Week #92: There and back again...

This week has been a rather special week, for me here in Guatemala.

Almost two years ago,  I was starting out the mission and I was in my first area with my second companion,  Elder Garcia. We had just finished what I considered being one of my favorite changes in so far in the mission. On that particular occasion, changes took place on the 10th of Dec. one day before my Birthday. I was looking forward to my birthday and a we were going around that week we had used my birthday as an excuse and had set things up with various families for the week. Then changes came and I was transferred to on of the furthest places of the mission, Rio Blanco.   This area then proved to be one of the favorite areas I have served in.

        For the last several weeks, we have been working with mini missionaries, getting them all processed and situated to experience a short taste of what missionary life is like.  Throughout the course of March around 30-40 youth came to serve mini missions here in the Retalhuleu mission. One of the best of surprises was a young man named, Mosiah one of the youth from Rio Blanco, came down to serve as a mini missionary for around 5 weeks. It was great to see him. I remember when I was up there helping him start on his papers and then to be here for the turn in of his mission papers was fantastic!  Anyways, he was here for a long while, long enough to send off his papers and have them come back. On one of his last days here as a mini missionary, we received a nice big envelope that was none other than his mission call. However, he couldn't open it, as the procedure says his District president has to be the one to give it to him.  He finished the mini mission that same week and then began his wait.
       One week later President Ruiz calls me asking if we could do him a favor and take the missionary call up to Rio Blanco for him to give to the District President. President  Ruiz is a busy man and with changes around the corner he has a lot to do.  So he asked us to do something I have been dying to do for a while.  It was funny because he asked it with a tone of voice implying inconvenience, although it could not have been any less of one. That same night we took off for the mountains.   We could have timed it a littler better as all of the traffic caused by Semana Santa caused us to be stuck in a lot of traffic. However, we came prepared with music and talks for the whole ride through. Not only that but we called the Elders up there in advance to get them to buy us some food for dinner. The food was nice,  however, the fleas that were in the beds we slept in were not and I'm still feeling their feeding frenzy at this moment.
      The next morning we left the Zone leaders house and made our way to Rio Blanco taking the nice long dirt road to the top of the mountain. After driving that mess of a road I now have a much greater respect for the bus drivers up there. We arrived at the church nice and early in the morning because when I was there, Church started at 8am and....well now a year has passed and they start at 10am.

     Going back there was something that definitely pulled a little on the heart strings. Needless to say, I was in church early that day and had started to greet families as they came to the church. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my mission thus far. It was so much fun to see these people again, to be able to pass with them a bit and just catch up.  True to Mormon Standard Time only about a quarter of the ward was there when the meeting started and being true to that same principle before the sacrament hymn was over the rest of the ward showed up. I had taken a seat in the back, right where I used to sit when I was there in the ward. As each of the families walked in, they each did one of those fun little double takes. They looked over in my direction and then, returned their focus with a growing smile of realization, each did a good job trying not to make a scene, but for the rest of sacrament meeting there was a wave of whispers that passed through the sea of members as the little ones started to realize what was going on. What was super funny is that all of the members thought that I had come back after finishing my mission. This last Sunday will go down as one of my favorites.  It makes me realize how close you grow to families and individuals here as you walk hand in hand on the journey of service, education and spirituality.
 

    Anyways this just in, there was supposed to be an Elder coming to the mission today. However there was a setback and he won't be coming at for a while. It looks like I will be breaking out of the office going on the loose for the next week or so as things get worked out and smoothed over.  There is nothing more peculiar in the mission field than an odd number, so tomorrow I guess I will see where I am heading.

Week #90: Everything is pretty tranquillo

Well honestly not too much has happened this week.

We finished the mission inventory and I am glad to report that we are going to be ordering hot showers and microwaves for every house in the mission.  Not to be used together at the same time in the same location in case you were wondering.   This may not sound like much to you state-siders but wow.....a warm shower is something all too rare here in the mission.)

We finished with the first wave of emergency transfers, and I talked to all of the missionary moms calling worried about their sick children. (/wave if any of you are here perusing...)

Everything is pretty tranquillo...we are about to start a little campaign in the mission going from Multi-Zone meeting to Multi-Zone meeting passing out all of the stuff that we will need, such as invitations and a DVD full of new videos for Semana Santa and a bunch of other stuff.

Check it all out:  https://www.mormon.org/spa/pascua

Until next week...well hopefully.  Give everyone my love and it's exciting to hear about Chase putting in his papers for his mission - how time flies!

Week #88: "you need to be where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing..."

I experienced one of the baggiest moments in my mission this week.   In order to understand exactly why this was this was, one has to understand a few things.  During all of my time on the mission I have never been in a ward until now.   Twenty months ago I began my mission in the Rama La Verde and from that branch I moved all across the mission going to some of the most unique branches of the mission. Their buildings, the benches in the church, the amount of people, all of these things have always formed a sort of mental gap and because of this I have never truly felt as though I were in my ward. The second thing you have to understand is before I came into the mission, for almost all of my time in the young men's group we had few young men, and I was one of the only young men of my age who was truly active in the church.  In fact, the young man closest to me in age has always been my little brother who is almost exactly two years younger than me. It created many definning moments, and there were many things that I learned from experiences in YM.    From the day I became a Priest, in my ward I was up on the stand blessing the sacrament,  until the day that I left for the mission.  Few, if any, weeks passed  where I was not up there on the stand,  if not by  choice then by necessity.  There was even a time when my friend was investigating the church and he was in another ward and to support him (even though he didn't need it - he's a lot more pillas than I am) I would go with him to church in the morning and then leave, flying across our little town to the stake center to go to my ward.   My Dad had said I could go to his ward as much as I wanted,  but I had to be back in time to fulfill my responsibilities in my ward.  Dad always said,"you need to be where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing when you are supposed to be doing it." Whether I like it or not, it became drilled into me, and has been, and is, one of the reasons that I do a lot of the things that I probably otherwise would not do, like going to church twice a day. It might have been something I didn't like doing but it was what I was supposed to do.
          Now fast forward to 28/2/2016, I am in the Sacrament meeting of the Ward Reu 2 (that is "Dos", if some of you just said "two" in your head).  My first ward and probably last area of the mission. We have a few investigators at church today, things are going well. My companion Elder Taylor is sick with Zika and has been suffering a little bit the last couple of days. Everyone is silent, the type of silence that only comes in church right as the sacrament prayers approach. Today there was only one priest on the stand so they had asked me to bless. The sacrament song began and we began to break the bread,  As we finished, I knelt down and began to speak the prayer, however in this moment, it was as though I were back home in my ward blessing the sacrament like so many times before.  As the words of the prayer left my mouth, for a moment I became so lost in the vision of home that I almost began to say the prayer in English.  As I finished the prayer I couldn't raise my eyes to the crowd, I don't know if it was because I couldn't withstand the thought of seeing the families or because I couldn't withstand the feeling of not seeing my ward. When we finished blessing and passing the sacrament I finally looked up, it was so weird to look out over the crowd and not see the Southwells, Bruces, Lovells, Lahodas, or the Sobecks, or the other Sobek's or even the other Sobek's (I am not stuttering) or the Raleighs, or even my own family in their places where they always are. It was even weirder that there just simply weren't people in their spots. During my 20 months in the mission I don't believe I have ever been home sick.   That day, I definitely was.
       Anyways off of the baggy note, six more mini missionaries just got here and we drew the short stick and get to drive them to Mazate.  At least, we will be eating good tonight!

Week #86: Fixing the pickup...don't forget the keys.

Well, another week has come and gone and I have to say not too much has changed. Things in the office are very different from other kinds of work in the mission but none the less work is work and we have been called to work in the Lord's vineyard.
      So we had a fun little trip this week. For the last while, we have been having a lot of problems with the pickup of the mission. As you can imagine with all of the traveling on the dirt roads and all over the mission over the last 2 years our pickup has kinda taken a beating. On Monday, we took the pickup to Xela to give Jaime (the pickup) his checkup.....He had a lot wrong with him. More than was wrong with the 300,000 miles used Saturn back home. Over the next two days, Jaime was in surgery and left on Wednesday. So Wednesday we went back up to Xela to go and check him out of the Taller and do some other stuff. Now Xela is one of the truly few developed areas in Guate and it has many stores and things that the rest of the mission lacks. That being said aprovechamos when we go up.  However, as has been the theme of everything in the world anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  After we had taken the pickup out of the shop and were done eating lunch we went over to a store called Cemaco to buy some new tables for the mission. We got out of the car were heading towards the entrance of the store when we realized that we didn't have the keys with us....We started running back to the pickup knowing that the car has a highly annoying auto lock feature the moment we touch the door to yank it open we hear the faint noise of the car doors locking and our chances of getting into the car went down the drain. After a little while of trying to find some way in we managed to get ahold of a guy who breaks into cars for a living and then went on our way to finish out our compras.
     Pretty much for the rest of the week, we have been busy about doing all sorts of little projects here and there. Doing some banners for the mission planning activities, and all the rest of things to many to mention. The next focus will be a giant activity in the mission and a big ole inventory of everything in the mission.
      On the proselyting side, we have some really amazing investigators at the moment.  One named Tatiana is an absolutely prepared lady.  She has opened her heart to the Gospel and is here now to accept it, she has a beautiful little family with a little three-year-old boy who calls us all the time. No one has any idea of what he is saying but he is hilarious. Last Sunday, as normal for little kids entering into the primary, he started to yell and scream until his mom came back in. However this week he was completely fine with going to class and didn't put up any resistance and so Tatiana could go to her Sunday School class with us. A little while after the class had begun everyone began to hear some kind of weird wailing and were thinking what is that noise? Tatiana said "don't worry that is just my little boy singing" Everyone got a good chuckle out of that. Anyways she is going to be a very good Primary or Young women's teacher she seems like that kinda person.
      The other guy that we are working with right now is named Luis. Now I don't know how many of you have seen the chapins here in Guate But they are not a naturally tall group of people. Luis however at the age of 14 is already nearly my height and without a doubt will outgrow me in the next couple of years. I can see him being like the guy from the movie the Blindside. He has come to church with us twice now and will be going with the ward to the temple on Saturday. We tried to see if it is possible for him to be baptized confirmed and receive the Priesthood on Friday so he could go in but just going along for the experience will be great as well.

Week #83: Off cycle transfers bring new adventures

Truth of life. Every time you get comfortable in where you are and who you are a rapid wind of change comes to disfigure the world you know. this is week 83 of my mission and I had thought with such little time that I have left that I was going to go through my entire mission unscathed by Emergency changes. about 8 months ago I had a close encounter and nearly had changes to the Office however with some luck  I escaped and stayed where I was. Now 8 months have passed and what I thought I had escaped finally caught up with me and I have been pulled into the the Office of the mission. On the bright side at least I finally get to drive the pickup of the mission.

It was a Tuesday night we had gotten back from a district meeting and we were in Asintal.  We had gone and set up the baptism of another from the finca.  After coming back down we went over to the house of a new investigator of the two other Elders in the area. We had a good lesson with him and he is as strong in conviction as ever and said he would go with us to church and would pray to know if this is the path in which he must follow.  We were visiting with la familia Maldonado, after the lesson we went with them back to their house to finish the night with a little something to eat. Just as we entered into the house and having sat on the couch my phone began to ring. I looked down to see Assistant #1 calling and didn't think much about it.  Then as though, it were no more than a casual conversation, he told me that I have changes and that I would need to bring my stuff to the meeting that we were having the day after. I looked up after the short call realizing that this would probably be the last time I would be in the house with this incredible family. A family that has most certainly become part of my own and I apart of theirs. It is amazing how close you come to people that you meet in your mission.
       That night I went burning the midnight oil, packing away all of my stuff.   The next day we left the house with my bags and jumped into a taxi leaving to go from Asintal to the meeting. (that is one of the beautiful things about here in Guatemala you can pay someone 30 quetz and they will take to to the other end of Reu) When we arrived at the meeting,  after doing a brief introduction and having breakfast they gathered all of the people with changes into the cultural hall  of the church.  Then in true suspenseful fashion with me being last, told me that I was going to the office.  I was still uncertain as to what my new assignment was going to be, but as Saturday came and the office had its weekly correlation meeting  with the President he told me that I would be the new Comisario de la mision. Every change is a new adventure and this one seems like a very different type of adventure as the workings of the office are a little different then any other area in the mission.  But excited to learn and grow and serve where ever and how ever I can.

Week #82: Cushin It!

Well I am feeling better, those mosquito born illnesses can really slow you down but things are going better as time, and lots of liquid in plastic bags cures all.  I don't have much to write again. Things have been a little less filled drama wise, but still filled with drama as we continue to learn to work with various members and leaders in the branch.  As is probably true in all wards and branches, some members are a delight to work with, and others not so much.  I hope all who read this fall into the "delight" category.  If not, take inventory and see what you can do to be a "delight" in member missionary work or just relations with the missionaries in your area.  I am sure that they are just as charming as I am.  :-)  Have you hugged your missionary today?  Wait...you probably shouldn't hug the missionaries in your ward, at least not physically...just do it spiritually.

Things have been going really good here,  we have been working really well as a team of four, finding new people to provide service to, to teach and to baptize.  We have been teaching a beautiful little family that lives in la finca Santa Margarita.  We have known them for a while now and we have become pretty close to this family.  It is a hard life that they have living on the finca.  The men in the finca wake up every day at around 3:30 in the morning to go to work in the forest picking at trees collecting the unprocessed rubber sap that comes from the trees.  After picking at the trees they go around and collect the sap.  They are there in the forest working until just about lunch time. the women of the finca follow behind and paint each tree as it has been cut so that they don't go around cutting the same trees over and over again.   Anyway, this family has gotten to know us pretty well and have even given us some weird fruit called "Cushin" that is actually really good, but a very very weird fruit. Their youngest daughter got baptized on Saturday and Sunday when she came to church and got confirmed she was so excited to go back home and invite all of her friends next week.
     My comp and I are getting along great. As I have said before there is always something special about being with someone that has the same about of time as you in the mission. Though it is also a little weird because you can talk about all of your friends who started the mission after you and are now finished. So weird to think about that sometimes. But more than anything things are going great and we are having a great time. I feel at home here. I love the people and I love serving the Lord.

(Parental commentary:  In our email this week, we had Chase ask TD various questions that he was curious about since Chase is putting his mission paperwork together.  TD answered them...and we log this brother-brother-to brother communication unedited.)

What is the last thing you just purchased there and why?
a ride in a tuc tuc and why you may ask? because Its Pday so im not walking

Who was the last investigator you talked to and what was the subject matter?
Glenda from El Salvador we talked about painting and drawing.

What is your favorite thing about your companion?
that he is absolutely crazy.....

What was the last toilet you sat on made of?
actually the last one was made of air I popped a squat

Was the paper two-ply or one-ply or is Guate TP more like sandpaper?
actually I used a piece of paper I didn't really have any tp nearby one ply or 2

What do you drink most of the time during the day? Can you drink water?
Bags of water. like plastic bags filled with water if not that then Isomax which is like nock off gatorade in plastic bags. You bite off a corner and suck

Are there any food that you are not supposed to eat as a missionary?
anything that they sell on the street is off limits.but then again most of the members are the ones selling there.....so I wonder then if we are breaking mission rules...it's quite the conundrum...

Do they have ice?
yeah, remember those bags of water well you stick it in the freezer and they magically turn to ice...

What do you do on P-day for fun?
It depends, today we went to the beach and took pictures......

How do you clean your suits?
clean your suits?...wait, we are supposed to clean our suits.......hmm...that might explain a few things...

What is the one piece of advice you would have for me as I prepare these last few months for a mission?
read and listen to the words of the prophets...find as many talks and good music as possible and stick them on a good ipod listen to them as much as possible during down time...if mission rules allows bring to the mission...read the book of mormon, read Jesus the Christ...

Week #80: Temple Trip, Pizza Hut and Elder Garoz

Xela Temple...because it's to hard to spell it the long way.

Well we are now in the year 2016.....That is pretty weird....I finished high school and entered into the mission in 2014 and so I am now another year here....Its a weird thought, I guess I am learning that term..."when time flies".
      This has been an amazing week!  On Tuesday we went to the temple. It was a fun little experience. We had a the chance to go with President Ruiz and do a session in the temple with him.  We had instructions and left from Reu to Xela at about 1pm. However there was a mishap and the office didn't tell us that the session wasn't until 5:30pm. We had arrived at the temple a little bit before 3pm and when we called to find out what was going on they apologized and said that President was still in Reu.... The cafeteria at the temple was closed, so the moment that I heard that President Ruiz was still in Reu and having been craving pizza for some days now, I called Pizza Hut to send in my order and to have them deliver to the temple.  As soon as I hung up some of the Hermanas came over asking, "Did you just order Pizza?" and had me order them one as well.....no less then a min later some of the other Hermanas there, seeing that we had just ordered pizza asked if we could order another....of course we said yes. By the 3rd time one  us calling they immediately knew It was Elder Wilcox and I knew it was Cindy and she already knew what was about to happen....I think that might have been the first time they had delivered to the temple if not it was at least my first time having them deliver to it.  After eating and taking pictures for a long while President Ruiz made it and we when inside to a session packed to the brim.  By the time we had finished it was 9pm and by the time we got home somewhere close to 11pm.
     Reinforcements have arrived! While we were there at the temple I was talking with the mission president and hinted that another set of missionaries would be good for Asintal.  Apparently he thought so as well, and sent another pair our way within 15 hours of that conversation.  Elder Fairbanks now is no longer my comp, he is now comps with Elder Huasupoma.  My new companion is Elder Garoz. He is from California as well and will actually be finishing the mission with us. With four us working here, things are a lot easier, and the burden of teaching all of the fincas have just been cut in half.
    The people of the Auroa Castillo and Santa Margarita are doing great. A lot of them have there little problems or just haven't been there during the Christmas/new Years season. Now things are settling back down, we as well as the rest of the mission are pretty interested to see what happens here.
    Anyways the New year is here and it is going to hold alot of surprises in store. I could not have imagined just how much my life would change just from just one year back. This one holds a lot more in store....and I am anxious to see what is in store.

President and Sister Ruiz and Elder Fairbanks

w/ Elder Call

w/ Elder Bastian

The field is white...er green

Getting ready for a lesson

Christmas Mission President Photo w/ President and Sister Ruiz and Elder Fairbanks

Sometimes they think I am a jungle gym