Monday, October 19, 2009 -- My Week in Monterrey

This has been a very interesting week. As a zone leader, when the missionaries get sick, we have the responsibility of taking them to the hospital. That happened this week, with a missionary who got really sick because he ate something he shouldn't have in the streets. We ended up having to go to Monterrey, and so I spent a few days in the mission offices. I was there from Wednesday night to yesterday afternoon.

I had a lot of interesting experiences while staying in the mission offices. (For example, I got to drive the mission van! It was the first time in 16 months that I have driven.) The office missionaries do their office work in the mornings after their studies, then leave to eat the two o'clock meal and work from three to nine.

I helped the office missionaries with their jobs in the morning, doing things such as calling the families of missionaries who will be arriving home at the end of the transfer, helping with the mission periodical, and preparing a Powerpoint presentation for a training that Elder Rivera, an assistant to the president, is going to give.

The assistants invited me to work with them in the afternoon for a few days. I have to admit that I was extremely nervous. I thought that they were evaluating every word I said. But then I began to think. I don’t do missionary work to impress the assistants or any other man. I work to serve God and to bring souls to Him.

We had some great experiences working together. We were knocking on doors in a certain street. When it came my turn, a woman answered with a tomato in one hand and a cutting knife in the other, and with children running all-around. She looked busy, but I felt inspired to teach her about eternal families. Some missionaries, upon seeing her state of busyness, might say something like, "We'd like to come back some other time when you're less busy." But the Spirit told me to say, "Allow us to come in and share this message with you and your family." To my surprise, she immediately agreed. In fact, she called for her husband to join her.

It was a great lesson. We taught the message of the Restoration, focusing on families. And we taught a complete family. I love teaching families. Families can support one another in their efforts to live the gospel, and families can go to the temple to be sealed together forever. Whenever I teach a family I think about how much the gospel has blessed my own family, and my gratitude grows.

Another day I was working with Elder Holbert, the executive secretary, and Elder Sutton, the record secretary. They had prayed about which street to knock and had felt inspired to knock one far and out of the way. Despite the inconvenience, they followed the prompting. The first door we knocked opened and a woman named Teresa answered. As we began to contact her, she interrupted and invited us in.

We sat with her in her living room and began to teach the first lesson. She empathized with Joseph Smith. She too has been confused by the religious excitement that is found everywhere. As Elder Holbert was teaching beautifully about the Book of Mormon, Teresa asked "What do I have to do to be able to read that book?" Joyfully, Elder Holbert promised to bring her a copy in our next visit and bore his testimony of that pearl of great price.

In another experience, we were greeting all the stake presidents in the mission, who came for a meeting wth Presdient Mendoza. After the fact, I learned that one of the men I had greeted was Elder Benjamin de Hoyos of the Seventy and Area Presidency!

Lately as a mission we have been studying a Christ-like attribute from Preach My Gospel every week. This past week we studied charity. Preach My Gospel teaches that we develop charity as we strive to be obedient. It also teaches that when we have charity, we obey. In other words, the more we obey, the more we love, and the more we love, the more we obey. As [the late] Elder [Joseph B.] Wirthlin [of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] taught, when we love the Lord, obedience becomes a delight.

Charity is a gift of the Spirit, a gift that is worth "all the energy of heart." When we are obedient, we are worthy of the Spirit's presence, which helps us develop charity.

My time is up.

Monday, October 12, 2009 -- The "Perla" of Great Price

[Picture: "Six Missionaries at at Table." Elder Rowley is second from right. -- eds.]

Creo que voy a empezar a escribirles en español, porque es más fácil para mí. Hablo, leo, pienso, y sueño en español. Solamente les escribo a Uds. y en mi diario en ingles. Espero que entiendan. Estoy excelentemente bien, y como siempre encantado con la vida misional, aunque ya no hablo ingles.

[Translation: "I think I'll start to write in Spanish, because it is easier for me. I speak, I read, I think, and I sleep in Spanish. I only write to you and in my journal in English. I hope you understand. I am exceedingly well and, as always, happy with missionary life, although I do not speak English any more" -- eds.]

Just kidding! I still remember how to speak English, I think.

This has been a great week. Why? Because we had a baptism! My companion and I have been working harder than ever, but have had faced a lot of opposition the last few months. But the Lord blessed us with a pearl. In fact, that's her name, Perla ("pearl" in Spanish.)

We found Perla in an interesting way. One day we were contacting a street. We passed a house with three Holy Death statues in front, but we remembered that we should knock on every door. A 19 year-old young man answered. I thought it would be a waste of time, but my faith-filled companion began to teach him. He accepted a return appointment.

We really have never taught him again since that first day, but looking for him we met his sister Perla. Both Perla and her mom accepted baptismal dates in the first lesson. Her Mom hasn't been baptized because she works on Sundays and has trouble coming to church, but she will soon follow her daughter's example, as will Perla's brothers.

Mom asked about the zone activity last Monday. It was simple. We went to play sports for a few hours and then ate carne asada. (I think a good carne asada or pollo asado is one of the foods I will most miss when I get home.) It was a fun activity. I played ultimate Frisbee and basketball. It felt great to run and jump. I love exercise a lot more than I used to. It was great to see the missionaries enjoying time together.

I love missionary life. The habits I am developing here in the mission field are habits I hope to put in practice all of my life. Not just reading the scriptures and living the gospel, but also daily exercise, hard work, setting goals, and serving my companion. I learn much more every day than I teach people.

I'm sorry my letters haven't been so long lately. I have more to write to President Mendoza as a zone leader. But I always love and pray for you, all day, every day.

Monday, October 5, 2009 -- Little Time but Lots of Love

I feel really bad that my letter is so short today. Today we had a zone activity (it went wonderfully well), but it went a little longer than planned, and has cut out some of my preparation day time. I have to finish writing before 6:00 to be obedient, even if it doesn't give me a full hour.

This week I received new shirts, shoes, and scriptures (the new Spanish Bible). I also received a renewed testimony and desire to work thanks to inspired letters from loved ones and inspired messages from servants of God. (The 17.5 shirts fit perfectly.)

Thank you to those who have sent me letters recently, including my parents, my sisters, Uncle Mike, Andrea, and ex-Elder Zobell. I want to respond, but I just don't have time right now.

I loved General Conference. I did my best to make it available in English (we have one missionary in our zone who has only a week in Mexico and still speaks nothing of Spanish.) But some of the sessions we wern't able to receive in English for technical difficulties. For me, that's not a problem. I understand Spanish better than English these days, but I do feel bad for Elder Selfridge. I loved both talks from President Monson, the talks of Elder Christofferson, Elder Holland, Elder Ballard, and many more. Once again I heard just what I needed to hear.

This past week we had a planned a lesson with a member family present, but at the last moment they canceled on us. Our investigator was going to leave work early to be with the members, so we did everything we could to find a different family, but no one was available. Finally, we remembered a new family who moved into our ward a week ago. We called and asked them to accompany us. The lesson ended up being with the new sister (a returned missionary) and her less-active sister. They both shared their testimonies, and her less active sister began to cry, as she re-found her testimony. I think she was blessed more than the investigator, although she also had a great experience.

I was going to send you pictures this week, but I don't have time. Please remember that even when I don't have time to write, I always have time to pray. You are constantly in my thoughts and prayers. When the going gets tough, thoughts of my family get me going.

Monday, September 28, 2009 -- [Reflections on Robbery and the Week's Menu]

I was quite shocked at the news [that our home had been robbed]. You never think it is going to happen to you until it does. I'm glad that everyone is OK, and I appreciate the eternal perspective of Mom and Dad.

Your email reminded me of a General Conference talk. The truth is I don't remember who gave it. Maybe Elder [Quentin L.] Cook [of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]. [Actually, it was Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Twelve. -- Eds.] He spoke of a family who, in a natural disaster in a South American country [Peru -- eds.], had lost everything—their house, their possessions. But the mother of the family was smiling as she told her story. Wondering how she could be so happy in such a hard time, someone asked her why she smiled. She replied something like this, "we have a knowledge of the Restored Gospel, we have this wonderful Church, and we have each other, eternally sealed together in one of the Lord's temples. We'll start again with the rest and we'll be OK." I'm happy to know that you have the same attitude.

If the loss of the material goods means a tighter budget, don't worry about sending me packages and things. All I need is your love, prayers, and weekly email updates.

I also appreciated your gratitude for the service that members of our gospel family gave you. This transfer I went through the pile of old Liahona magazines in the house and took out all the stories about the lives of the prophets and Apostles. I noticed that all of those great and busy men are extrememly service-oriented. Selfless service is at the heart of living the gospel.

You asked what I ate this past week. Let's see if I can remember . . . [sic]. Yesterday we ate chicken tostadas with the Hernandez family. Saturday our Relief Society president, Hermana Reyna, made us a special dish of meat, squash, and corn. I have no idea what it's called, but it was tasty. Friday, my companion and I were in Monterrey for the zone leader council. Usually La Hermana Mendoza makes our food, but she was out of town, so President Mendoza took all of us 26 zone leaders and the 3 assistants to a buffet. Thursday, my companion and I also ate outside of our area. We were in Miguel Aleman doing baptismal interviews, and ate with the familia Lopez. They made us hot wings, at the request of Elder Moro, one of the missionaries serving there. Before Thursday, I really don't remember. I just remember that they have given us mole (chicken in a sauce made with chile, peanuts, chocolate, and about a million other things) quite frequently lately.

* * *

I also apologize for the short email. Today is transfers. My companion and I are staying together, but we have a lot to do to send and receive missionaries as well as preparation for the next six weeks.

Monday, September 21, 2009 -- Spiritual Experiences and Scraps of Metal

My driver's liscence turned up this week! . . . Now if La hermana o El Preisdente Mendoza give me another chance to drive, I'll be able to take it.

* * *
This week has been somewhat tough, but also has been full of great spiritual experiences. President Mendoza has taught us that there are three factors that affect someone's decision to accept the Restored Gospel: their agency, the quality of our teaching (which includes a lot, such as personal study and worthiness of the Spirit), and opposition from the enemy of all righteousness. My companion and I are doing everything we can to have the best quality of teaching, but our enemy is also doing everything he can.

Unfortunately, everyone we were teaching has used their agency to make decisions that cause the to leave our teaching pool. (Luis, Amner, and Axel, the boys from the family of five we found a few weeks ago, will be baptized soon, but in a different area—they moved. Everyone else stopped progressing or asked us not to come back.)
But my companion and I haven’t lost hope, and the Lord has blessed us. This week we have found several of His chosen, prepared children.

One day we were tracting when we saw a house with three huge "holy death" statues in front. ["Holy Death" is depicted as a skeleton in a robe. Her worshippers typically come from the criminal element in Mexico. -- eds.] Remembering that President Mendoza has told us to knock on every door, we ignored our fear and knocked. A young man answered, and didn't let us in, but let us teach him on his doorstep. When we came to our return appointment the following day, he wasn’t there, but we met his mom and sister, who invited us in. We felt inspired and changed the first lesson to focus on baptism. At the end, we challenged them, and they accepted baptismal dates in the first lesson! In our return appointments, I continue to be amazed by their willingness to learn and to follow the Savior.

Another day we had prayed about which street to tract and felt prompted to knock all the doors of Rio Panuco. Several of the people in that street let us in, and we found many great people, but one in particular. Her name is Karla. The first time we knocked, no one answered, we knocked again, but once again nothing, so we started walking away when we heard the door open and came back quickly. We met Karla, a 24-year-old who lives with her husband and baby son. She invited us into her patio, and we began to teach her the first lesson.

It was a powerful lesson. She told us that she has attended several churches, but that none of them seem to be completely true. When we taught about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, she listened carefully, but expressed a lot of doubt. But when we talked about prayer and the Holy Ghost, sharing our testimonies, her doubt seemed to lesson and her interest increase.

She then told us something very special. She said that she had been praying that God would send her someone to guide her to the right path for her life. In that moment, I felt the Spirit very strongly. I told her that we had felt inspired to tract her street that day, and that the Lord had sent us there to find her. I testified of our message, and invited her to pray and ask for herself. Her eyes were watery and my own cheeks were wet as I finished. Tomorrow we have our second lesson with her. I have faith that she will have read and prayed and received an answer.

I think I have mentioned before that here in Mexico, one often hears slow-moving cars with loudspeakers announcing that the driver buys or sells certain products. Yesterday [Sunday], the peace of the sacrament was interrupted by the sound of a truck driving slowly past, announcing that he was buying old metal and broken-down appliances.

At first, I was annoyed at the interruption. But then I began to think about the situation.

For most people, there is absolutely nothing of value in old rusty scraps of metal and refrigerators that no longer cool or washing machines that no longer wash. But someone sees in them enough worth to strap a loud speaker to his car, and spend the time and gas driving through the streets offering to spend his own money to buy them.

We are all like those scraps of metal. To most, it seems like we have no purpose -- there is nothing of worth in us. But there is someone who sees us differently, Someone who sees in us enough worth to take our sins and weaknesses upon Himself, freely paying with His own blood to ransom us. He did this so that he could take us and pass us through the refiner's fire and make us into something new, something wonderful.

Our Savior bought us all with an expensive price, in order to make us clean and new. I know that He truly lives and loves us all.

Monday, September 14, 2009 -- Effort vs. Outcome

Almost everyday . . . we drink ["Zuko" drink mixes at] our meals with the members. Once in a while, they give us fruit water with natural fruit, which is always delicious. . . .

The family of five, the family Garcia Urbina are doing well. Their oldest sons, Luis and Abner, went to Mutual this past week. It was the first time that they had gone out without their mom. They loved it and want to come back. We are hoping that this week they will all attend church together and accept their baptismal date.

Raquel is doing well also, but didn't accept a baptismal date. We are going to help her have friends in the Church and a stronger testimony, and then extend another date [challenge].

This last week we had interviews with President Mendoza. As always, in little time he taught me great things. I expressed concern that our zone and our area aren't reaching our full potnential, despite of my best efforts. In response, he shared with me doctrine and Covenants 124:49, which basically says that if we do everything we can, with unceasing dillginece, to perform the duties the Lord has given us, but because of outside forces we don't achieve our goals, the Lord accepts our offering. I've thought a lot about this these past few days. For God, our results don’t matter nearly so much as our efforts. If I truly do everything I can to obey and to achieve what the Lord has commanded me to do, I can be content.

But this principle works the other way as well. If we achieve great things, but do it grudgingly, it is as if we hadn't done anything (Moroni 7). Or if we have desires to do bad things, we are sinning even if we don't carry out those desires (Matthew 7, I think.)

Thanks for sharing the story of Roberta and Kyle [who were baptized recently]. I send my deepest congratulations. I'm happy to know that [my home] ward is having success in missionary work. Missionary work is the lifeblood of the church.

I just barely started, but my time is already up. I love you all a lot, I don't ever forget about you. You are always in my thoughts and prayers, no matter how busy I am.

Monday, September 7, 2009 -- Finding the Family of Five

I hope you all had a great Labor Day. I had a great day laboring in the work of our King, as it says in my translation of the Spanish hymn "Placentero Nos Es Trabajar."

BYU beat Oklahoma! That's great. I love it when good conquers evil. Ha ha.

* * *
Unfortunately, because of computer problems, I don’t have very much time to write. But I want to tell you about an experience that we had this week.

When Elder Tenorio [of the Seventy] came to the mission last March, he taught us about being specific about our desires in our prayers. My companion and I have been working hard this week, but without the all the desired results. We have a goal to baptize ten people in September, but all the people we were teaching have fallen out of the teaching pool for various reasons.

So last Tuesday, we followed Elder Tenorio's advice. We told the Lord that we would be contacting a certain street at a certain time, and asked him to prepare a family of five who would allow us to teach them. All that day I was anxiously awaiting one o'clock, when we would be contacting 7th street in Cumbres. We were there on time and began to knock doors. With each new person, I had hope that they were part of our family of five, but we knocked on every door and no one let us teach them.

I was sad and disappointed, but we didn't let this affect our work. We went to eat, and then kept working in spite of the appointments we had. Later that day, we saw Raquel, one of our best investigators, in the street. We had stopped by her house earlier, but she wasn't home. It was the hand of God that we found her there, first of all because we needed to teach her, but also because she told us that she would be home in 15 minutes, and we had to find something to do for 15 minutes.

So we knocked the doors of some of her neighbors. There was one woman, with her 16-year-old son, who let us in. They were quite receptive, and the lesson went well. But that day we commited an error and forgot to ask about their family. When we came to our return appointment, I asked about their family. She said that she had three sons, ages 11, 15 and 16. I asked if they were home. She said yes. I invited them to come listen to the lesson. They did. It went well.

Yesterday, we met the father of the family. Usually, I dread meeting the father, because most of the time the men here reject us. But the father of the Garcia Rubina family is the most receptive. So last Tuesday we found our family of five without even realizing it! The blessings of the Lord are great!

My time is up, but I want to share a thought from my mission president, when I expressed my worries to him. It's in Spanish. . . .: "Hay otros buenos hombres que se esforzaron por ayudar a la gente y no lo lograron como era su deseo. Nefi a sus hermanos y cuñados. Alma a la gente de Ammoniah. Nefi, hijo de Helaman a la gente de Zarahemla. Jesus mismo, a los judios. José Smith en la restauración. Etc. Pero todos, como usted, hicieron su mejor esfuerzo. Gracias por ello y no permita que el desanimo se apoderé de su vida."

[Translation: "There are other good men who strove to help people but did not succeed as they wished: Nephi and his elder brothers; Alma and the people of Ammoniah; Nephi, son of Helaman, and the people of Zarahemla; Jesus himself with the Jews; Joseph Smith in the Resoration. But all of them, like you, did their best. Thanks for that and do not allow discouragement to take over your life."