Week 55: All's Quite on the Guatemalan Front

At the end of the day, one thing is for sure:

I am completely exhausted. Just, physically, mentally and spiritually drained.

Not that I'm saying that my week was bad or anything...it was just pretty stressful.

It all started on Sunday as Elder Gil and I went around, saying goodbye to all of the members and converts that he had grown attached to. The entire ordeal was fairly...sad, to be short of speaking. A lot of people cried when he had to go and it made me start thinking about how things will be when I leave this area...

Elder Gil saying good-bye to Aron and Ana

Cheesecake from the Franco family

We'll see how that goes.

During church that day, Manuela came to be confirmed at the beginning of fast and testimony meeting. It was a really spiritual experience, the prelude to a fantastic meeting...for some reason, the messages shared were very well delivered and really caused me to reflect.

Before I knew it, Monday morning rolled around and it was time to head to the office and prepare things for the change meeting that was going to be held the following day. Elder Gil, Elder Rosales, Elder Walton and I were all cooped up in the Mission's office until 8 o'clock at night...

It wasn't that fun.

There was so much to prepare, and time seemed to slip like sand through my fingers, it didn't even feel like I had lived a full day when I crashed on my bed and pretty much passed out.

Tuesday morning was the "Part II" of the epic, stressful office routine that was Monday...as it was the Change meeting. Elder Gil and I ran around everywhere making sure that everything was going well and that there were no (serious) problems.

The meeting itself went very, very well, and President Caffaro and his wife said that they were both impressed at how spiritual the get-to-gather turned out to be.

So that was Tuesday...

I feel like I'm forgetting something.

My new comp Elder Prestwich

Oh yeah, that's right, my new companion! During the changes meeting, we were the second companionship to show up on the slideshow, "In Montufar II, we have Elder Monson as Financial Secretary," I stood up, scanning the room for a sign of my new companion...being in the offices, I already knew who it was going to be, so I was just excited to see his reaction...

Scanning the room, I found him, sitting on the bench on the left end of the chapel, in the process of re-tying his turquoise tie, "and he will be receiving, a new Financial Secretary, Elder Prestwich." 

My new companion stood, looking a little bit alarmed, his tie sill in mid-knot, he grabbed his backpack and we left the meeting to go and give out reimbursements to the missionaries.

My new companion is from Lehi, Utah, he's been in the mission for 8 months and he's pretty tight. Nobody can say his name right though! They all just call him "Elder Sandwich" because it's easier to say :). I don't know him that well yet...but I think were going to have a lot of fun as companions.

office Elders

That night we were in the offices until 8:30 trying to make sure that we didn't lose any money in the midst of all the transactions that we made during the day (we didn't) and then we crashed, once again in the White House when everything was over.

So, two days into the week without a single lesson taught.

At that point I was definitely ready to go out and knock on some doors or something.

So on Wednesday, that was exactly what we did! We were able to crank out 4 lessons and knock on doors and everything that afternoon. We finally got a feel for how we teach together (it's good stuff) and we visited Ana Victoria that night in the house of the Pascual family. Ana has been progressing VERY WELL. Her mother gave her permission to be baptized, and now wants her to start bringing her little sister and her older brother to Church too. I don't know what that girl does, but she is incredibly motivated by the gospel (I think that it's because she has a lot of support from the members ;)) She has accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 16th of this month, and now we are working with her mom too!

Thursday was pretty much the same, there was a lot to do in our area and in the mission offices and by the time that Friday came around I was pretty much beat.

Everything is going well...but I never realized how stressful an "All's Quite on the Western Front" could be.

But I'm really excited! It's going to be an awesome change!

Let's see how it goes!

"I drew this in my planner.  One side is Jaymes in Mexico and the other is me in Guatemala"

Week 54: Alma and Amulek‏

It's official.

This is the last of 18 weeks spent with Elder Gil. That's something that I totally see as an accomplishment: I mean, 4 1/2 months with one other person 24 hours a day 7 days a week? That's like 127 days! 3048 hours! That's a really long time!

That's when something tells me: "now imagine how long it's gonna be when you're sealed to your wife for time and all eternity..."

I guess I'd better get used to it.

This week got off on the wrong foot on Saturday when the 2nd councilor of the Bishopric called us at 10 o'clock at night: "Can I speak with Elder Monson please?" he said. Elder Gil passed me the phone: 

"Hello?"

"Elder Monson, this is Brother Escobar....I just have a question for you: you haven't given a talk in sacrament meeting yet, have you?"

Oh no. Up until that point I had successfully avoided giving any talks since my time in San Juan Sacetepequez...like, the week before Christmas, "Well...no..." I answered.

"Great, Can you give a talk tomorrow?"

"On what?"

"Oh, whatever you think the ward needs to think Elder." He responded.

Fantastic.

Lucky, I was able to scramble together a few quotes and scriptures in time for the next morning when I went up to give my talk. I was the first (and only) speaker for the whole meeting, and just ended up reading (and expounding upon) a story in the Book of Mormon, trying to fill as much time as humanly possible.

I told the story of Alma the younger and his ministry in the city of Ammonihah (Alma 8). I find this story particularly interesting because when he first goes to preach in this area, everyone rejects and denies him, the city had turned wicked and bitter and drive the Prophet out of the city, threatening to put him to death.

So he leaves, disappointed, headed for the land of Aaron, where he feels like he will have more success...when an Angel appears to him saying:

“Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice…And behold I am sent to command thee that thou return to the city of Ammonihah, and preach again unto the people of the city; yea, preach unto them. Yea, say unto them, except they repent the Lord God will destroy them.”

So he goes back…and this time he’s not alone. The Lord prepares the way so that the people of Ammonihah can hear and accept this message, through Amulek, a man who was already familiar with the teachings of Alma but had been less active in his faith for the majority of his life.

It turns out that when Alma and Amulek both go out to preach, the people are more receptive to this 2^nd witness, a second testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and many people were converted.

So I asked the question over the pulpit: how can we, as members be this second witness, be Amuleks, and preach the gospel in our everyday lives?

All in all the talk went pretty well.

And the whole week followed suit.

This Thursday, we held a Wedding and a Baptismal Service for Manuela and her fiancé Jorge Sis. A bishop/Lawyer from a different area offered to perform the wedding for free and everything…so it turned out awesome-ly.

It was a very great day and a fantastic opportunity to be able to see Manuela finally make this covenant with the Lord, the road to that day was definitely a long, but incredibly satisfying one!

And before I knew it, the week was ending, and President Caffaro had started organizing the Transfers for this next week. And though nothing is certain…it’s pretty much common knowledge that Elder Gil is going to be leaving Montufar II.

It’s a shame really. Our time together has been great, I’ve been able to learn a lot from his example, he is truly a humble, kind and valiant servant of the Lord…and also a very good friend, the Alma to my Amulek.

A loyal companion, right until the very end.       

Week 53: The Middle‏

I woke up at around 6:15 on Thursday morning. Breathing lightly, I stared at the ceiling and tried my hardest to recollect the events of my latest dream, something about going out tracting into a giant squid with Doctor Who as my companion. My memory started seeping back into my semi-conscious brain...the day before Elder Gil and I had a pretty good day, we taught Manuela and Jorge, one of the Daughters of Walter and Ingrid started listening to us and we visited a recent convert, Julissa and talked about the vision of the tree of life. 

And then it hit me.

A year ago, (this is a huge stretch for my 6 o'clock brain) I was on a bus, going through the gates of the CCM for the very first time with my MTC district. A year ago...I started the mission.

Happy Birthday.

It's a very interesting thought, and a rather indescribable feeling, reflecting on all the things that have happened over the course of this last year...and how many things WILL happen in the year that follows.

And just like that my friends, I found myself smack dab in the middle of my entire mission.

When did that happen?

I'm telling you, I'm not sure how time is governed, but it is definitely something relative (as Albert Einstein pointed out), because in "normal" life, it seems to go at a snail's pace...but here it feels like if I blink everything'll be over already.

But on the bright side, I have been having some pretty good days here in Guatemala City!

This past Saturday, Elder Gil, Elder Walton, Elder Rosales and I all went to the national Architectural Museum...only to find that it was closed. So we decided to go to the two neighboring museums, the Art and the Natural History exhibits...but it was overall a huge disappointment, nothing too special, and everything was really badly managed....and I also had an encounter with the scariest Bird Exhibit in the entire world! It was just this silent hallway overflowing with taxidermy ducks and flamingos...

Alfred Hitchcock was really on to something when he made the movie "The Birds."

On Sunday, the Francos were confirmed members of the church. They were both thrilled. Later when we ate lunch at the Relief Society President's house Sister Gonzales commented that in the class Ingrid told all the sisters that, "A lot of people were telling me a lot of bad things about the 'mormons' right before my baptism and I felt really confused...but the missionaries just kept telling me to 'ask God' and so I did...and I got baptized!" 

Ingrid is so great, when we passed by their house yesterday to visit them, she said that she had read the entire General Conference Liahona....and told us which talks were her favorites!

I am so lucky to have converts like the Francos.

The rest of the week went by at a rather normal pace...nothing too out of the ordinary.

Until Thursday.

The first day of the second year of my mission started off with a bang when we got a call from the Zone Leaders in the middle of our weekly planning session.

It was Elder Villarreal, calling to say that they were planning to go on divisions with us that afternoon and that I would be staying in Montufar II with him. I glanced at my agenda, it was close to empty, and the appointments that we DID have set up were extremely tentative.

Talk about bad timing.

So I had a problem here...Elder Villarreal, my Zone Leader was going to come here with me...and I had a feeling that if the day flopped right on it's face it wouldn't look too good on my reputation.

Elder Gil did the Catholic "Sign of the Cross" gesture in front over my stunned face and said, "Good luck to you my friend" in English.

We did a quick intermission and I went and prayed in a different room.

If there's one thing that I've learned in the Mission, it's the fact that if we are specific in the things that we ask for in our prayers, God is specific with the blessings that he gives to us. So in my personal prayers that morning I had a planning session with my Heavenly Father. 

I asked for a miracle at 6 o'clock p.m. that day, that we would find a family to teach.

I don't think that I have ever been so distinctive in my prayers before in my entire life.

We started divisions at 4 o'clock, went and visited a less active family, and by the time 6 o'clock rolled around I was all ready for a miracle.

And what do you know, the church is true....because we received just that.

Elder Villarreal and I left the house of the Escobar family, and we see a 14 year old kid walking down the street...he sees my Zone Leader and they tackle each other in a bear hug.

Elder Villarreal's grin is as wide as a summer morning: "Woaaah! Jorge! What are you doing here! Is your family home?"

"Just my dad" he answers.

"Let's go then!"

We only had to walk two doors down to find Jorge's house, his Dad is there and incredibly excited to see us as well, he invites us in and invites us to a glass of "Water" (water in this case being interpreted as Coca-Cola).

It turns out that it was a family of old investigators from Elder Villarreal's 2nd Area...they moved before they could get baptized and the missionaries had lost contact with them.

Until today.

Miracles exist my friends.

And every day I see another one!

-Elder Monson

Week 52: Harvest‏

In Doctrine and Covenants section four we read that "The field is white, all ready to harvest" and to be perfectly honest, for a while there, I wasn't quite sure that that promise applied to Montufar II. Elder Gil and I went through a pretty rough patch over these last few months that we had together...and there came a point when we weren't sure that we were going to be able to see any of the fruits of our labor while we were together.

...until this week.

This week was like the culmination of all the stuff we had gone through all just sort of coming to a head, like a climax. In both the office and in our area we were able to see a lot of blessings:

Saturday: Right after I finished my letter home, our new mission president and his wife burst-ed through the doors with all the "gung-ho" to put me in a startled sort of coma.

The Caffaros had arrived to the South Mission.

We got right down to business explaining to them everything that they needed to do on the financial front. It was overall an incredible conversation, I learned a lot from both president and sister Caffaro. They were very humble and ready to learn with us, and they brought a sense of excitement that completely floored me. It will be a great opportunity to get to know them better.

When we left the offices the sun was already hung low behind the Guatemalan clouds...and I just thought to myself about how glad I am to be able to be here. I have learned so much over the past year, about who I am and how I can better contribute to the human family. I am enamored by the culture and the lifestyle here in this country, every day seems like it's an adventure, that at the end of every day I can't wait to flip open my journal and write in the next chapter.

I am so happy to be a missionary.

Sunday: Today was a day that I will hold close to me for a very long time. Right after the regular 3-hour meetings, we held a baptism service for Walter and Ingrid Franco. I have grown to love this couple so much, they have a sincere desire to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and they have both come to knowledge of the truth through study and prayer.

They asked our Bishop to be the one who effectuated the ordinance for them, and to see them in the Baptismal Font was a sight I hope to never forget.

The entire service was an incredible experience, especially because President and Sister Caffaro and the Trapnells were able to come to see it. I felt like I was on top of the world! My testimony was fortified tenfold throughout the entire course of that Sunday Afternoon.

Walter and Ingrid did it!

Monday: Today went by pretty fast, we were in the area offices for a while with Sister Caffaro. It was definitely a fun day, she was very nice and asked me about million great questions about the mission and about the country of Guatemala. It was fun to get to know her better and see how excited she is to serve the Lord and help this mission.

That night we visited some less-active members and had some good lessons!

Tuesday: This morning we had interviews with the Caffaros (It was like the first week of school: 4 "getting to know you" days in a row) where we had a great conversation about how we have personal conversions to the Gospel of Jesus Christ during the course of our mission. Another great day...that afternoon Elder Gil and I taught a lot of lessons and did a lot of tracting...it was such a blessing to have a good day!

Wednesday: A lot of our appointments fell through today but we were able to teach one of our investigators: Ana Victoria. She's a youth that we taught about 4 months ago as a referral from a member, and thought that she was never going to progress...until one day when we went to a member's house only to find her there too, after a chat that we had she said that she has a goal to be Baptized and that she wants to go to church with the member family (the Pascuals). A little bit surprised we said that we would come back another day to teach her and left her a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read. 

When we came back she had read (and understood) the entire thing, and she had a list of questions for us (what is the difference between a Disciple and an Apostle? What is the Word of Wisdom? When can I be baptized?). Since then she has grown immensely on a spiritual scale and currently has a baptismal date set for August 2nd.

We'll see where that goes...

Thursday: Today was weekly planning, and Elder Gil and I had a great little chat about how we are doing as companions...and the truth is that neither of us can complain at all...we are both very content!

Friday: Yesterday we taught Manuela (who is also progressing VERY well)...she continues to receive answers to prayer through the dreams that she is having. I wish my dreams would have some sort of eternal significance like that...I mean, if I am supposed to be receiving messages from heaven through my dreams I feel like the major underlying message would be that I am a total nut case.

...Anyways, that was how my week went! I hope you are all well and I'll talk to you later!    

Mom's note:  Today our family was delighted to meet Pres. and Sis. Stay at their home ward, Cottonwood Heights 5th, homecoming talk.  It was wonderful to hear their stories of miracles both with those the missionaries teach and the miracles that happened within each of the missionaries.  They shared they had over 700 missionaries in 3 years and they have more missionaries at home then still in Guatemala.  We also met Pres. and Sis Nicholias from the CCM.  Both of these couples remember Elder Monson with love.  They say he is hard working, taught them a lot, helped them, was prepared and ready when he got there, they are not surprised he is doing so well and they LOVE him!  What a treat!!!