too. There is an enormous difference between ephemeral 'flash in the pan' temporal pleasures and long term, soul-stirring satisfactions."

Elder Hafen continues by saying, "You can never get enough of what you don't need...It isn't that cheap thrills shouldn't satisfy or might not satisfy- they cannot really satisfy. It isn't that worldly gratifications are too satisfying - we think we're kept from them by the counsel of the scriptures and our leaders and our parents because they don't want us to have these big thrills - that is not it at all, on the contrary...Brothers and Sisters the gospel of Jesus Christ ultimately seeks our self fulfillment, not our self-denial, except as self-denial in the short-run ennables self fulfillment in the long run. In this way, we may channel our deepest instinctive yearnings within the bounds of the Lord has set."

"Happiness is not akin with levity," explains James E. Talmage, "nor is it one with light-minded mirth. It springs from the deeper fountains of the soul". The Lord counsels, guides, and directs us, not with the object that we monastically retire into the caves and reject the world entirely, after all, "there's nothing wrong with a good cookie". The Lord will let us have many temporary pleasures but he does warn us that they are just that - temporary. As Joseph F. Smith said, "If there is no pleasure in the world except that which we ecperience in teh gratification of our physical desires - eating, drinking, gay associations, and the pleasures of the world - then the enjoyments of the world are bubbles, there is nothing in them, there is no lasting benefit or happiness to be derived from them."

Brother and Sisters, I hope that when the Lord presents us with choices that we will pick the dream house. We may have to wait, but we will be making eternal investments.

-Elder Dawson

To Mom:

Tell us about your new living arrangements, new ward, everything!

Included some info in my weekly letter. New area is hot (although it´s been unseasonably cool the past few days), about 3 hours away from Guatemala City. Our house is nice, the shower doesn´t have hot water but that´s alright. Nice sized place, somebody left a ripstick here and we like to skate around the house on it.

Did you ever get Chrissy and Rich's package or the other Christmas package I sent you?

Chrissy and Rich´s package - no. I got another package recently from you that had a bunch of neat pictures, not sure if I already told you that, but that was great, thanks!

Love you lots mom, glad to hear your week went well. Love you!

Saying goodbye to the Fuentes family

New companion, Elder Garcia (from Honduras)

Week 65 in the Field - Transfers, 9 Investigators at Church, Getting Robbed, At-one-ment

Weekly Letter 18 January 2016

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

Well, we got the call about transfers yesterday and I'll be leaving Lo de Fuentes. I won't know until tonight where exactly I'm going but I'm sure I'll be happy wherever I get sent. I love this ward and have met a lot of great people here. Out of the seven converts I've had in this stake I saw four yesterday in church and I believe all seven have come to church in the past month, which is pretty good retention for Guatemala.

Yesterday we had 9 investigators in sacrament meeting which is a great number. I'm happy to be leaving Lo de Fuentes with a nice pool of progressing investigators.

Yesterday we had something kind of scary happen that I guess I'll tell you about. We were walking down a street at about 6:30 PM yesterday; it was already dark but certainly not very late. We walk down this street just about every day. We passed by two guys who were kind of wobbling around (we assumed they were drunk) and one of them comes up and asks for some money. This happens pretty frequently and we always say sorry, we don't have anything and keep walking. This time we said that and then one of the guys grabbed my companion and said, in an angrier tone, "No, give me 10 quetzales (a little bit over a dollar)". The other guy came over and together started to hit my companion. We realized that they were probably on drugs and not drunk because of their coordination but they were still out of it and more waving their arms and legs around rather than actually punching and kicking. In this circumstance the protocol is to offer a small amount of money and to not offer resistance. My companion had a bill of 20 quetzales on him (roughly $2.50) and handed it to guys and after the exchange we began to walk quickly and the two guys stayed back. The street we were on is rather long and there are not any side streets to hide in to. But after a few minutes of walking and calming our nerves we decided to contact a lady in the street. In the process of asking her for her address, my companion says "they're coming" and I look back to see the same two guys walking toward us. My heart beating considerably faster, I tell the lady quickly that those guys that were approaching had just stolen some money from us and that we needed to get out of there. We began to walk quickly and I turn around to see the two running towards us and I tell my companion we need to run. By this time we had made our way to the entrance of the street where there was a side street to dart into and a member close by. We get to the members house in some thirty seconds and luckily several young adults are outside talking. Thinking we've lost our pursuers, we explain the situation when suddenly we see the two guys again. We ducked into the house and the members outside tell the two guys that we went down the street. After a few minutes pass we come out and head directly home which is in the opposite direction of where our followers headed. This is the first time something like this has happened to me. My companion took a couple blows and I got hit in the shoulder in the encounter but overall we're fine, no injuries, and we've been reminded that we live in a kind of dangerous country and we need to always play it safe and watch our surroundings.

I'd like to close with a few things I learned from a series of articles about the atonement by Hugh Nibley that were published in 1990 in four different issues of the Ensign. "The Atonement of Christ," explains Nibley, "is nothing less than the answer to the great and terrible question that life inevitably poses: 'Is this all there is?'" Nibley goes on to explain that "atonement, and accepted theological term, comes from neither a Greek nor a Latin word, but is good old English, and really does mean, when we write it out, 'at-one-ment', denoting both a state of being 'at one'with another and the process by which that end is achieved." Nibley goes on to explain that his "at-one-ment" with the Lord is represented with the motif of the embrace throughout the Book of Mormon. Father Lehi says "I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love", Jacob pleads to his people that they "cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you", and Mormon sorrows over a people who "might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus."

Let us all be embraced by God's love and be made "at-one" with Christ by doing so. Charles Wesley expressed his desire poetically:

Jesus, lover of my soul,

Let me to the bosom fly,

while the nearer waters roll,

While the tempest still is nigh,

Hide me, O my Savior, hide,

Till the storm of life is past.

Safe into the haven guide;

Oh, receive my soul at last...

All my trust on thee is stayed;

All my help from thee I bring.

Cover my defenseless head

With the shadow of my wing

-Elder Dawson

Carousel

Adolfo

Kitten

Mendez Family

Week 64 in the Field - Leader´s Council, 7 Investigators in Church, Believing Christ

Weekly Letter January 11th

2016

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week.

This week has treated us well.

Did they get everything figured out with your church debit card? 

Yeah, the atms stole 26 thousand dollars from our mission but Salt Lake reimbursed us and will probably take legal action. Not sure how that happened but it was bad.

Elder Flygare

Foto de concilio

Week 63 in the Field - New Years, Walter, Polo-bish, and Entertainment

Weekly Letter January 4th

2016

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

Well, a new year is upon us. My companion and I had a great New Years Eve eating dinner with a family of members and playing a little bit of Headbanz (That game where you have a card on your head and you have to guess what you are by asking questions). We ate some potato tamales called paches and some turkey. We woke up at midnight to watch the fireworks and overall had a good time. I hope this new year brings great things for each of you.

This week we had a few great lessons with a man named Walter Telo. Walter is about 50 years old and lives alone. When he was young his father taught him never to gamble but one day he was hungry and saw a hotel that said "Free Buffet" and decided to check it out. He was told that to qualify for the free buffet he only had to put 10 Quetzales (a little over a dollar) on a card and gamble a little bit until later in the night when the buffet would start. Long story short he ends up winning a car in the casino but doesn't have enough money to buy the plates and pay the taxes so he sells it to a Chinese guy in the casino for cash and buys a little house with the proceeds. After this series of events, Walter's brothers and sisters and his dad turn against him, saying that he made a deal with the devil and that's how he won the car, and convinced their Christian congregation to pray so that he dies. Anyways, Walter is an interesting guy and he plays Christian music on his guitar when we come over and he understands what we teach and he came to church on Sunday.

There's another interesting guy we see sometimes on the street too and people call him Polo-bish. Supposedly a long time ago he was a Christian preacher until someone gave him pig's milk (my companion and I are not sure if that's code for something or not) and that fried his brain. He should be in an asylum but because we're in Guatemala he walks around the street in the same clothes he's probably worn for years without bathing asking for money. If you don't give him money he also has a handy-dandy coke bottle filled with urine that he will throw in your face. Anyways that is the basic run down of the craziest human being I have ever seen. This week he snuck up behind us in a street contact and I almost had a heart attack. Luckily we were able to escape without being doused with pee.

This week I was impressed as I read Quentin L. Cook's November 2015 conference address entitled: "Shipshape and Bristol Fashion: Be Temple Worthy - In Good Times and Bad Times". I especially enjoyed the following quote: "despite the overwhelming happiness embodied in God's divine plan, sometimes it can feel far away and disconnected from our current circumstances. It may feel beyond our reach as struggling disciples. From our limited perspective, current temptations and distractions can seem attractive." One of the great tests of mortal life lies in whether we decide to succumb to the devil's temptations and believe his lies about happiness or to follow God's plan. Modern prophets and apostles have taught us that one of Satan's primary tactics in our day and age is to encourage inappropriate forms of entertainment as a form of amusement or stress-relief or acceptance amongst peers. No wonder then that President Joseph F. Smith taught "One's character may be determined in some measure by the quality of one's amusements...Tell me what amusements you like best...and I will tell you what you are".

The thirteenth article of faith reminds us "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" and Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin teaches that "We can fill our lives with good, leaving no room for anything else. We have so much good from which to choose that we need never partake of evil."

I love the counsel of hymn 336:

School thy feelings, O my brother;

Train thy warm, impulsive soul.

Do not its emotions smother,

But let wisdom's voice control.

School the feelings; there is power

In the cool, collected mind.

Passion shatters reason's tower,

Makes the clearest vision blind.

As we choose entertainment that illuminates and uplifts we will choose to follow God's plan of happiness rather than Satan's. We shall thus refine our character and bridle our passions.

I love you all, have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

To Mom and Dad:

There´s been some problems here in the mission with our church-issued debit cards. I tried to pull some money out the other day and instead of giving me the money the machine robbed me of over 300 dollars out of my church card. This has never happened before in the mission but now dozens of missionaries have no money due to what appears like some sort of system error. The church is sorting out the issue and it should all work out and I should have my money from the church again. Just letting you know that this week I might have to use some personal money while the issue is being sorted out. I haven´t pulled money out of my card in a while from an atm but if you can check out how my account is doing that would be great. The other day we ate at Applebee's and I spent some personal money and I also bought an umbrella and a few other things a while back. Let me know if anything looks weird with my account balance. Thanks!