Week 76 in the Field - Semana Santa And A Book Of Mormon Miracle

Weekly Letter March 28th, 2016

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week and a fantastic Easter.

Easter in Guatemala is called "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and as the name would imply lasts an entire week with Resurrection Sunday being the final day. Kids have school off and because of the heat most people just go to the river and spend the whole week there. The Catholics have a big procession/parade thing where like 20 people carry huge scences of the virgin Mary around town and other people make big carpets along the streets so the twenty guys can step on them. A lot of Christian churches just close on Sunday because they figure everyone is going to be out of town/at the river.

Anyways, basically no one was at home this week and things are getting pretty hot here in Teculutan. Overall it was  a good week though.

One cool experience we had this week was on Saturday morning. We left to see if we could find anyone in the area where we had never contacted before. Most people weren't home and after a couple of hours we were leaving the neighborhood when my companion said "Hey, is that kid reading the Book Of Mormon?" Sure enough, there was a kid in a hammock reading an old paperback edition of the Book Of Mormon. We approached and the boy was there with his mom, reading out loud. We said hi and presented ourselves and asked if they had ever met with missionaries before. The answer was obviously yes, but they weren't members. The father of the family had passed away a few days previously and they decided to read the book the missionaries had given them so long ago in a search for comfort. We were able to sit down with them, and among other things, share this verse about the resurrection from Alma 40:23, "The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yes, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yes, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame."

The beautiful Easter message is that "there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ." (Mosiah 16:8) What an amazing promise after losing a loved one. We have a return appointment to visit the family and we're happy that our Heavenly Father led us to someone he was truly preparing.

Love you guys, hope you have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

Week 74 in the Field - Capture the Flag, Rivera Family, and The Resurrection

Weekly Letter March 21st 2016

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

This week was pretty cool; we played water balloon capture the flag with the branch youth for our weekly activity and were able to teach a lot of lessons. We're teaching a cool new family whose last name is Rivera. This week we taught them about the Restoration and they came to church on Sunday. We're working with Nelson so that he can quit smoking and Brenda and her children went on vacation this week but we're hoping to meet with them soon.

As Easter approaches, I hope that each of us will ponder on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph Fielding Smith wrote of the resurrection, "Now, we have not power to lay down our lives and take them again. But Jesus had power to lay down his life, and he had power to take it up again...He came into the world to die that we might live, and his atonement for sin and death is the force by which we are raised to immortality and eternal life. So Jesus Christ did for us something that we could not do for ourselves, through his infinite atonement. On the third day after the crucifixion he took up his body and gained the keys of the resurrection, and thus has power to open the graves for all men, but this he could not do until he had first passed through death himself and conquered."

I offer to you my testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed Jesus the Christ and that He did indeed rise from the dead. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be but a collection of instructive stores and wise sayings. With the doctrine of the resurrection clear in our minds, Jesus Christ and his gospel become the path to eternal life - a never ending state of happiness made possible through the atonement of our savior. I love you all, have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

To Grandma:

What special plans are being made to celebrate Easter in your areas?

Easter here is "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and it is basically a week long trip to the river. I don´t think the branch has any special activities planned. Mostly all of the traditions are catholic in nature and people carry huge representations of Jesus on the cross around in the streets (it takes like 20 people to carry them) and they bang on turtle shells and sing hymns.

Will you get another chance to go to the temple in Guatemala before you come home? 

Depends if I go back to the capital or not, we´re too far away here to go to the temple.

By the way, what was on the dish in the photo you sent a couple of weeks ago?---It looked interesting! 

Diced Radish, a lime, black beans, fried chicken patties, potatoes, and green beans.

Did you eat it?

Yes.

Love you grandma! Thanks for the email, have a great week!

Week 73 in the Field - Brenda, Blanca, Nelson, and Temples

Weekly Letter March 14th 2016

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

This week we've been able to work with some great people here in Teculutan. We taught a lady named Brenda this week and she had a question about marriage and authority. We taught her about the restoration, especially about the restoration of priesthood authority and keys. We invited her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and she said that she would do so because she wants to know if he really received the priesthood like he said he did. She says that if she gets an answer she'll be baptized on the twenty third of April. We taught her on Saturday and the next day she came to church.

We're also teaching a neat couple whose names are Blanca and Nelson. Nelson is 25 years old and Blanca is 41 and because of their age difference Blanca is embarrassed about getting married. However, we've been teaching her and she's been reading the Book Of Mormon and coming to church she's understood more and more about the importance of living the law of chastity. Yesterday she said she wants to get married to Nelson so they can be baptized on the ninth of April!

This week I'd like to share a quote I enjoy about temples. Of temples, Bruce C. Hafen says, "the temple is almost like something from outer space that's here on this planet where we're strangers to remind us of home. It's a place where earth and heaven meet and homesick children think of home."

I love Hymn #132 "God Is in His Holy Temple"

God is in his holy temple.
Earthly thoughts, be silent now.
While with rev'rence we assemble
And before his presence bow.
He is with us, now and ever,
When we call upon his name,
Aiding ev'ry good endeavor,
Guiding ev'ry upward aim.

God is in his holy temple,
in the pure and holy mind
In the rev'rent heart and simple,
In the soul from sin refined.
Banished them each base emotion;
Life us up, O Lord, to thee,
Let our souls, In pure devotion,
Temple for thy worship be.

I love you all, have a great week!

-Elder Dawson

Week 72 in the Field - Trio No. 5, El Oreganal, Elefants, and TruthFood

Weekly Letter March 7th 2016

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week. Just a heads up - this letter might be somewhat brief.

This week I was in a trio with Elder Hernandez. He is from Mexico City, Mexico and came with Elder Garcia and me because his companion was sent home for mental health issues. Elder Hernandez is super cool and while he's been on the mission his family moved to Idaho so we can probably meet again after the mission. He wants to go to BYU.

Went on divisions with the assistants this week, went well, learned a lot.

Had our first sacrament meeting in El Oreganal and had 5 investigators present. Everything went well, first time conducting a sacrament meeting.

My spiritual thought this week comes from a story told by Elder Uchtdorf in a CES devotional. The fictional story goes that there were once 6 scientists, all of them highly intelligent and very educated; however each is also blind. Despite this limitation, the scientists want to go study what an elephant is and so they go as a group to study one in a zoo.  Each scientist grabs a different part of the elephant and explains what he feels. One who is grabbing a leg says "an elephant is like a tree, thick and rough"; another, with the tail in his hand says "No, the elephant is like a rope". A third, grabbing the trunk, says "No an elephant is like a very thick snake." Each is certain about his conclusion because they have a part of the truth, and yet the real truth about what an elephant actually is remain a hidden.

Absolute truth actually exists, but human beings often try to come to conclusions about truth based on extrapolating incomplete data. Moral relativism is spreading contagiously and their are many voices, each of which seems so sure to know the truth. However, many are more concerned about feeling certain than actually being right.

The elephant exists and is an elephant, no matter how long we spend trying to argue that it's a tree or a rope or a snake. Righteousness is righteousness no matter how many times it gets called wickedness. Wickedness is wickedness no matter how many times it gets called righteousness. God exists whether we want him to or not.

Let us all build our lives upon the rock of absolute truth and help others not to build theirs on sand. When the rains come down and the floods come up, those built on sand will always, always wash away; but the house on the rock stays still.

Love,

Elder Dawson

Food

To Mom:

Thanks for the package mom! I got the one with the Star Wars stuff, the socks, and the toffee. We have a guy in our branch who is crazy about Star Wars and we are going to use some of the stuff to bribe him to go with us to visit people. Ha ha, thanks mom, love you lots!