Week 31 In The Field: Investigators are progressing well, we have a lot of member support and we´re working hard to get baptisms.

Not a lot of time to write this week, I apologize.

This week I had my second baptism interview. The first was like two weeks ago and it went really well. This time in the interview I had to say no because the guy wasn`t willing to pay tithing. He started to argue with us and it was really sad but it taught me a lot about obedience and it´s relation to covenants.

Investigators are progressing well, we have a lot of member support and we´re working hard to get baptisms.

Thanks everyone for all the emails and all the love. Love you guys a lot! Hope everyone has a great week.

Picture is of our study room in our apartment. Internet is slow, only have time for one!

Study room in our apartment.

Answers to questions:

How fun you got to work with Elder Rivera again! Wasn't he from Honduras? Why did he move to Guatemala?

Yes, he moved here to study English in a church program called Fumbal. He moves back in two weeks and he´s getting married.

What is your Companion's name?

Elder Uribe (OO-Ree-Beh)

How is his Spanish different than the Guatemala Spanish?

He has a very mild chilean accent. Talks quieter than people here, not sure if that´s a chilean thing though. He says ciao a lot instead of adios. Different things like that.

Do you still mostly walk everywhere, take tuk tuks or what?

Walking, unless we go to the stake center, then we talk a bus that costs like 12 cents. But its super packed and uncomfortable. US school bus with 100 or more people. Most people stand and hold on to rails while the driver goes crazy.

Do those American fast food places taste just like they do in the US?

Yeah, if anything they taste better because the workers are higher quality because working at one of those places is a great job. Menus aren´t exactly the same though, we get some specialty items in the US. Like the deep deep dish pizza from Little Caesars.

Now that you are in a nice area, is church attendance and activation improved?

Yeah we have 150 active members in our ward and two wards attend in our building. Retention and activation efforts are better due to the structure of the ward and member involvement.

Is the Priesthood more active in your ward  (or is it a branch?)

We are a ward and we have Ward Council every week and Priesthood executive committee as well. The leaders are great, most are return missionaries and have children on missions or children who have already served missions.

Also, wondering if people have to travel far to attend their meetings?

No, there´s another chapel about 5 miles away and most people have cars or motorcycles.

Will you go into the city more often now for meetings? 

Yes, every time there is a meeting in the city we will go. About once or twice every six weeks.

How long is your trip?

Depends on traffic. Heavy traffic 1.5 hours, light traffic 30 minutes.

Elder Uribe

Week 30 In The Field: I am now in Zone 11, Mixco, Guatemala.

Hi everyone!

I am now in Zone 11, Mixco, Guatemala. Basically a suburb of Guatemala City.

My area is really safe and relatively rich. We have a lot of gated communities and it is illegal for us to contact there. We also live in a gated community with armed guards at the entrance.

This area is radically different from Gualan but it´s great. We have a Walmart, Little Caesars, Taco Bell, and a bunch of other places.

The people are harder to contact and people aren´t as friendly but the percentage of new investigators who actually progress is much higher.

We met a couple this week and they`re really great. The man is Eliseo and the woman is Jennifer. Eliseo is a guard for our residential complex and he asked us if we offered bible studies. We told him we could pass by and teach him our message. We taught him about the restoration and he was really excited. He asked about 5 times if we were going to come back, always saying "I hope this isn´t the last lesson we have". 

He confessed to us that sometimes he is abusive to his wife and he wants to know how he can learn to love his wife and control his temper. We were able to testify of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to fix the problems that we have.

We have 5 baptism dates, 9 progressing investigators, and had 28 lessons in total this week.

Brayan Rivera, my first companion in the mission who finished his mission after my first change lives in my area! I was able to do a division with him and it was awesome. Just like old times!

I´d like to share this quote from President David O. McKay to end my letter this week:

There is no one great thing that we can do to obtain eternal life, and...the great lesson to be learned...is to apply in the little acts and duties of life the glorious principles of the Gospel.

I´d invite you to fill your life with the words of eternal life so that in every moment you can be doing the little things that lead you to the Celestial Kingdom.

I love you all, have a great week!

Did you get to say any final goodbyes to people in Gualan?

Yes, I was able to say goodbye to the 13 converts we had and also a couple families in the branch.

Did all your things fit in your suitcase?

Yes, it wasn´t a problem.

What happens at the change meeting?

Everyone who has a change comes and they bring their luggage. We have a farewell for the missionaries who are finishing the mission, we hear a message from President Crapo, and we get taxis to take us to our new areas with our lunch and stuff.

Where actually are you?

Zone 11 de Mixco. It´s kind of part of the capital but it´s also kind of like a suburb. We`re in a relatively rich area (by Guatemalan standards). Lots of gated communities with guards (not super nice houses but people pay more to be safe) and it`s against the rules for us to contact there or they´ll kick us out. We work a lot more with references and stuff.

Where is your companion from?

Chaitén, Chile, in the southern part of the country.

How long has he been out?

3 months

Do you feel safe?

Yes

What is your apartment like?

Pretty nice actually. A lot bigger. Two bathrooms, room for closets, bedroom, study room, kitchen, and an extra room where we have an ironing board. We live in a gated community with guards.

 How is your ward/branch?

150 or so active members. They help us a lot with the work.

Any good places around to eat?

We ate at Little Caesars today. Taco Bell, Mcdonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Dominos are all here also and they all deliver for free. Bunch of other local places too.

How is the work going in your area? 

We have five baptism dates and had four investigators in Sacrament meeting with us. harder to find new people but when you do they actually read and come to church.

Week 29 In The Field: I'm Leaving Gualan and heading for Guatemala City!

Well, I´m finally leaving Gualán and heading for Guatemala City! My companions Elder Perez and Elder Henrriquez will stay here and two additional missionaries will be coming to Gualán to help us with the work. I don´t know where exactly I´ll be or who my companion will be, I will find that out tomorrow at the change meeting.

It was great talking to my family this week through Skype. I love you guys and I feel so blessed.

This week we taught a total of 38 lessons and found 35 new investigators. We had three investigators at sacrament meeting and we have two baptism dates.

I love being able to answer people´s questions here. A lot of people have doubts about what will happen after this life or how we can communicate with God or what  baptism means, etc. But with the fulness of the gospel these questions are really easy to answer. What a great blessing it is to know so many answers. As members of the church we need not be confused about our eternal purposes.

I hope everyone has a great week. I´m nervous to leave to only place in Guatemala that I really know but at the same time I´m excited for the challenges that lie ahead. Love you all!

Elder Dawson

Mother's Day Skype 2015

We were able to Skype today for 2 hours! All the Rasmussen's and Grandma Rainy came over.

Week 28: 1/3 Of The Way Done

Hey guys, hope everyone is well.

This week we were really successful in finding new investigators and teaching lessons. 21 lessons taught to investigators with members present, 8 lessons taught to investigators without a member present, 8 lessons with recent converts and less active members, 38 new investigators, and 1 new baptism date.

We had a great experience with an investigator named Fransisco who has a baptism date for June 6. He told us about a dream he had entering in a church holding hands with his wife. He readily accepted a baptism date and he is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and coming to church.

We are working hard out here and seeing blessings. We know that there are angels working alongside us preparing people to receive our message.

I´d invite all of you to think about the following question: if you were to pray tonight and ask our Father in Heaven to bless you according to your obedience would you recieve more blessings or fewer blessings?

Some of us recieve blessings but perhaps we are not fully obedient. Do we truly deserve the blessings that we are recieving? If not we should repent and strive to be worthy or the blessings we are receiving.

I say this not to chastise, but I myself have recognized that I receive so much from the Lord and I need to put in more of my part each and every day to thank Him.

I should be able to talk to my family through Skype at 3pm (Arizona Time) on Sunday.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Dawson

Week 27 In The Field: El Trio Más Mortal Que Gualán Ha Visto

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing great.

This week we had a conference with Elder Duncan, the President of the area of Central America. He talked about a lot of different ways to work more effectively and we have been super excited in the work since the conference. The day following the conference we had 7 lessons taught to investigators with a member present and we found six new investigators, it was a great day!

My companions are awesome and we call ourselves "El Trio Más Mortal Que Gualán Ha Visto" roughly "The Chillest Trio Gualán has seen". We get a lot of work done and manage to keep everything upbeat.

I love picturing my area as a stake one day and we are treating every investigator as if they are a future missionary or a future bishop. When you have that as your vision you will do whatever it takes for people to progress.

We had an activity this week where we taught a class about the parables of Christ. I talked about The Hidden Treasure and The Ten Virgins. We had 5 investigators in the class and they learned a lot.

I am working on memorizing this quote by Bruce R McConkie. I want to make it as a motto for my life (Yes, I realize it is pretty long, haha)

"To worship the Lord is to follow after him, to seek his face, to believe his doctrine, and to think his thoughts. It is to walk in his paths, to be baptized as Christ was, to preach that gospel of the kingdom which fell from his lips, and to heal the sick and raise the dead as he did. To worship the Lord is to put first in our lives the things of his kingdom, to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, to center our whole hearts upon Christ and that salvation which comes because of him. It is to walk in the light as he is in the light, to do the things that he wants done, to do what he would do under similar circumstances, to be as he is. To worship the Lord is to walk in the Spirit, to rise above carnal things, to bridle our passions, and to overcome the world. It is to pay our tithes and offerings, to act as wise stewards in caring for those things which have been entrusted to our care, and to use our talents and means for the spreading of truth and the building up of his kingdom. To worship the Lord is to be married in the temple, to have children, to teach them the gospel, and to bring them up in light and truth. It is to perfect the family unit, to honor our father and our mother; it is for a man to love his wife with all his heart and to cleave unto her and none else. To worship the Lord is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. It is to work on a welfare project, to administer to the sick, to go on a mission, to go home teaching, and to hold family home evening. To worship the Lord is to study the gospel, to treasure up light and truth, to ponder in our hearts the things of his kingdom, and to make them part of our lives. It is to pray with all the energy of our souls, to preach by the power of the Spirit, to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving. To worship is to work, to be actively engaged in a good cause, to be about our Father’s business, to love and serve our fellowmen. It is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to comfort those that mourn, and to hold up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees. To worship the Lord is to stand valiantly in the cause of truth and righteousness, to let our influence for good be felt in civic, cultural, educational, and governmental fields, and to support those laws and principles which further the Lord’s interests on earth. To worship the Lord is to be of good cheer, to be courageous, to be valiant, to have the courage of our God-given convictions, and to keep the faith. It is ten thousand times ten thousand things. It is keeping the commandments of God. It is living the whole law of the whole gospel. To worship the Lord is to be like Christ until we receive from him the blessed assurance: ´Ye shall be even as I am.´"

I hope that we might all strive to worship the Lord more fully this week and every week.

I hope everyone is well and that you all have a great week!

Elder Dawson

Answers to questions:

Do you pretty much read your scriptures in Spanish now? 

I pretty much always read in English because that´s a rule in our mission that personal study is supposed to be done in your native language. But if I have a free moment in a bus or before a meeting or something I only bring Spanish scriptures in my bag and I can understand them just fine. My companions will often ask me what words in the scriptures mean in Spanish and they´re natives so that´s pretty funny.

Are you hoping Jayden gets called to a Spanish-Speaking mission?

Yeah it would be awesome but it would be cool too if he spoke another language and we could teach each other our languages so that we could both be tri-lingual. 

Being in a trio is fun but yeah its a lot of work. You can look on Google maps probably but we cover Gualan, La Union, La Vainilla, Las Lajas, El Lobo, Santiago, Tempisque and Doña Maria and a bunch of others but we tend to focus just on Gualan.

Week 26 in the field: I'm in trio again and we cover all of Gualan.

Hi everyone. This message will be brief because we arrived late from an activity for P day and don´t have a lot of time to write.

This week the other Elders in Gualan had an emergency change and they sent us another Elder and now I´m in a trio again and we cover all of Gualan now. I am now also with Elder Perez. He was in my group from the MTC and is from Santa Ana, El Salvador.

We are having a great time in our trio, lots of fun and lots of work. 

We went to a cave today, pictures attached.

Love you all!

Elder Dawson

Elder Perez, Elder Henrriquez, Elder Dawson