Elder Tyson Dawson: 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