Well, my cyst has finally started
disappearing.
I wish I could say the same thing
for the rest of my problems.
This week has just been a big
onslaught of trials of faith, and they all just sort of hit me like a wall. The
majority of said tribulations came from the great headache of a meeting that is
the Changes. I’m not sure if I’ve explained it before but I think I’ll explain
it again
What are the Changes? Basically
what happens is that on Sunday night, the Assistants tell all the zone leaders
what missionaries in their zones have transfers, they in turn call the district
leaders who call each individual missionary. The following Tuesday, a taxi
appears at the doorstep of their house to take them to the meeting.
The reunion is held in the Chapel
in Montufar (my ward), which was the very first building constructed by the
church in the country of Guatemala. Even though it has since been remodeled, it
still holds a sense of sacredness.
The new missionaries come first,
and receive a few instructions from the Mission President and his wife, and
also the Secretaries (hi). Then at 10:00 all of the missionaries proceed into the
meeting, where all the Elders who have changes are seated with their respective
zones.
A hymn is sung, a prayer is said
and the “Honorable” missionaries who are finishing their missions come to the
pulpit and bear their testimonies.
The Mission President and his wife
then give their prepared talks and we close with a hymn.
A projector is then turned on and a
slide show demonstrates each individual change that has been made to the
missionary roster: for example “In Progreso, Elder Layton receives a new zone
leader… “Elder Bento.” That’s how it works. Then the new companionship stands
and leaves together to go to their area.
Pretty sweet right?
The truth is that it really is. The
meeting is spiritual and stressful…like a good game of Scripture Chase.
The only down side is that on the
other side of the curtain…a lot of work goes into it. Especially on our part as
secretaries. There was so much to do this week I almost died.
Sunday: A nice, “calm before the
storm” kind of day. I got to talk to my family on Skype for mothers day. It was
a fantastic opportunity, and I loved the whole thing in spite of a few
technical difficulties. I have such a great family!
Monday: Today started the whole
fiasco that was the preparation for the Change Meeting. We had to stay in the
offices until 8:00 because there was so much to do! But for the one hour that
we had to work I got to go on a division with Elder Tauiliili, who would be
finishing his mission this Thursday. I learned a lot from him about Christlike
Attributes. He was incredibly kind and understanding, and completely selfless,
really, just a great example.
Tuesday: TRANSFER MEETING! I didn´t
have transfers and neither does my companion (he´s been here for 30 weeks! Holy
Cow!), but there was so much to do. The day before we had ordered all the taxis
for the missionaries who would need to go to the meeting but by some tragic
turn of events, we had all the addresses and phone numbers wrong on the
computers.
So pretty much half of the
missionaries came late.
Brilliant.
I got to give a quick money
training to the greenies and then go run to the other side of the church to pay
for all the transportation.
There was a lot to do.
There’s a new Executive Secretary
in the offices: Elder Walton, from Utah (he went to Lone Peak…I’m not entirely
sure how I feel about that).
There were lots to do and we were
running behind in the offices until 8:00 again.
Yay.
Wednesday: Another fun thing about
the change meeting is that the Missionaries who are finishing off their 2 years
get to stay over in our house for two days. It was pretty sweet, I was able to
talk with all the “Muertos” (or Dead). Two of my Zone Leaders, Elder Cerrato
(from Honduras) and Elder Guaman (from Ecuador) went home.
So that was fun.
The only bad part about Wednesday
was that all of our very best investigators flaked out on us. Baltazar and
Floridalma are now on the fence about baptism.
We’ll see what we can do to help
them.
Thursday: The best part about the
Changes was that one of my best friends from my group and my district in San
Juan got sent to my district here!
I got to go on divisions with Elder
Huntsman!
It was a great day, we talked a lot
about the mission and found a new investigator…(because we desperately need
new investigators).
So it was a pretty good day.
Friday: In the morning, Elder
Huntsman and I ordered Burger King for breakfast. (A note: one of the best
things about fast food in Guatemala is that EVERYONE does delivery…not just
Pizza! If you want McDonalds without even leaving your house…just pick up the
phone! Except, Taco Bell doesn´t provide this service…that makes me sad). After
working a little bit in the offices, Elder Gil and I went out to work. We had
an awesome lesson with Floridalma again, our ward mission leader came with us
to help us teach and the spirit was so strong!
…and looking on retrospect, sure I
had a lot of problems this last week…but there were also a lot of blessings
that I saw.
Woo Hoo! Church is True!
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| Feliz cupleanos Elder Rosero |
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