Week 46: Just Me, Chilling with the Lamanites‏

As just about everyone prepares for the great battle that will be the 2014 World Cup, the missionaries of the Guatemala City South Mission are preparing even harder for the great battle that will be resisting the temptation of watching the whole fiasco.

At least...for everyone else, it will be.

President Stay, in his weekly letter said, "For some of you, the sacrifice of not watching the World Cup may be like unto the sacrifice that the Lord commanded Abraham to make in the Old Testament." I thought it was pretty funny...mainly because I feel absolutely no temptation whatsoever.

My companion however, is dying.

But the thing that really has surprised me is how incredibly popular the event seems to be in every country of the world (except, for some reason, The United States... where the excitement level is appallingly sub-par).

Although, if sacrifices bring forth the blessings of Heaven, I am definitely willing to bring the World Cup as an offering for a baptism or two here in Montufar.

Needless to say, the great drought of investigators continues in full force.

Saturday: A bumpy finish to a frankly, bad week. Elder Gil and I went back home to rest for an hour or so and then we went out to work. We stopped by the Franco Family again and had an incredible lesson. We talked about how families can be together forever and Ingrid, the wife, started crying. Walter, the husband, informed us that it had been three years to the day that one of their daughters had passed away. I was completely astounded by the way the Lord had prepared us and them for that message.

Sunday: We went to the CEO of the Church's Area Office here in Guatemala's house to eat lunch. His name's Brother Durran, and his wife gave us so much food that Elder Gil and I collapsed on the floor with stomach pains. I ate way too much and when it was time to go out to work it was a huge struggle.

But the food was really good!

Monday: Really stressful day today...I prefer not to think about it...

Tuesday: Another busy, stressful day. I actually don't remember much from it...

Wednesday: I went on divisions today! I got to go with Elder Mann, from Draper Utah! He was one of the first people I became friends with in my first Zone...and now he's my Zone Leader! He helped me out a lot in regard to my area. We talked a lot together and even though the Divisions Curse applied in this case, (all of the appointments fell through) I really enjoyed today!

Thrusday, I designed an awesome-looking logo for the South Mission, where our motto is "Baptize and Retain"  It's a CTR shield with our Missionary "Baptism logo" in the center. It turned out so well that the Assistants want to print it out onto a flag and give it to President Stay when he goes home in two weeks!

Friday: We were running around like crazy all day. Today was the Mission Council, where all the Zone Leaders, the Sister Missionary Trainers and the Assistants all meet and discuss what we can do to make the mission better.

As secretaries, we don't do much there besides order a ton of expensive food :).

I've noticed that we eat a lot here...It was great though because I saw a ton of my friends (Elder Bento, Elder Chavez and Elder Layton to name a few...). When we got out it was pouring rain, and I had to drive home. The drainage system in Guatemala is kind of garbage, so the roads

had turned into rivers, and upon accelerating the car would automatically start hydroplaning.

Apparently there's been an earthquake passing through Central America...who knew?

Which brings us to today. It was a great "Office PDay" with us, the other Secretaries and the Assistants, we went to the mall, Miraflores, and to a Museum on Mayan culture here in Guatemala. It was pretty interesting, I learned a lot. It was really interesting, because supposedly, Guatemala City was where the City of Nephi was stationed in the Book of Mormon. All the artifacts were completely fascinating, and really motivating...I'm totally ready to cry repentance to all of the remnants of the Lamanites here in central america!

I'm ready to baptize the whole world!

Woo Hoo!

-Elder Monson

Week 45: Not a Sob Story‏

I was carried through this week.

I'm not entirely sure exactly what happened during these past seven days but...all I really do know is that they were hard. I have felt numb and stale these past few days, my surroundings feel less-than real, and every time I blink I find myself in another place doing something different.

I can definitely say that I have been helped through this week in a way that I could never have done alone.
There have just been so many problems in Montufar II that I can’t even manage to list them all.

And nor will I do it! I’m not about to turn my series of weekly letters into a Sob-Story-Soap-Opera! Because if I do so, nobody will want to keep reading…and that would be pretty dumb.

So let’s do a play by play: What did I do this week? *Takes out Handy-Dandy Agenda*

Saturday: Last P-Day was pretty weaksauce. We went to Tikal Futura (the ginormous mall I went to during week 10) and ate China Wok. There wasn’t very much to do there so we just went home and slept for two hours. We went to the appointment that we had with the Franco Family…but they told us that they were busy and we couldn’t visit them!  And that they wouldn’t be going to church tomorrow. Something happened there…we just need to find out what it was…

Sunday: Church was great; Floridalma came to Church for the 3^rd time! She’s been keeping up with all her commitments and has been progressing really well! She said that she loved the church and that all the relief society sisters were so nice to her!

Now that she’s been to church three times she can be baptized!

…we just have to figure out the day to do it!

After church the Justice family invited us to eat lunch at their house. They live on the tenth floor, two-story penthouse apartment building in Zone 13. Even though they’re Americans, they’ve lived in Central America pretty much all their life. Brother Justice is the stake patriarch and owns an English school here in Guatemala. Sister Justice cooks so well, so we enjoyed an incredible meal of fluffy mashed red potatoes, thin, steamy rods of cheesed asparagus with corn on the cob and freshly baked biscuits.

Heck, they even slain an entire chicken for the feast.

It was an incredible meal.

Monday: The week started again! We had a lesson with Baltazar on the Temple Grounds (because we live so close). But for some reason, he’s just not the same. Over these past few weeks, he has sort of lost the fire that he once had for the gospel. And it’s been really sad to see him fall into some temptations. We were thinking that this lesson on the temple grounds would be a turning point for him…but it wasn’t.

He no longer wishes to be baptized, or to continue listening to us.

It was hard to let him go…and I hope he finds his way to the Church again.

Tuesday: We enjoyed the final Zone Conference of President Stay today! The experience was unforgettable, there was good company, good food and an fantastic string of spiritual thoughts by President Stay and his wife.

I am just blown away by how great they are!

They talked about how the Lord calls the weak and the simple people to preach his gospel. It’s his way of working! God is all-powerful, he could have sent anyone to go and preach his gospel, he could call Ammon or Peter or any of his old disciples to do this work again…and he has called us!

He has called you too!

It was an incredible meeting. (And I saw Elder Huntsman, Hermana Brown and Elder DeCarvalho again, so it was awesome!).

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: There were a lot of problems in the offices and I spent a good 4 hours calling Salt Lake City trying to figure things out. And to top it all off there was nothing to do in my area.

It was not fun.

So I won’t focus on that Series of Unfortunate Events.

I hope you had an awesome week!

-Elder Monson     

Week 44: The Suite Life of Gil and Monson‏

Whaddyaknow. I made it another 7 days. For some reason it feels like it´s been significantly shorter than that but...

Here we are.

Time just keeps racing forward, I feel like a tablecloth has just been pulled out from under my table-top feet and although no dishes fell or broke they're still trying to catch their footing.

If that makes any sense at all.

My inherent gift for metaphors is escaping me, how sad.

Life keeps moving onward, and in order to see what happens next all we have to do is continue existing just a little bit longer. Sure time goes by really fast…but when you think about it, the minutes, hours and days are just the same as they’ve always been, it’s just that we are filling them with more things to do than we used to.

Food for thought.

Anyways…my week: how was it?

Definitely, very interesting to say the least:

After I finished writing my general epistle we walked around Zone 10: the shopping district and went to the local mall, Oakland: a sea of commercialism. As it was a Saturday, there were many people there, buying food or Legos (there’s a whole store of ‘em here!). We went to China Wok and a Recent Convert saw us! He was working at the McDonalds in the food court and said, “Elders! Why did you already buy lunch? I was going to hook you guys up!” It was pretty funny. That night we had an appointment with the Franco Family. The father works for the national Newspaper as a graphic designer, so it was really fun to talk to him.

We met them by a referral from a member, Mariellos (who is awesome! She talks to everybody she knows at school about the gospel), she’s friends with the 3^rd child, Francisco, and invited him to come play Soccer in the Church one Saturday.

We talked to Francisco and he invited us to come to his house another day, when we showed up, he wasn’t there, but his parents were!

It’s been a few weeks since we had been able to teach them, so we came back again on Saturday and had an incredible lesson on how the Gospel can unify families. They seemed very interested in the principle and wanted to come to church the next day!

And they couldn´t because the wife had to work.

But for tomorrow they’ve committed to go!

Although, it was a pretty good day at church. Floridalma came again and stayed for the whole 3 hour block. She said that she loved it! She is so cool, she’s been reading the book of Mormon on her own and finding answers to her questions.

…although for some reason, she’s still now sure if it’s true or not.

Weird.

But it was a great church service!

We had another appointment with the Franco Family and our Ward Mission Leader, Hermano Factor. It was an incredible experience! The spirit was so strong, I started crying.

We invited them to be baptized on June 14^th and they accepted!

The church is true.

The days that followed went pretty well, we taught a new investigator who lives in a Hotel! His name’s Tony, and his brother is serving a mission. The whole lesson made me think of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on Disney Channel. The guy lives in a hotel! That’s so Suite! (haha, pretty punny right?). Although, Tony himself is a riddle. He accepted to be baptized, if his prayers are answered and he thinks that it´s all true but…

Why didn’t he do it before?

His mom and his brother have been members forever.

And they’re active.

Why was he never baptized before.

Perhaps now is the time!

It was a good week! I am learning a lot and a lot of good things are happening in my area!

Week 43: Change it Up

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!

Feliz cupleanos Elder Rosero

Happy Mother's Day Skype

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a wonderful evening talking with both boys on missions and us at home!  I could not have asked for a better mother's day gift than to have all of us in the "same room" for a little bit of time.  Tyler shared that is learning more than he could have imagined.  He loves working with the missionaries and that Mondays are truly his busiest day.  He has had some great experiences that have  helped him grow.  He wishes his area was "on fire" with baptisms but he and Elder Gil are working really hard to teach and follow up with referrals.  Tyler shared that he loves the people of Guatemala. He has eaten chicken feet and they were less than appetizing, a little chewy!  His favorite days of the week are Sunday and P-day.  He said his shirts are getting holes in them, his socks are perfect.  His shoes are holding up and he needs to find a dry cleaner for his suit :)

He lives in zone 9 but visits zone 8, 10, 12, 13 and 4.  Zone 10 is the retail portion of the city with the Mall.  Zone 12 you should always have a friend with you...

Tyler shared that his favorite experience in his mission so far was in Jutiapa with Elder Viera and learning that each comp is different and good for him.  He also said he's learned to trust Heavenly Father and has relied on know that Heavenly Father is at the head.

Other than that we just joked about lots of fun memories and what they miss about home and what they love about being away.  Jaymes and Tyler really loved chatting with one another in spanish and sharing similar experiences or expressions.  That was neat to watch.  Brayden even chimed in a few times with his spanish.  I asked lots of questions and just enjoyed the moments.  We took a few pictures but it seems like I never get enough or take the right ones but oh well.  

I'm proud of Tyler, he is strong, diligent, determined and yes focused.  He is close to the spirit.  I've seen that for many years but have noticed how he has learned to listen and act upon it.  He is learning just what he can become and what the Lord sees in him.  I'm a proud and happy Mama!

Mother's Day was just perfect.  Nothing like being together as a family no matter how far away we are from some.  Family is family and I sure love them all!