Week 65: The Good, The Bad and The Baggy‏

The following definition is needed to be able to understand the following chapter of our story:

Baggy (adj.). (ba-ggiey) An extreme sense of homesickness, in which one is incapacitated by an overbearing feeling of hopeless and a missing of their past lives. Usually common among Latter Day Saint missionaries who are beginning and ending their service as Missionaries. Synonyms: Trunky, Homesick and bummed out. (see also, fiery dart of the adversary).

Being in a trio with a missionary who is close to finished and one who is just starting musters up a whole lot of baggy feelings.

We all know that Jesus told his disciples  "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62), his declaration was very clear, that all those who could not "leave their nets" were not made useful in the service of the Lord. Exhibit A: The Rich Young Ruler, Exhibit B: A Certain Companion that I had not too long ago. The Lord is clear: we are allowed to miss our homes and families...but in the moment that we become debilitated by such feelings, we've sunken our ship even before it's left the harbor.

And this, the "Old Ship Zion" cannot afford to sink.

Feelings of Bagginess usually come when the work is slow and our spirits are down. It's a time when we allow the Spiritual Cockroaches to embed themselves in our hearts a little bit and we permit ourselves to become disheartened and discouraged.

That, my friends, is a problem. And it's a dilemma that is all to common here in San Cristobal II, especially after sour-tasting weeks like the one that me and my Companions just passed through.

I'm not sure why, but almost nothing seemed to go our way this week.

It was overall...just hard.

It's too bad when that happens...

And it's not even like, "nothing went good at all this week! We're failures! Aaaahhh!" No. There were definitely miracles, I was able to see all of the blessings...but it was just a week where the ups seemed to out-measure the downs.

From the very beginning, on Tuesday things just started going downhill. All of our appointments fell through, people who usually would receive us started hiding behind their doorbells, there were few opportunities for finding new Investigators...and to top it all off, the cherry of this Ice Cream Sundae was the fact that it rained.

Every.Day.

I can handle a little bit of water...but when the morning comes and all three of my pairs of shoes are soaked inside and out still...things get a little bit hard.

And what I learned was that the Lord knows that! He knows when we go through rough patches and when things are just hard, hopeless and baggy! He's been there too! And he doesn't want us to suffer like he did!

So, he gives us a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

On Friday we went on divisions with one of my good friends, Elder Kundie...Elder Linford and I stayed in San Cristobal (the wilderness of our afflictions :)) and we just had a great time, working as hard as we could and just conversing between friends. At the end of the day we roasted marshmallows and talked about the mission and college.

It was a nice break.

On Saturday, at the end of a fruitless week we started to see some signs of success.

A man, his name is Joey.... he’s from California came up to us as we were knocking on doors in the late afternoon. he told us that he was a member of the Church...although inactive...he was here visiting his wife's family and he asked us if we could come by and visit him another day...his wife insisted, saying "I want the word of God to be in our house again!"

I like that attitude!

So, the Lord blesses us.

Even though it wasn't the best week ever, and I would be lying if I said that it wasn't...he loves us and helps us nonetheless. Even though we got into a bible bash with the Jehovah’s Witnesses on Sunday Afternoon, he blessed us with 5 referrals from the Bishop on Sunday Night.

The Church is true my friends!

Week 64: Concrete Jungle‏

After so many things that have gone on...a normal, ordinary week is almost unheard of, getting back into the routine is an out-of-body-experience. It's a fresh start, a chance to get off on the right foot again...and then just keep moving forward.

Sure, things are completely different...but in a way...familiar.

It's sweet.

On Tuesday morning we kicked off the week with interviews with President Caffaro. I found it funny that even after I left the Offices I've still seen President a good number of times. Overall the interview was good, the only downside was the fact that it ate up all the time we had that whole day, the sun was already low in the sky by the time we returned to San Cristobal and had a couple of hours to be able to go and work.

Wednesday was the first, regular work day that I have had in all of my time in my new area, after General Conference, Emergency Changes, and a PDay I was very ready to just go out and try my hardest.

Concrete jungle

That was the idea, at least...until all of our appointments fell through. My companions and I roamed San Cristobal, a concrete jungle, looking for the slightest chance at a visit...almost entirely in vain. Luckily we were able to find Edgar at home and talk to him. It was the second time he had listened to the missionaries, and the previous Saturday he made it to General Conference. He didn't have very many questions but I was able to see a sincere desire to follow Jesus Christ as we taught. At the end of the lesson we committed him to baptism on November 9th. Even though he wasn't able to attend church on Sunday, I have faith that he's going to be able to make it to this date.

On Thursday we had divisions with our District Leader Elder Montecinos (From Tuxla Gutierrez, Mexico....). We did a lot of walking that day, working with Members to try to move this work forward.

What we've been doing to receive referrals has been interesting. We ask the members to close their eyes and keep a prayer in their hearts as we, the missionaries, sing a hymn. When the song finishes, we ask them how they felt and what revelation they were able to receive regarding the people they knew that are ready to receive the gospel.

It's been a miracle, this week alone, we received 17 referrals.

We did that a lot on Thursday and were able to see the results! And that night we ordered Pizza...and it was fun.

Pizza Night with Elder Gudiel and Elder Montecinos (from Tuxtla Mexico) and Elder Linford behind the camera

Friday, Saturday and Sunday all passed us by like a blur...and after a rather hard week, things picked up by the end. More people were home and receptive to our message! We had a good number of lessons! And we found new investigators! I even received an excellent referral from an Area Seventy!

Tell you about it later...

Our companionship is going good. Things are a lot more fun in a trio! There is so much potential that is in this area...in spite of everything.

I am very happy.

Cool Man!

Elder Gudiel

-Elder Monson

Week 63: Three...It's a Magic Number‏

So at the end of last week, Elder Argueta decided that he was going to go home. No matter how many times I informed him that the decision that he was taking was the wrong one, and that doing this would not bring him any sort of happiness...he had made his decision and was in no attitude to change his mind.

And to be honest, I was tired of trying to convince him.

Elder Argueta had one last interview with President to make sure that he was sure about what he was doing. It only lasted about three minutes. Afterwards, I was called into president's office. I felt discouraged, beaten, betrayed and frantic in that moment...happy that I had done all that I could, but sad that it was not enough.

"I'm sorry for everything that has happened," I said.

President looked me in the eyes and told me, "What are you sorry about? Elder Monson, this is not your fault! You can't change the agency of others! I don't blame you one bit!" Then I felt like I had just had a great burden lifted from off of my shoulders...I had been so worried that I had done something wrong that it was eating me away from the inside...and at that point all I wanted was to just get a clean slate and try again. President continued, "now I've got to figure out what trio I'm going to be putting you in."

So when we got back home I started to pack and prepare myself to say, "Ta Ta" to El Tesoro.

Elder Argueta went back home on Thursday morning. Though I did not approve of his decision, I loved that missionary to pieces, and I hope that everything goes well for him in the future...

I spent all afternoon hanging out with Elder Prestwich in the offices and working out on the streets of Montufar again. It was fun to be able to go back and say hello to the Francos, Ana Victoria and Minor and Veronica...it felt like it had already been so long since I left that area, that their houses were foreign and familiar all at once.

The next morning we got a call from President, and I listened to Elder Prestwich as he spoke on the phone, "yeah....okay....San Cristobal? ...sounds good, we'll send an extra bed over there today..." He hung up, "Elder Monson, you're going to San Cristobal with Elder Linford and Elder Gudiel!"

I got all wide-eyed...why on earth was I going to be going to San Cristobal? I had heard of that area before, it is notorious as one of the hardest areas in the whole mission.

It's so difficult because it's so developed. All the houses there look like they could come out of a "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine, and in order to get into one of the hundreds of closed communities, you have to know somebody...

Meaning, it's a place where you have to work with the Members...or not work at all.

It's fun.

By lunchtime on Friday I was in my new area with my two new companions. Elder Linford is a missionary that will be finishing in December, he's from California, and the first companion that I've ever had that I've actually known before we were together. He's a great missionary and he's hoping to finish things off well. He's training Elder Gudiel, a Honduran Elder, who's super sweet. They were already a great companionship, so my hope is that I'm not coming in here to be a dead arm to them....

...we'll see.

On Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference in the Stake Center. All of the English-Speakers went to the High Council room and enjoyed a spiritual feast (and also a physical feast on Root Beer and Gummy Worms...gotta love conference snacks). It was an incredible conference, and it went by incredibly fast too! I was surprised to see that it was all over.

But I loved every minute of it.

It was a great week...and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for the San Cristobal Threesome...

It's gonna be great.

        

Week 62: Called and Chosen‏

At the beginning of my mission I heard an important truth: the difference between being someone who has been called, and someone who has been chosen. In Doctrine and Covenants we read, "Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men" 

I never quite understood what that meant until this week.

How could somebody be called and NOT chosen? What do we have to do to be able to qualify ourselves to be one of the chosen?

Well, now I know.

This was one of those rollercoaster-type weeks, where so many things were happening all so fast that I really didn't have time to breathe. Everything sort of took off on Wednesday and started going rapid fire, out of control, crazy-style until last night when everything came to a head. There were so many miracles, so many heart breaks and so many close calls that I'm having trouble trying to do a cohesive summary.

Let's just start from the beginning and see where we get at the end:

Tuesday was a relatively long day. We were actually able to teach a good number of lessons and help out a lot of different people, so it was productive in a sort. In the morning during Personal Study I read out of the book of Alma and the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors, and the classic scripture that says "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."  As I was reading the scripture I realized something incredibly important:

It was my mom's birthday last Monday.

And I forgot to congratulate her.

So this is me, publically wishing my mother a very happy Birthday! She is an inspiration to me of faithful and devoted service to the Lord, a woman of God, a truly righteous daughter and my very best friend.

I love you mom.

On Wednesday, Elder Argueta had an interview with President Caffaro, so I got to go and visit the Offices again, while there I saw Elder Gil and Elder Prestwich! It made me feel grateful for how well the Lord has blessed me with incredible companions here in Guatemala...Wednesday really reminded me of that. I've learned something special from every one of them.

Elder Monson, Gil, Prestwich, Jiminez

After my companion left the interview I asked if I could talk to President for a few minutes. As we spoke, it felt good to just spill out all of my problems to him and have me listen and give me advice...something that I had been longing for all week. He told me that I should fast and depend on the Lord more than I had been doing.

It was needed advice.

As we were leaving the offices, Elder Prestwich shot me a quick and poignant comment, "Minor and Veronica and all of them are going to be baptized on Saturday... and they keep asking what they need to do to be able to have you there at the service. I asked President and he says that he's probably going to give you permission to go..."

"Really?!?"

"I'll let you know on Friday."

So all of a sudden I was given a very good reason to fast. When we got home I kneeled down...and started.

That night my companion looked discouraged. When I asked him what was wrong he sighed and said, "Elder Monson, can I tell you the truth?"

"Yeah sure buddy...."

"The truth is that I don't like the mission...I don't want to be here.."

The next day we went on divisions with the Zone Leaders, which helped me to really just take a deep breath and chat with my good friend Elder Wilson from Arizona. Even though all of our appointments fell through, and it rained....we had a good day.

When we finished divisions on Friday I received a text message from President Caffaro, "You may have permission to go to the baptism of those you taught in Montufar."

I was so happy I almost started crying like a little girl.

So, as my mood got better and better, Elder Argueta's started taking a dive bomb. On Friday afternoon he called President telling him that he wanted to go home....that he felt out of place in the mission and that he didn't want to stay here any longer.

I was hoping that the Baptism on Saturday would make him feel better.

On Saturday morning we got on a bus and headed back to the Chapel in Montufar. There I attended the Baptism of Minor, Veronica, Erika, Bryan, Beverly and Krissy Garcia...a service that was as touching as it was spiritually filling. Two weeks after I had left they were ready to make this covenant with the Lord.

And at the end Minor came and gave me a big hug, and said, "Elder Monson, Thank you...thank you so much for knocking on our door."

I don't know that much about missionary service...but I do know that that was one of the greatest feelings I've ever gotten as a missionary.

I did indeed cry.

Baptism of Garcia family

The feeling carried over until Sunday Night...in spite of my companion's grumblings about how much he didn't want to be here...and no matter what I told him or how convincing I was...he had decided to go home...and there was nothing that I could do to change his mind.

I called in the Zone Leaders, and last night we held a "companionship study" ....or basically a last ditch effort to keep my comp in the mission...

But even after 2 hours or poking and prodding and asking and pleading...he wouldn't budge. He said that he missed his home too much, that he felt trapped here in the mission and that he wasn't going to make it 2 years.

That's when the scripture came back to my mind: "Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men" 

Hence, many are called but few are chosen.

For the moment we're in limbo, without any real idea of what happens next...President is calling SLC trying to see how we're going to pull the plug on El Tesoro II.

And I guess that's the end.

I really don't know what happens next...

To be continued...