Weekly Letter February 1st 2015
Wow, I literally had to consult a dictionary to remind myself how to spell February. I hope everyone has had a great week.
Missionary work is progressing here in Teculutan. This week we were blessed to find 37 new investigators and place two new baptismal dates. We taught 20 lessons and have now successfully explored the main part of our area. Teculutan consists of a central area (with supermarkets, clothing stores, large churches, nicer homes, etc.) and several smaller neighborhoods and villages nearby. To reach the end of our area, Rio Hondo, we need to travel about 15 minutes in a bus. Normally we tend to work close to our house (we live in the city center) but there have been days this week where we've walked several miles to find old investigators in some outlying villages.
This week I was able to return to my first area in the mission, Gualan, on a division. I was able to talk to two converts and several members from the Gualan branch. Most were relatively shocked to see me and I was happy to see that most remembered my name (which is normally hard for a Guatemalan, my name being an English name) and were happy to reminisce about things we had done together.
All in all I'm loving it here in Teculutan and I'm excited for the future.
This week I was impacted by a quote I read from Orson F. Whitney. He said:
"Why did the Savior say "My sheep know my voice'? Did a sheep ever know the voice of a shepherd it had never heard before? They who love the truth and to whom it most strongly appeals, were they not acquainted with it in a previous life? I think so. I believe we knew the gospel before we came here and that is what gives it a familiar sound."
Certainly with this notion in mind B.H. Roberts taught that "Faith is simply trusting what the spirit learned eons ago."
The things we learn about, therefore, in the gospel of Jesus Christ are not new, at least to our spirit. The great test of this life is subjecting the natural will of the body, wild and full of passion, to the trained conscience of the spirit. Learning is more like remembering, testimony more like recognition.
We were among the valiant in the pre-earth struggle against Satan and we must continue to be valiant here in the continuation of that battle here on earth. Truman Madsen taught, "There is locked in you, under amnesia, power greater than you can presently imagine." Let us take courage and march onward to victory.
- Elder Dawson
How are the places and shopping there? Better, different, or the same as Lo de Fuentes?
Less places to shop, no Walmart and no mall but we do have La Torre which is a nice grocery store and La Despensa which is a grocery store owned by Walmart I think but it´s small. The cool thing is that we have Mega Paca which is like a Goodwill but with a bunch of nice donated clothes from America. Last monday I bought 3 ties, a BYU t shirt, swim shorts, and two pairs of athletic shorts for less than $10.
How are the people there? Smaller branch, right? Are most people friendly?
People here are supposedly descendants from a Spanish colony or something and there are a lot less native people here. That means that the people here are whiter in skin tone and also probably not of the house of Israel by descendence AKA not very receptive, haha. Smaller branch, 650 members on the ward list but like 70 come to church. People are friendlier than the capital because they kind of have that small town hospitality and help us out with finding people we are looking for.
What are they saying to you missionaries about the Zika virus? Are you wearing bug spray?
I got an email from the United States Government to all US citizens residing in Guatemala with some info. Supposedly Elder Jepson had Zika a few months ago after he was with me and he went to the hospital for a few days. Zacapa (the department I´m in) has the highest rate of Zika infections in Guatemala but only like 40 people have gone to the hospital and been positively identified. We sleep with a little thing you plug in the wall that has mosquito repellant and I have bug spray.
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| A place called El Yajal. |
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