Week #48: Transfers...

   

The Zone of San Pedro

 A little later email today as went as a zone to a place called Chicabal - a volcanic lake.  With transfers imminent, for some, it was a nice excursion for all.

       It has been a week of reflection, knowing that you are in an area where your days are numbered and it will probably be one of your last is simply sad, I can only imagine how those who are about to finish the mission are feeling.  It is hard to put into words, how you grow to love those that serve, and a special place they have in your heart and soul.
        As of Today I have completed 11 months in the mission and 6 months and 2 weeks of that time has been living here in Rio Blanco.  As much as I don't like the constant bus rides and a few other negatives this is going to be one of my favorite areas.  Throughout the week I have mixed in the goodbyes as we passed from one part to the next in this huge area of Rio Blanco. You know you have been in an area for a long time when the little children of the area know your name. Not just as Elder, but Elder Wilcox, as hard and strange as it is for the people here to pronounce this name. I don't think anyone really likes goodbyes. But we sure get a lot of practice here in the mission.
     This week I was thinking about the story of "Pushing Against The Rock" (Author Unknown)

"There once was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared to him.

The Lord told him He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock explaining that he was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, and for many days he toiled from sunup to sundown; his shoulder set squarely against the cold massive surface of the rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man showed signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture - placing thoughts in the man's mind, such as ``Why kill yourself over this?, you're never going to move it!'' or ``Boy, you've been at it a long time and you haven't even scratched the surface!'' etc. giving the man the impression the task was impossible and the man was an unworthy servant because he wasn't moving the massive stone.

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man and he started to ease up in his efforts. ``Why kill myself?'' he thought. ``I'll just put in my time putting forth just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough.'' And this he did or at least planned on doing until, one day, he decided to take his troubles to the Lord.

``Lord,'' he said, ``I have labored hard and long in Your service, putting forth all my strength to do that which You have asked of me. Yet after all this time, I have not even budged that rock even half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?''

To this the Lord responded compassionately, ``My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you to push against the rock with all your strength and that you have done. But never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. At least not by yourself. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed, ready to quit. But is this really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled; your back sinewed and brown. Your hands are calloused from constant pressure and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your ability now far surpasses that which you used to have. Yet still, you haven't succeeded in moving the rock; and you come to Me now with a heavy heart and your strength spent. I, my friend will move the rock. Your calling was to be obedient and push, and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom, and this you have done.''

The time I have had in Rio Blanco has been very hard. I have probably had many more pains than joys here. I have had to fight and fight against the weariness in my stride, against the attacks in my resolve, and against the trails of my faith. Though through it all I honestly believe that this in one part or another has been the reason I have been here. Not for me to move the rock but for me to be changed. I have seen many changes in this area. Many things that are now different here, but none of them compare to how I have changed. I love the part in here as it explains "long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted. I told you to push against the rock with all of your strength...but never once did I excpect you to move it." "through opposition you have grown much and your ability now far surpasses that which you used to have." Sometimes I guess I forget I am being changed, as much as I am being used as a tool to change the lives of others.
       But in the same way as it is sad to be working in a field in which you know you will never see the harvest working, it still brings some good joy. This week I had the chance to go and work with the progressing investigators of Rio Blanco in divisions. One of these lessons was simply awesome! There was a family a while back that Rio Blanco received as a reference from none other than a drunken individual. This town drunk ended up taking them down some long road deep deep down into a part relatively close to the center of Rio blanco. There they came to know Don Mira and Alexandra as well as the rest of their family. After a few weeks of teaching them we all knew that they were extremely positive. As Elder Saxton and I started to teach them this night we knew it was time to put a date for them to be baptised and after a beautiful lesson they accepted.  There is no better feeling than this. Besides of course when they are baptised. Moments like these make the mission special and make all that we do worth it.  It is such a blessing to see people changed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
     Well changes are here this week. I guess we will just have to see what they have in store.

The Thinker

One of the functions of missionaries at times is nursery leader...

Bacon and Eggs a rare treat...bacon that is.

Week #43: Transfers come and go - happy still in Rio Blanco

Like every other week in the mission changes are fun interesting crazy and just a little bit hectic at times.
 
So as most of you know we live out in the boon docks. in my area and so for us transfers are usually a little bit more chaotic than the other areas in the mission.  As last Monday ended we still hadn't received word on the transfers, but I was told to pack anyways given my likelihood of having changes.  I was told to do the "just in case packing" as they say and so I did.  Then Tuesday morning rolled around and we called for what seemed like the 20th time to find out about the changes.....and they still didn't know but they were sure to give me some more just in cases instructions.  These instructions included getting the last of my stuff together and heading down to San Pedro just in case we had changes. Being so far out in the mission for our zone and the other two that are close by means that when transfers come around we charter a bus at 4:00am in the morning to go by every one of the zones and pick up those that have changes so that we can make it to the transfer meeting in Reu in time. Finally at about 7:00pm we received the changes, amazingly enough after all of the waiting and packing and craziness, I did not end up having changes!  We got a good laugh out of all of it, and then started to go around all of the members in San Pedro so that Elder Amundson could say goodbye to everyone.
             Out of everyone in the zone only three Elders had changes; Elders Amundson, Quiroz and Mecham.  But we don't really count Mecham as having changes, after seven and a half months in his first area he took a fun little bus trip down to Reu for the change meeting and then came right back up to leave San Antonio San pedro and go right next door to Chamac San Pedro. What a trooper! I dont know what his mission call said but there must have been some kinda smudge on the call that said he was called to the Guatemala Retalhuleu Mission San Pedro zone.
             So all and all the zone didn't really change to much and once the changes were over Thursday came around and we got right back to work. Which involved an amazing planning session that would make any mission president proud, followed by a noche de hermanamiento in Chuicaval with some odd 10-15 investigators alone.
             The next day we set out with a plan. But ended up not following it in the slightest as lesson after lesson called out to us.  Literally there was a point in the day after we had just helped one of the members mark some eggs, mate some chickens, and were heading off down a path to try and start on the day we had planned when all of a sudden we heard someone yelling out elders to once again send our plans out the window. Days like this just kinda remind us that we are not here to do our work but rather the Lord's work, and by the days end we had found some really amazing new families to teach, had several references to contact and another less active youth to help go on the mission.
             As the next day rolled around, again our plans went out the window and God's plan went into action. In the morning we taught the grandmother of several of the youth that we are teaching and the sweetest spirit settled over the lesson as she poured out her heart to us. Crying over all that was happening in her life and the life of her family and then the sweet comfort of the spirit as we testified of the ability the true Gospel of Christ has to change the lives of every person that receives it.  As we closed the lesson with a prayer we could see that the things we had said had brought a little peace to her soul. I hope in the next little while she will be able to come to church with her grandkids.
          Then the best day of the week rolled around. A day that used to be filled with naps procrastinated homework and Church has really changed here in the mission. I think I even finally understand the torment I put the majority of my teachers through during my CTR years in the church. Right now we have five joven investigators ages 10-14 that are all about as rowdy and restless as I was when I was their age.  They want to do just about everything but go to class. However being as they were I totally knew how to handle it. Takes one to know one right?! After a quick call to the house I had some candy brought over to bribe their obedience and some videos to teach them with. I rallied them all up with the candy and then brought them into a classroom where we taught them using the bible videos and mormon messages that Mom and Dad just sent me. By the end of class we had them all ready to be interviewed for their baptisms which we are planning for this next week.
    The amazingness didn't even end there. Here members are super pilas on Sundays and just about every sunday they go pair off and teach the less actives that are in the branch. This week we had the pleasure of going and teaching with President Vasquez. He brought us to one of the first members of Rio Blanco and we sat and visited with him for a while and then he brought us over to a non members house. As we got to the house we didn't think that anyone was there. It was raining outside, all of the doors were closed and it was nice and cold. but as we started to talk a door opened and a little kid invited us inside. We talked with him and his family for a while, taught them a bit but more so just really got to know them. After a little while they invited us into the kitchen for a little bit of Cafe (here cafe no es cafe. they have something called morCaf which is actually like a hot chocolate make out of corn and other stuff - not sure what the other stuff consists of) as we were in the kitchen talking to the family the same kid that had initially invited us into the house had changed his clothes and walked into the kitchen in his Sunday best, excited about what we had said and kinda wanting to be like us. He didn't have a tie on though so I called him over to me and took my own tie off and put it on him. The smile on his face said it all and after all that we had been talking about with his mother, she was super happy about the example and love that we were giving her son. I have now doubt that she will a super fiel member of the church soon and her kids as well.
       Well I'm still up here in the altaplano  for the next six weeks - I will not be leaving and I have to say I am very happy I am not leaving.!

Week #42: Two Giants and the Misty Mountains

Where's Waldo?

It has been a great week, a little hectic and long in travel but I'm just starting to accept that as a norm of the mission. This week holds changes and everyone at the moment is a little antsy to see what lies in store.  As a zone our thoughts on the matter is that Elder Amundson, our zone leader Elder Mecham who has 5 changes in his area and I will be leaving the zone. This however is simply guesstimates, and we won't know what will actually happen for a few days. However I will be packing my bags tonight just in case. In the mission we learn to prepare for the worst and to hope and pray for the best.
          In other news things are on fire up in Rio Blanco. We are having more success at the moment then that the area has seen in quite some time. Even the members and investigators that we have are putting some additional fuel on the fire. This Sunday we had 13 inv. in church and between us and our tag team comps Rio Blanco we have put seven fechas with the people we are teaching and there are many others following this same path. We can really feel the blessings coming in from the lord and know that the success we are having is coming through him and the inspiration he put in the hearts of the people as they were there in General Conference broadcast.
        This week we weren't in our area for 3 days. :(  As we started our district meeting on Wednesday morning we received a call from the office notifying us that we (Elder Murillo and I) had to be down in Reu by 7:00pm that same day in order to take a bus at 4am in the morning the next day to go to Guate for Elder Murillos visa papers.  Long story short 20 hours of travel later we made it two Guatemala City and back up to Rio Blanco.  I will be fine if I never step foot in a bus again...but yeah thats not going to happen. The best part about it all is that we pranked Elder Saxton during this time telling him that I had emergency changes and that President would be sending another Latino up there for him.
         When we got back, we got back to work, visiting everyone. Elder Amundson even came up to do some interviews that we have in Maclen, Rio Blanco and Chuicaval, and in order to do them Elder Amundson went over with Elder Murillo to Chuicaval and I with Elder Saxton to Caprican. After walking over in Caprican we had a little service opportunity though I wouldn't really refer to it as small.  The service involved moving 5 giant wardrobes (like the entertainment center size one that we have back home) up a tiny staircase that is barely wide enough to fit a chair through I wish I had taken pictures it must have looked pretty crazy.  I guess this is training for the Elder's Quorum when I get back home and the EQ Moving Company.   After we finished there we went over to teach a family, this lesson started out with us teaching two people and by the end we finished with more that 25 people in attendance.   It was a cool moment and they even offered to have us sleep over knowing that we had a 2hr walk in front of us to get back to Rio Blanco, but we had to get back so we took a picture with them turned down some coffee, drank some hot water and then made the 8.3 km walk back to Rio Blanco. It was a beautiful night!
        As Sunday came around we went to church and found eight investigators in the building. Now that is something better than any christmas present I can remember.  We had so many people visiting that we had a class of pure invs and a few members to help teach with us. It was a pretty cool lesson and moments like those make all the walking and bus riding we do worth it.
        I don't know what this week will hold for me. I dont know if I will have changes, but I do know that life in the mission is awesome and that if I do leave I will leave with amazing memories, a new family and the knowledge that I have worked my butt off to help every person that I have had the pleasure of getting to know in my time here.  Signing off! See you later, or at least write to you next week!

The Misty Mountains

A couple of giants in the misty mountains

Week #41: Inviting all to come to General Conference

Alrighty the whole call Rio Blanco to conference initiative worked rather well. After many invitations and a lot of work through the members we ended up bringing the most Inv in all of the zone and are probably up there in the running for the most in all of the mission. Needless to say its been a pretty good week.
    We started this week off nice and early. Like 4:00 oclock in the freezing early morning, walking 40 mins to our first cita of the day, kinda early.  Yeah know I think I really understand the farmers plight a little better after one day in their boots. On Sunday we were talking with one of our investigator families that we have and asked them if they had planted their corn crop yet. (its just about that time so its a good conversation starter) they replied that they had not and being the optimistic and naive missionaries that we are, we offered to help, thinking it would be some pretty easy work. The next Tuesday just getting out of bed a pleasant 2 and a half hours early for the second day and a role, proved to be pretty hard and we hadn't even started on the real work yet. As we sleep-walked our way over to their house in the cold dark morning I started to get the feeling that we had no idea what we had just signed up to do. This thought could not have been more accurate as the next few hours unfolded. I don't know how many of you have ever had the lovely experience of working with a little piece of advanced machinery called a hoe all morning long, but after a few short mins you start to really feel the sweat on your brow beginning to gather. After 8 Hours of this arduous work you can only imagine the delight our bodies were feeling as we finally finished and made our way back up the mountain to celebrate with a well needed lunch. As we finished I thought it feels kinda nice to do a good days work (like work manual labor work work) but I don't know If I ever want to do it again. However now that a few days have past, we can already start to see the fruits of our labors. Everyone in this family attended conference and even some of the other workers we were with came along with them. +5 for service efforts!
     As Wednesday came along we went along the long main road stopping from house to house reminding every one of the members to invite people to conference and inviting those of the roadside until it was time for lunch. As we finished lunch we helped out our district presidents family with some of the Semana santa food they were preparing.   However along the way found out that with it being semana Santa and all that there would be no buses going down to San Pedro from Rio Blanco. We had a Multi Zone Conference with President Ruiz that next day so... no buses was kinda a problem. After about a good 20 or so calls between us, the zone leaders and the many members in the area we found a ride down to San Pedro....at the house we were giving service to. But at least we got down there nice and quick unlike the other elders in Rio Blanco who were over in Caprican (hrs away from us walking) who ended up taking a 2hr bus to Xela and from Xela a 2hr Bus to San Pedro. Lucky them. The next day the Conference went amazing and we were all pretty motivated for some goals we had set for General conference that month and the next month.
         Once we got back to Rio Blanco it was full on crazy mode to invite everyone to conference. But for some reason Rio Blanco didn't know this, and everyone decided to leave and go to the beach. But we did what we could with who was there, and still managed to hand out every one of the invitations that we had printed out.  We also set up announcements at the local Radio Station for General Conference. As Conference began the next day we started to see a few people trickle in until we hit the sunday morning season were the floodgates opened and 20 inv flowed on in. All and all conference was a success and amazing as always and now we have a lot of work on our hands with all of the new people who came to conference.

Week #39: There and back again...

The field is white er of many beautiful colors and ready to harvest...

It has been a long week of traveling in the beautiful land of bountiful and I have learned that even after all of the traveling that we do up here - I am nowhere close to being immune to the horrible discomforts of car, truck, chicken bus sickness.
      Though the traveling can be tiresome there are some cool moments through it all. Like when we were coming back from Reu this week after the Trainers meeting.  After being on the bus for a while sitting next to a guy and squished between him the other random people who were on the bus the guy to my right offered me some gum.....in English!  A little surprised and a bit shocked I started to talk to him. Turns out he works in a call center in Xela and was living in the US for quite some time before coming back down and living here in San Marcos.   It was kinda weird to speak in English... even weirder to teach someone in it. I think that somehow my brain has become wired in a way that when I talk about church or the Gospel rr anything within that realm I do so in Spanish. That being said when I started to teach him in English about the restoration of the Gospel it was really awkward and I found myself having to think ahead in order to reverse translate my thoughts back into English and even then stuff still came out in Spanish. In the end, the lesson still went amazing even in the horribly crowded bus and my broken English. Its kinda sad that he doesn't live in my area or even in my zone but I passed along the reference to the other Elders and I hope they can help him out.

      So like I said there has been a lot of traveling in large part due to all of the meetings in the mission. On Wednesday we had the first of the Trainers meetings. Being there could not have been any weirder of an experience.  The entire time I felt as if I was just there but on the other side of the table, hearing nearly the same messages when I started. I guess I wasnt the only one who felt like that either. As we passed through the classes of President and Hermana Wetzel they both mentioned in some way that they were surprised to see me there again with so little time in the mission. However all and all the meeting was absolutely amazing and we left that day better missionaries then when we entered. I would have to say that they fulfilled the purpose of that meeting.
      That same day pretty late in the night (ok so like 7) we got back to San Pedro and being missionaries, we went out to grab something to eat. We decided to head over to our normal pancake place. Pretty much since the first day I came over to San Pedro we have eaten here once or twice a week and have come to know all of the workers there pretty good. However just recently we gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon and when we were there eating we asked them if they had been reading them. Turns out they have not only been reading them but have been sharing them and reading them to other workers who are there on other shifts. Pilas Pues!
       The next day we had a mutli-zone conference with President Ruiz. Love the meetings with the President. They always kinda light a fire under our butts and get us out working harder than ever. As I am sure you all know its nearly conference time and we are turning on the "No Shame Mode". We are making banners, fliers, invitations off all sorts and spamming the skies, streets and even the windows of every bus, inviting everyone to come to General Conference. At times like this I think... What would happen if someone was crazy enough to do this kinda stuff back home....? (¿challenge anyone?) Anyways we are going to have some fun with this General Conference season.
       As I mentioned a little earlier Elder Saxton received a very lucky bite in the few hours that we were down there in Reu and as a result has been more or less bed ridden for the last several days. However all is well and he is back on his feet like the trooper he is. As he was sick we did some divisions so that Elder Ramirez, our district leader could go over to Chuicaval and do some interviews. This left me with alot of free time in the house. One of the things they were stressing in these meetings was using the area book (the area book is a folder that has a teaching record for every investigator and much much more. More or less it is the history of the area and of all the investigators that the missionaries have ever taught.) I decided to take this time and go through the area book to find some new investigators and more or less to clean out, spiff up, and start working on the thing like the hermanas do. Good thing too, as I finished sorting out the investigators,  Elder Rameriez and Murillo made it over to Chuicaval and I fed them a bunch of names and ways to find the people that were positive in the past.  At the end of the day through mixed efforts they found some really positive new people to teach. +1 for the Area Book Effort!
       Sundays are awesome, the Church is true and the mission is an awesome world. I don't think anyone in the world is more excited then as a missionary, as when they see someone that they are teaching at church.

Anyways love you all, miss you all, and hope that someone back home will take  the challenge to go as crazy as us this conference season.

Look Mom I have learned how to make my bed...

hang-up my clothes...

and clean the kitchen...  

Elder Wilcox and Elder Saxton

a tracting we will go..

Week #35: Some time in San Pedro...

This has been a really good week. For the most part I was not in my area at all this week but it was still a really good week.
    Elder Cardona wanted to do divisions and go up to Rio Blanco to see how things are going up there.  Being that Rio Blanco is so far out of the way when we do divisions over here it usually lasts for four days minimum. I won the lottery and got to come down and be comps with Elder Amundson for the week.
    To start off we headed out to go and teach one of their investigators "The Professor". However on the way we stumbled across a joven that was smoking on a little side path, as we passed by we felt the need to go and talk to him so we turned back sat down on the ground in the middle of the path with him and started to teach him about the gospel. He was super open to everything and is really looking for a way to change his life and I know that this is the way he was meant to be found.
    The next day we decided to try our luck breaking the mission record for "Books of Mormons Placed" this isn't an actual thing anymore but we wanted to try being like Elder Calhoun and Elder Rogers from the 'Best 2 Years' just to see how things would go. So we went to the house grabbed a box of Book of Mormon and left for the San Pedro town square and tried our luck placing them. This ended up being one of the coolest things I have done yet in the mission. For one, I was going solo (we split up to cover more ground) and for another I don't think there was a person that we talked to that didn't actually want a Book of Mormon after we finished talking to them and explaining what it was. By the end of two hours in the park the box was just about empty and it looked as though everyone in sight was holding, reading, or walking with a Book of Mormon in their arms. Super cool Exp.
    A little later in this same day we went walking over on the same path that we had taught the joven the day before. I was thinking as we started over there "it would kinda be a shame if we found him here smoking". Luckily this didn't happen. This time as we went along the path there was a man who had just a little to much to drink and was puking his guts out on the side of the path. As we passed by he asked us to pray for him; and so with the same zeal as the day prior we kneeled there on the path with this man and prayed with him. As we finished the prayer we noticed that he wasn't completely drunk and so we began to teach him. As we went into the lesson we noticed that he had a desire to actually change so we took down his information and put a date of when we could come back to teach him....With the luck that we are having on that little path we might just need to pass by there everyday.
   On Saturday we had a baptism over here. She is actually the daughter of a family that will be baptised sometime next month.  She is just a little beautiful light for her parents to follow in the next month. It was super cool to be apart of her baptism. I remember or at least think I remember someone using the Egg example for my own baptism 11 years ago. I thought it would be fun to do the same for her. So right before the baptism I went to a tienda across the street and grabbed an egg (being able to run across the street and get an egg at a tienda will be something I will miss dearly when I'm back in the US) boiled it and all was ready in time for the baptism. She loved the example and I loved eating the egg shortly after my little message was done and I sat back down.
   Sunday was just full of good noticias. For one Elder Amundston, and I put a fecha with an investigator. We had four investigators in church here as well as four over in Maclen meaning that we get to go to the temple tomorrow. The zone leaders are actually heading over to Reu as I write this and will be bringing my package with them when they come back up. I might even have it in time to take pictures at the temple. All and all things are good. (sorry no pics Elder Amundston left for Reu before I could get the pictures we took this week).