Week 80 in the Field - Apostatizing Before Our Eyes, Elias, and Work

Weekly Letter April 25th 2016

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

This week I've been busy showing my new companion around the area. He now knows most of our investigators and most of the active members in our area. We're getting along well and we tend to teach in a similar fashion which makes it easy to have effective lessons.

We had a sad lesson this week with a member family. The daughter has been a member for her entire life and is probably like 25 years old. She told us that she knows that the church is true but because of a grudge she holds against a few members she has started going to a different church and is preparing to be baptized in that church. Her dad has been an active member for 30 years and in that lesson she revealed to her dad that she was apostatizing. We're trying to help the family in any way we can to rekindle their dying flame of faith.

On the bright side our investigator Elias Marroquin came to church for the second time yesterday ad this time he stayed for all three hours. He's enjoying learning more about the restored gospel and we hope that this week he will commit to be baptized on a specific day.

We are also in the process of preparing a fun branch activity. We are going to pass by each member's house and film them acting out a story from the Book of Mormon. We have a month to do all the filming and we already have a lot of funny material.

I love this quote by President Uchtdorf: "When our wagon gets stuck in the mud God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer." "That's the thing about work." He taught, "If we simply keep at it, steady and constant, things certainly will improve...Those who are unafraid to roll up their sleeves and lose themselves in the pursuit of worthwhile goals are a blessing to their families, to their communities, to their nations, and to the church."

President Joseph F. Smith taught, "We can never attain to the blessings of the gospel by merely becoming acquainted with it and then sitting down and doing nothing...There should be no idlers in Zion...All men and women should feel a degree of independence of character that would stimulate to do something for a living, and not be idle...it is necessary that we should intelligently apply our labor to something that is productive and conducive to the welfare of the human family."

That we may develop the patience, diligence, and self-control to be engage in the work of the lord is my humble prayer.

-Elder Dawson

Week 79 in the Field - Transfers, The Exact Opposite, and Hope

Weekly Letter April 18th 2016

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

Well, we got information about transfers yesterday. Elder Garcia is going to Guatemala City and I am staying here in Teculutan to train a new zone leader, Elder Ruiz, from Mexico. Elder Ruiz entered the mission field at the same time I did and he's a cool guy; we'll get along well.

I feel like in many parts of the world missionary work struggles because of a general lack of religious conviction and widespread agnosticism. I feel like sometimes the work is difficult here in Guatemala from exactly the opposite reason. Every other person we talk to considers themself to also be a missionary and they thank us for spreading the word of God. We share the message of the restoration and they say they also have prophets in their church and that all churches are good because in the end we all worship the same God. They don't say this angrily or anything; they are super happy to talk to us but they don't understand our message despite how simply and clearly we teach it. These people literally go to church for two hours every single day, visit the sick to give them blessings, pray five times a day, fast once a week, etc. Thus, they don't understand the need to be baptized again and go to a church that only meets once a week. Certainly the adversary has different ways of confusing people. Fortunately, God is always preparing people to hear our message.

I love this quote by President Uchtdorf: "I wish to speak today of the hope that transcends the trivial and centers on the Hope of Israel - The Great Hope of Mankind - even our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Hope is not knowledge but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill his promise to us; it is confidence that if we live according to God's laws and the words of His prophets we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance."

The verb "Esperar" in Spanish is the translation for "To hope"; but Esperar also means to wait for and to expect.

The work is progressing slowly here in Teculutan but I can "esperar" that it will improve. That combination of hope, expectation, and waiting is something all of us need in our lives. "Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side; With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain. Leave to the God to order and provide; In every change he faithful will remain. Be still, my soul; Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

I love you all; have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

Week 78 in the Field - Zone Conference, Las Minas, and Infinitely More

Hey, time is short today because we went to a place called Las Minas (The Mines) and took some pictures and explored. Pictures to come.

We had a zone conference this week and my companion and I had a work shop about asking inspired questions.

Our investigators are progressing slowly but in other news we have a lot of confidence with the branch President and he basically treats us like his counselors because his actual counselors are less active. We went to a Branch leaders meeting yesterday and learned a lot about how to help the branch.

Thought I`d share this quote from Bonnie Oscarson from General Conference:

"We believe that this Church is more than just a good place to go on Sundays and learn how to be a good person. It is more than just a lovely Christian social club where we can associate with people of good moral standing. It is not just a great set of ideas that parents can teach their children at home so they will be responsible, nice people. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is infinitely more than all of these things."

I bear my testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is actually God`s Kingdom upon the earth and that as such our membership in it is one of the most important factors in regards to our salvation and exaltation. 

I love you all; have a great week!

Attached: I have been casted as the terminator in the upcoming sequel of the series. Here`s your sneak peek.

Week 77 in the Field - Leaders´ Meeting, Divison, General Conference, and Rapturous Gratitude

Weekly Letter April 4th 2016

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

This week on Monday we were able to travel to the capital and stay the night with the assistants and the other zone leaders outside the capital and they we were able to have a leaders' meeting with President and Sister Crapo. We returned to Teculutan by bus and we arrived with enough time to welcome back Jonathan Gongora, a missionary from our branch who just returned from the Dominican Republic. We're really excited to have Jonathan here because he should be able to visit investigators with us and might even be called as our branch mission leader.

On Friday two Elders from a nearby area, Elder Ramirez and Elder Sorenson, cam to our area to work with us for a day. Elder Ramirez is from Tocoa Colon, Honduras and Elder Sorenson is from Provo, Utah. It was great to be able to work with them and we had a lot of success that day in finding new people and inviting people to come until Christ through baptism.

On Saturday and Sunday we watched general conference here in Teculutan on a projector that we rented. On Saturday morning like 5 people showed up, in the afternoon about 3 people, and in the priesthood session 1 person (these numbers are excluding the missionaries). Sunday was a little better with like 40 people in the morning and like 6 in the afternoon. For some reason it's taboo in Latin America (from what I've seen) to stay in your house and watch conference. We watched the sessions in Spanish of course and even though I understand what is said the translators express no emotion and when jokes are told the audience laughter is cut out and overall it makes conference a little dry but nevertheless I could feel the power of the speakers' messages and enjoyed the conference.

As we participate in general conferences and other church meetings, we obey the Lord's commandment given in section 43 of the Doctrine and Covenants: "And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given."

Of one of the first General Conferences of the church in this dispensation, a meeting of a few men in a log cabin, it was written in the Times and Seasons that the conference "created within us a sensation of rapturous gratitude and inspired us with fresh zeal and energy in the cause of truth". I hope that we will study the conference messages so that we too might be newly filled with gratitude, zeal, and energy. Love you guys, have a great week.

-Elder Dawson

Juanito

Chapel

Juanito