Week 42: My $1,000 Mistake...‏

This week I’ve been a little bit on the forgetful side…I don´t know what’s gotten into me, I seem to be learning more and growing more than I ever have my entire mission, but in spite of that I´m slipping up more times than I ever have in my whole life.

Why would that be?

Who knows…

Let´s do a case study and see how things went down:

Saturday: upon finishing my Internet time for the week we the Secretaries went on another adventure to the Waterfalls of Mixco. The hike was precarious, but the rewards that awaited us at the end were priceless. The waterfall was simply incredible, a steep cascade that tumbled down into a tropical river…something like Paradise Falls from UP but…not as big. When we returned we showered and went to a baptism for Elder Trone and Elder Mendez. They baptized a couple, husband and wife, and the service was something gorgeous.

Our church is very family-centered; the second principle that we teach as missionaries is “The Gospel Blesses Families.” A Christ-Centered Home is invaluable, and a gift that I am eternally grateful for in my own family.

Sunday: It´s funny how the day of rest is the day that we work the hardest! But it was overall a really good day. Baltazar came to church, even though he had to work (He said, “I need to put God first, and then he´ll bless me even more!”) He´s really progressing and is very excited for his baptism! We ate lunch at the house of the Elder´s Quorum President, President Sandburg. He´s from Texas but is living in Guatemala with his family as he works at the American Embassy. Their family was awesome, and I got to teach them in English! We watched the church´s Easter Movie “Because of Him” and discussed the things that are possible through Jesus Christ.

So it was a good day!

Monday: ….

It was a…

Hard.Day.

Allow me to explain: As Financial Secretaries we have a Petty Cash Box, it contains 10,000 Quetzales (About $1,300), and we use it every week to give out reimbursements to the Missionaries. Every Friday we print out a report of where all the money went to and order a check from the church to fill up the box again.

On Mondays we get the approved payment and we can print out the check for President Stay to sign during our weekly office meeting.

That´s the exposition for you…that´s how things usually go…this week was different.

You see, there´s a little box on the church´s website that selects if your payment will go to a check written out to the missionary, or to the missionary´s credit card. The default setting puts it on the credit card.

And I didn´t think to double check.

Word to the wise: Always double check.

So when I came to the computer on Monday to see that there wasn´t a check made out to Elder Tyler John Monson, the panic began. As it turns out, I had sent a 1,000 dollar payment to my credit card. I had no check to show to President Stay.

Panic started sinking in as we began the opening hymn of the office meeting: “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel” (at this point I would have preferred to have said wheel run me over and leave me out to die alone on the plains of Wyoming, like that child that always gets sick on Oregon Trail). I had a pit in my stomach, and with thick beads of sweat dripping down my forehead I had to face the facts: I needed to tell President Stay, there were no other options.

In the Office Meetings we go around the circle and everyone is given the chance to talk and give their reports of the past week. Today it was my great misfourtue to go first.

“Well, umm…President” my voice quivered, “We did a lot of stuff this week but I kind of messed up, I accidentally sent the weekly check to my personal account instead of to a written check. My companion is talking to the area offices to try and figure it out…”

I braced myself for a wall of rage.

President Stay just smiled and said, “Okay…how´s your Cyst doing?”

He was more interested in me as a person as opposed to the mistake I had made.

I was completely floored.

What a great man!

With time we were able to obtain a new check that had been done correctly and the problem was fixed…now it seems a little bit petty…but I learned a lot from President Stay and his Christlike Patience.

Tuesday: We had the last Zone Council of the Change today and it was interesting…the Assistants pretty much just yelled at the whole zone for not contacting or baptizing very much this last month….it was…fun.

Wednesday: We taught Baltazar today about the Law of Tithing and he understood everything. Even after we had said the closing prayer for the lesson, he kept asking us questions about the church, and really opened up to us! It was a great lesson!

Thursday: Today we went out with our Ward Mission Leader, Hermano Factor to go and visit a relatively new investigator, Floridalma. She lives right next to a return missionary from El Salvador and asked if we could come and visit her. Her family is from the mountain area in Kiche, and she came here to the City to live alone and see what she could do with her life, right now she works at a Call Center. The first lesson was about two weeks ago, and it was nothing spectacular. But when we came back the second time, she had read the entire Pamplet about the Restoration and wanted to know more! She bombarded us with questions about the church with a sincere interest! Today we taught her about the 3 questions of the Soul and introduced the Plan of Salvation.

“Have you ever asked yourself, Where you come from, why you´re here and where you´re going?” I asked her.

“Yeah!” She responded, “I think about that a lot! But I´ve never found the answer…do you guys know?”

I smiled, “Why, yes, yes we do….”

Friday: Today we prepared ourselves for the great Transfer Meeting. Elder Trone is going to leave the offices, so that´ll be sad to see him go. His companion is freaking out because now he has to teach a new guy everything…hahaha.

Saturday (again): we went to the Central Park of the City of Guatemala (with permission from the Assistants of course because it´s outside of the mission). We got to tour the national Palace that was full to the brim of Guatemalan History, the Conquistadores and the Mayan heritage, it was an incredible experience!

Which brings us back to…now.

So yeah, Thanks for reading my really long letter for this week!

-Elder Monson

    

   

Week 41: Tut Tut, Looks like Rain‏

In spite of the entire cist-induced experience, last week turned out to be really good!

...you know...comparatively….

The fact of the matter was that this next week turned out to be a doozy, in the offices and out on the streets of Guatemala City. I’m having so many experiences that I’ve started losing track of them all, they slip through my fingers like sand before I can even get to my journal at night and write them down.

So, I’ll see what I can remember for you guys…

Saturday was rather bland as far as P-Days go. After sending last week´s epic-ly long letter we went to Taco Bell and then to the store to buy milk…and then we took a nice afternoon nap and finished off the day teaching a lesson to Baltazar.

**A Word on Baltazar**

Investigator with baptismal date

He´s 18 years old and has as much faith as he does gumption

…but he’s progressing himself

Mainly because his Girlfriend is a member

On Sunday Baltazar came to church! He and his Girlfriend Stephanie sat by me for sacrament meeting and LOVED IT. He has been an Evangelical his whole life, but now he is very excited to be baptized (on the 17th), and he loved the Hymns…

In fact, he loved the hymns so much that he asked me to sing a solo of  “Hark All ye Nations” during the next lesson.

We finished off the last week with 23 lessons taught: A new personal best! We were truly being blessed for our labors!

That was great…because the next five days were killer.

It started on Monday in the Mission Offices….I think that I’ve already said it before but, Mondays are the hardest, most stressful days of the week…there´s just so much to do! But we were getting along pretty well by most standards. The greatest part was that I received a package from my family! Included were a Tie, a CD, a Journal and a How-to-Draw Disney book! I spent a good deal of time doodling this past week…

On Tuesday we went on Divisions with the Zone Leaders in Santa Caterina Pinula: An area that looks a lot like San Juan Sacetepequez. It was tucked behind the mountains with an incredible view of Zone 10 of the Capital. I went with Elder Largespalda, from Honduras, it was a generally good day albeit having all of our scheduled appointments fall through.

**An Observation**

There is a “Curse” that comes with Divisions

All of your appointments fall

Always

I learned a lot though, and wore the new tie that my parents sent me…so that was fun.

Wednesday however, was not fun.

In fact…it was….

…just, not fun.

Elder Gil and I had forgotten our umbrellas and rain jackets in the White House and had left to go and work in Montufar. We started off looking for a reference that we had received by the Bus Terminal, an area that was unfamiliar to both of us. It soon became apparent that this was…not the very best part of town. Everyone started looking at us like, “Mormons with Money!” as we walked past…after fifteen minutes we decided to throw in the towel and start walking back.

And when we did…the rain came down.

So everybody ran home to take shelter. Just, not us. We kept working.

And one by one, everything that we had scheduled in our agenda dropped.

Every last appointment.

So we were stuck in the rain, with nowhere to go and nobody to talk to, in the dark and in the cold without umbrellas.

But we kept trying until 9 o´clock rolled around and we retreated home. As we did so, a ginormous semi truck passed us by, honking and spraying a wave of filthy rainwater over the both of us.

It´s one of the funny things about life: no matter how bad it is, it can always get worse.

It made me think: We didn´t do anything at all that day, we didn´t teach, we couldn´t tract, and nothing extraordinary happened…would it have made a difference if we hadn´t left the house at all? We would have been happier; dryer…was the effort we put forth that day worth it?

When in Personal Study I came across this scripture in Moroni,

 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

I had a thing or two to learn about diligence.

This rest of the week dragged along like reluctant feet on carpet floors, days filled with driving (Turn here! Where, I don’t see an intersection! There! By the Legs! Sure enough, there was a billboard with two long and slender legs marking the way we needed to go…like an odd, scandalous Liahona) and a slew of things to do.

But that’s okay, because if there were no problems in life…things would be very boring.

This is a cartoon drawing Tyler did of Nephi obtaining the gold plates... Awesome!

        

      

      

Week 40: Hey, Soul Cyst-er

Yesterday officially started the ¨Rainy Season¨ here in Guatemala...they say that they have four seasons here (winter spring summer and fall) but that´s not really true. There´s two different ways the weather can be: wet or dry. And after 6 months of being dry....we got soaked.

I had forgotten how hard it rains until this last week.

And when it rains, it pours. (And I´m meaning this in a literal and metaphorical sense...so bear with me)

How was my week?

Where do I start?

Last Saturday, I didn´t exactly just ´get better´ after catching the cold that had been wafting in the office air. In fact, I actually got worse! At the end of the day Elder Gil and I ended up just staying in the house and eating Taco Bell, and then going to bed early because I felt so lousy.

Besides the tacos, my P-Day last week wasn´t so fun.

On Easter Sunday I woke up feeling significantly better and ready to go to church. It was a really good service, and also a very interesting program: everyone who gave talks in Sacrament Meeting spoke Spanish as a second language. A senior missionary couple spoke, an English Teacher spoke, among others (not me). My heart was really touched by the spirit as I thought about how powerful Language really is, words really do in a way, define culture. What we say is a reflection of who we are, our thoughts, emotions and feelings. Learning Spanish has opened so many doors for me! A plethora of people that I wouldn´t have been able to communicate with before have now touched my heart.

Words are powerful. Although the most powerful words that we have the power to use are our own proper testimonies.

Elder Richard G. Scott said in a General Conference address, ¨But a testimony is not emotion. It is the very essence of character woven from threads born of countless correct decisions.¨ What power we all have at our disposal! With simple words we can testify of the things that we know for certain!

Language is power.

Monday was a difficult day. I was so stressed out in the offices it wasn´t even funny! There were so many people at the offices, and so much to do!  The good part was that the Lord sent one of my very best friends in the Mission to lighten the mood, Elder De Carvalho from Brasil! He recently became a Zone Leader and stopped by to pick up some things for his zone. Being able to talk with a friend put things into perspective and re-adjusted my mood.

Tuesday was good and normal!

On Wednesday, the electric company cut the electricity of about a billion houses in the mission (like, three) because they weren´t paying their bills. So we had to go and pay to get it turned back on! 

The fun part was that I got to explore a lot of different banks here in Guatemala, all the fancy buildings and everything. But I had to learn the hard way that you´re not allowed to use your cell phone while you´re there....my companion told me that that´s a worldwide thing...but that´s never happened to me in the states!

Who knows.

On Thursday I reached the 9-month mark of my mission! Woo Hoo! I was talking to Hermana Brown from my MTC group, she was freaking out because that means that she, and the other sister missionaries who entered with me, are now half way through!

Craziness!

And well...yesterday was Interesting.

I´ll explain. In my left wrist, I got this big bump, a ¨ganglion cyst¨ (look it up on Wikipedia) it comes from over usage of the hands, or something like that...it had gone away for about 6 months, until I came to the offices...and then it came back. In two weeks it got really, really big, and started to hurt badly. So I talked to the mission nurse to see if we could set up an appointment to go and get it checked out.

And that´s what we did yesterday.

The only problem was that, the treatment for this thing is...painful.

They used a hypodermic needle and just stabbed it right in, then, instead of injecting fluids, the intent was to suck out the fluids that had caused this bump.

It hurt REALLY bad. Except the problem was that the fluids in my wrist were too thick and the doctor wasn´t able to take out anything.

So he stabbed it in again. I am so thankful for the mission nurse, Sister Trapnell (she´s from Springville UT), she said ¨It´s okay Elder Monson, I´ll be your mom for right now.¨ and she held my hand through the whole thing. But I can honestly say that I haven´t felt anything else that has ever hurt as bad as that darn needle yesterday.

And the problem was that it yielded no results. (you already know how bad I am around needles). By the time he put a band-aid on the wound my face was completely pale and my heart was racing. 

I was so close to passing out it wasn´t even funny. They elevated my feet and everything to get the color back in my face and told me to just lie down.

Good old Ganglion Cysts...causing me pain.

So...that was an adventure.

And then it rained.

And now I´m here!

So It was an interesting week to say the least....