Week 6: It's a Girl!!

The Good

I crashed my first party this week! So last Tuesday we went by Jose Ángel's place to hopefully teach him about the Gospel. The good news is that we found him home, the better news is that we also found his parents, all his sisters, children, wife, and friends celebrating his dad's birthday. In Hispanic culture, if you show up unannounced to a party, then you will be treated as if the host invited you in the first place, so we were promptly sat down at a table and given food to eat. We mingled and ate for a while, and then they said they were going to do the gender reveal for Jose's 4th child. We all guessed and he wanted a boy because he already has 3 girls...and as you have probably put together by now, it is a girl! He is a very blessed man and though he might have wanted a boy, he said I submit my will to God and I know that I am blessed. After more mingling and laughing, the member that we brought started talking about the joy of families and asked the 3 guys that were listening if they had lost anyone they were close to. He then went to the topic of baptisms for the dead which was really cool because that is exactly the topic Jose Ángel is struggling with, but Hermano Aquino didn't even know that. Jose's dad also shared a touching story about his mom's death. I think that after that discussion, we will be able to help them understand and believe next time we have a lesson with them.

Another super excited thing happened this week that might have been top 5 coolest things that has happened to me in my life. I don't know if you all remember that I mentioned that Sister Bytheway is in my district. Well since we have the connection, we had a guest speaker during our district council this past week: none other than John Bytheway himself. He zoomed in and we had an really great lesson about how to invite the Spirit into our lessons. It was extremely powerful, inspiring, and neat to see the example of someone who has years and years of experience teaching. Teaching like the Savior is always our goal, but since perfection is unattainable in this life, I'll strive to teach like John Bytheway. 

The last thing I wanted to talk about is personal study. For those of you who don't know, missionaries spend a lot of time studying and 1 hour of that study time every day is dedicated to personal Gospel study. I am extremely grateful for this time I have every morning because I have had some of the most amazing experiences study scriptures and different topics. I encourage, nay, beg all of you to dedicate 10 , 15, 30, 60 minutes, heck 3 hours if you have it, or just 10 minutes everyday to spend prayerfully studying the word of God. You days will be brighter. You happiness will be fuller. You hearts will be lighter. You capacity to love will be deepened. Your entire life will change in ways you didn't expect. 1 year down the road you will look back at who you were compared to who you are then and will then have a deeper appreciation for God than you have ever had for everything He has done for you. Without a single doubt in my mind, I promise each and every one of you and invite you to do it and see for yourself. 

The Bad

There was a man that we found almost 2 weeks ago now that said we could back and he his always home and has plenty of time (since he is an older gentleman). We were excited to teach him after that, but we have now passed by at least half a dozen times and there has been no response each time. We were force to "drop" him which essentially means we won't visit him anymore, but I know that hope is not yet lost for him. The Lord is just spending more time to prepare him and we are not the ones that were meant to teach him. 

The Beautiful

Seeing a family of about 20 people all eating, laughing, and celebrating together was so fun. A whole family together celebrating a grandpa's birthday and a gender reveal, two ends of life, helped me see how God loves to bless families. It was a beautiful sight that I hope to relive several more times throughout my life. 

The Funny

So this past week we wanted to make a cool video conveying a message about faith. Well in this video, there is a clip where I had to run in a straight line blindfolded. Elder Ruiz just told me to start running and I won't run into anything and they will tell me when to stop. I was like alright and then started running...and then kept running...and then kept running. After about 15 or 20 seconds of jogging (which feels like an eternity when you are blindfolded), I hear Elder Medina yell at me and both of them are laughing. I take off the blindfold and they are way far behind me just laughing because they had forgotten to tell me to stop but ended the video and were already re-watching it to see how it looked. Nice to know my companions always have my back. 

The Spiritual

During district council, John Bytheway made a very cool analogy with faith and a light switch. Faith is not like a switch, but like a dimmer light with different levels of brightness. When the slider is all the way down, the light is off and it is as if we have no knowledge of the things of God. This will happen to most of us at one point or another, but we mustn't fear because we just have to slide it up a tiny bit to start seeing the light. People say sometimes we have to take a leap of faith; God says don't worry about the leap, a tiny little step for right now will do. No matter how bright your light right now, you can always slide that switch up, gain more light, grow your faith. And if you do feel like you are in complete darkness, know that the light is always near, always just a half step away. 

I love all you guys back home and elsewhere around the world. I pray for you and wish you all well. Happy 4th of July! Remember to stay safe, put on sunscreen, and have fun this upcoming weekend. 

The Pictures

 Just random pictures of us having fun

 Super cool Bolivian chess set

Probably the coolest chandelier ever

Week 5: Happy Father's Day!!

The Good

It has been another great week in the mission and I wish I could tell you about all the wonderful things that happened, but I'll just focus on some of my favorites.

 

This past week we set a very high goal of 10 new people to find, which at the beginning seemed like a whole lot. We all admitted that it would be hard and we didn't know if we would get close, but it was more of like a "Lord we believe, but help our unbelief" type moment and help He did. After our first day, we found 5 potential new people and by the end of the week, we solidified that number at 9 new people for this past week. I am super excited to start working and teaching with these awesome people. 

One of the cool experiences with finding happened last Tuesday. We had been working really hard that day, it was hot, we were tired, it was almost 8 o'clock at night which is when finding is no longer effective here, and we had already found 3 people so we were headed back to our apartment for the day. As we drove back, I somehow out of the corner of my eye caught something that called my attention. When I looked, it was just a mother and a son walking, but they looked Hispanic so almost before even thinking about it I said to my companions, "Are we going to talk to them?" After about a 10 second debate, we pulled over the next place we could and started walking in their direction. We talked to them and they had actually talked to missionaries before and said they they started reading the Bible because of some missionaries. The mom told us her husband had some questions and that she would like us to come over and answer them for him. We went over on Saturday and they asked us a bunch of questions and it was the best lesson I have had so far. They were so willing to learn and wanted us to come back to learn more about the Plan of Salvation. 

Every Friday we play volleyball with a bunch of people in the community and this past Friday a lot of young adult aged people came. We always share a quick scripture about half-way through, so after one of the games I just said if they would like to listen to a quick scripture and uplifting message then they were welcome but not obligated. I am a soft spoken person so most of them couldn't hear me and I was embarrassed to repeat it because some already heard and were listening and I didn't really think the others would want to anyways. I said it a bit louder anyways and the vast majority actually came over and listened which was super cool. I also don't think they said a single bad word after we shared the scripture. 

I have a new mom! Don't get me wrong I still have my Mama that raised me, and Cheri nobody can replace you as my second momma! I have a Sister Nickel is now my 3rd mom though. We had dinner with her this past week and she was so gracious and loving to us and is basically the mission mom. It was also an interesting experience because we may or may not have spent way too much time at the dinner appointment, but when I walked out of the house, I turned to Elder Ruiz (Elder Medina was off on exchanges) and told him that that was exactly where we needed to me that night and I knew exactly why for my own reasons. He then told me he felt  the same way for his own reasons. As per the rules, we probably shouldn't have been at the dinner that long, but I now know that if I am where the Lord is telling me where I need to be, I am never waiting his time. 

The Bad

Sometimes the mission can be pretty discouraging. This past week, we were talking to an older couple and over the course of the conversation they basically invited themselves to church and we were so excited afterwards, but this Sunday passed and they didn't come. It is sad, but you can never lose your motivation on a mission. You always have to look at the blessings and miracles. 

The Beautiful 

This past week, we received a training on how to approach sharing messages with the members in a more effective and edifying way. We basically share a little bit about the investigators we are teaching and ask them for advice. Every time we have done so, the members are are so willing to give their input and the spirit is so strong during those conversations. It is beautiful how the members can in a matter of minutes grow to love and truly want to help complete strangers because of the light of Christ in all of us. 

The Funny 

So we are teaching a man that has a very strong faith in God and knows the Bible very well, but he doesn't attend a specific church. He just gets together with a group of friends to study the Bible every Sunday, so he has some interesting religious practices. At the end of a visit, he asks me to say the pray before we leave and in the middle of the prayer he says, "Jesusssssssssssss" and it no joke lasted like 10 seconds. I just about lost it mid prayer. I cannot imagine what the prayers with his Bible study group are like. 

The Spiritual

This past week we passed by a man who the Elders contacted a few weeks ago. We passed by, talked to him, had a good conversation and even gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. There was something that he said during our conversation, though, that hit me hard and kind of made me sad. He said, "I don't want patience because if I pray for patience then God will give me trials." I want all of you that have made it this far through the email to think about something you want for yourself, a skill, a knowledge, a goal, something that you might already be praying for. Now think about what you are willing to do to obtain what is in your mind. Think about that as you pray. Our Savior, Jesus Christ wanted to be able to live forever with His family, all of us. He knew what needed to be done to attain what he wanted, so He gave himself to suffer more pain than we can ever imagine. He felt every temptation and affliction of every kind just so that He can save us from our sins if we choose to repent and live His teachings the best we can. Don't miss out on blessings in your life because you aren't willing to put forth the little effort that the Lord asks of us, and never take advantage the sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us. 

Thank you again for reading. Thank you to all of you fathers that do so much for all of us. Remember that we all have a Father in heaven that watches over us and helps us every day even when we don't realize it. I love you all and would love to hear from every single one of you (I do actually read all the emails I get even if I don't have time to respond to them and they are sometimes the highlight of my day.)

The Pictures

The zone after zone sports

Us being silly in the truck

These puppies always run after us when we go to this trailer park and they are adorable.

Sojta de Pollo (authentic Bolivian food)

The stake center (I love the southwest architecture)

Week 4: Hit the Ground Running

The Good

First week in the field and it has been amazing!! I honestly think this has been one of the top 5 best weeks in my life. I have just a few things that I have time to tell you about. 

I am in a trio so I have two trainers and they are both amazing guys and missionaries. Elder Medina has been on his mission for a year so he is the seasoned one of the bunch. He is from El Salvador and knows very little English, though he is practicing because he is our district leader which basically means he keeps us in shape and makes sure we are all good in the work of the Lord. Also, for anyone who knows John Bytheway, his daughter is in my district!! I was blown away when I found out and she is very nice. Elder Ruiz is just out of training himself so he only has just over 3 months in the field. Both of his parents are Mexican, but they didn't speak much Spanish in the home growing up so he is learning Spanish and he is pretty good and able to communicate. They both are very fun and funny so I am having a grand time. 

The members here are amazing. The Esperanza branch is pretty small, but practically all the members are super solid and very nice. Since the branch is so small, we also share a dinner calendar with 5 other wards so we have had dinner with some people that don't speak Spanish and they are amazing as well. We have had a dinner taken care of for us by members every night this week so far so basically everyone in Kentucky be warned, I will probably not look the same when I get home jaja. 

The interested people here are very cool too. Pretty much everyone is catholic and knows the Bible inside and out so I am going to need to study up to be able to teach effectively. 

Overall though just a really amazing week and I am excited and safe and working very hard like the subject suggests. 

The Bad

Holy guac it is hot here. I came out of the airport last Monday, I thought I walked into an airfryer. I felt bad for every tater-tot I have every fried and I vowe to never subject a single tater-tot to that torment again (mentira). Honestly though, I'd take 110 here over 90 in Georgetown any day. 

The Beautiful 

Full disclosure, I thought it was going to be really ugly and dead here, but to my surprise I was wrong. It is only half here, but it is very beautiful. Especially this one place in Sahuarita called Pecan Grove where there are just lines of pecan trees for a few acres. There are also a few palm trees and some of the cati have cool flowers. The most beautiful thing I have seen in Arizona is the temple when we visited on Monday. Absolutely breath-taking

The Funny

So we were at a member's house and she gave us sandwiches. When we finished eating, Elder Medina and I went to take the plates to the sink and I realize I don't know how to say "sink" in Spanish. So I gesture to the sink and ask in Spanish, "What is this called?" And este vato tells me, "sink" in English, smirks, and walks away. Que bromista. 

The Spiritual

During our hour of lunch, we like to talk about questions we have about deep doctrine or just gospel topics that are hard to understand just to meditate and have a good conversation because it is a nice break from teaching the same things over and over. Well this past week we were having a conversation and Elder Ruiz just stops us and says, "como?" (How?) Elder Medina responded "todavía no lo entiendo de completo, pero así es" (I still don't completely understand it but that is the way it is). This hit me because I was amazed by the faith of this statement. We aren't ment to understand everything, but we must have faith to trust that God understands what we can't. He isn't going to give us more than we can handle, so just trust that what you have is what you need to keep progressing. 

Thank you for reading. I hope everyone is well and I would love to hear from you all!

Week 3: CCM (MTC) Graduation

The Good

I cannot believe how the time has flown and that I would so soon find myself sitting in the Dallas Airport writing this email about to enter the field. It has been a wonderful 3 weeks and I have learned so much from my teachers and district. They will always have a special place in my heart, especially Elder Ontiveros. Him and I started making plans for me to visit Mexico in 10ish years or so to be able to get to know each other in person, so that I can try the best street tacos in the world, so that he can beat me in ping pong, and so that we can start the most successful recreational activities company that I will not take over and steal for my own selfish desires (long story). In essence, I was very surprised how close I was able to get to people who live about 2000 miles away from me. 

Something very cool happened on the plane today. So I walked on the plane with the best intentions to try to talk to the person I would end up sitting with. Well shortly after I sat down, the man next to me put in some headphones and started watching a movie on his phone. I, being able to neither confirm nor deny the fact that I got less than 2 hours of sleep last night, promptly fell asleep for the two hour flight. Upon landing however, the man started talking to me and after a bit of conversation, I realized that I was good friends with his son back in middle school. When he asked me what my name was, you would have thought I told him I was Adam Levine or something by the way he reacted when I said I was Austin Holt. It was a very neat experience. Oh and for anyone who is curious, the man was Gunner Robinson's dad (yes Corey, THE Gunner Robinson).

I am also SUPER excited to land in Arizona today and just begin learning and working again. The best two years of my life have barely begun. 

The Bad

I had to say bye to Elder Ontiveros. It wasn't terribly sad, I mean neither of us cried or anything, but I still wish that he was called to Arizona. The silver lining is that I believe part of his mission boarders part of my mission so we will actually be closer to each other than we have been in the past 3 weeks geographicly speaking. 

The Beautiful

Beauty takes many forms. This past week, it took the form of a well-seasoned brisket smoked to perfection. My dad smoked brisket for Friday night as one of my last meals, and it was delicious. If you know the process one must go through to make such a juicy and savorous piece of meat, then you know it is an art and is simply beautiful (Yes, Brother Reynolds, I'm talking to you).

The Funny

Jaja I feel like half of this email is about Elder Ontiveros, so I apologize if you all are board of hearing about him, but this is funny. Yesterday, while we were having our last companionship study, my mom and Christina said hello to Elder Ontiveros. After a couple of minutes, Christina compliments him on his English to which he replied, "Thank you. I just have my sexy Mexican accent." This man's confidence in that moment just about had me crying from laughter.

The Spiritual

This past week we had our last teaching experience with a volunteer member that was gracious enough to offer up their time to give the missionaries some more realistic practice. Well the person that Elder Ontiveros and I were supposed to teach was not able to make it; so we were joined with Elder Merlín and the man that Elder Merlín was supposed to teach because Elder Lugo (Elder Merlín's companion) was missing as well. I was a bit stressed because Elder Ontiveros and I had already planned a lesson to teach and we didn't have any time to prepare with Elder Merlín. So naturally I was worried about who was going to say what next, but as we started talking to him, Elder Merlín simply sat and had a conversation with him about the gospel. We didn't teach a full lesson like we had planned, but seeing how the man reacted to the conversation we were having, I believe that Elder Merlín listened to the spirit and said exactly what that man needed that day. I learned a lot about the importance of listening to the people that you interact with as a missionary. It reminded me of the best teacher that has ever lived, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Somehow I doubt that Jesus went about teaching with a set lesson plan. He simply knew the gospel and was attentive to the needs of the people he taught. He used Torah or scriptures and laws when He taught the Pharasies because that is the language they understood. The woman at the well probably would have spat on Jesus if He started quoting Torah to her, but instead he took the time to let her know that He knew her and then changed her life. Jesus could have simply taught Jairus a pre-planned lesson about the gospel in Luke 8, but imagine how much greater of a lesson of faith and love he learned when he saw the Savior take the time to heal a women and still heal his daughter though she had died while Jesus journeyed. The perfect teacher first loved, then listened, then taught.  

Once again, thank you for reading and I hope you all are doing w
ell!

The Pictures

I no longer have my personal phone so I don't have the pictures I would like to have shared. 

Instead, here is a picture of why everyone in the Dallas Airport is stressed out of their minds because so many flights are being delayed/canceled. 

Week 2: I Am a Good Bean

The Good

Man what an amazing week! I absolutely love the online MTC and all the spiritual experiences that I have everyday. I think God might already have installed my missionary filter, you know the one where it seems like every missionary just loves everyone and is always smiling and in a good mood and thinks their mission is the best in the world, because I honestly am very happy with my situation even though nothing has changed from the first week. I still sit in front of a computer screen for at least 7 hours and I still have the worst Spanish out of everyone I talk to; but if we are doing what the Lord would have us do and we continually ask for His, He will make our burdens light and bearable. 

One thing I have really enjoyed is teaching English to the people in my district. For their language study they all have to practice English because, well they don't really need help with their Spanish. So they ask me to help them with their little packet to learn English or even just to chat with them in English and it is one of my favorite things to do during the day. We have a lot of good laughs as we try to learn our respective languages in which we need practice and continually make mistakes. English and Spanish are hard for different reasons. English vowels are the worst. Spanish conjugations are of the devil. In English, there are usually about 3 ways to conjugate a verb (I went, I am going, I will go) no matter who is doing the going or how many are doing the going, but vowels all have at least 2 sounds and then they do funky things when you put 2 or more together in different orders. It is so hard for the Hispanics to wrap their mind around a vowel making different sounds because in Spanish vowels always make the same sound. Vowels might be easy, but in Spanish, there are so many different ways to conjugate a verb ( I won't give examples because my laptop doesn't type accents which are very very important in Spanish for distinguishing the meanings of words and the tense of words). It sufficeth me to say that there is an Elder in my district that is a college graduate and he said that in total, there are 96 conjugations in Spanish if you include irregular verbs. So yeah, pick your poison. 

I also love the chances we have to teach members that volunteer to listen to lessons. They are always super kind, very helpful, and have tons of great advice to give missionaries from a variety of life perspectives. I am super grateful for them.

Last thing for the good is that I had my farewell talk (which was hopefully good jaja) and my farewell open house. It was so good to be able to see a bunch of people that I had not seen for a long time. It was very fun, we had good food, and we did back to back open houses with Christina and George's wedding (they have been in Utah since their wedding in January so we couldn't have a Kentucky celebration until this past weekend) so the set up for my open house was very easy.

The Bad

The bad part about having a great experience with my district and getting closer to them is that I am going to miss all of them very much. Of course I am so proud of them and excited to see what they will be able to do in the next 18 months to 2 years, but it will still be very hard to say goodbye in 3 days.

The Beautiful

One of the Elders in my district, Elder Lugo, is a convert of about a year and 7 months now and all of us were super surprised when he told us because I have not met many people with a more powerful testimony than that man. Well we had a little surprise visit this past Monday from one of the sister missionaries that taught him and was able to watch his baptism. She told his conversion story from her perspective and then he told it from his. If we didn't think that he was amazing before, we sure do now. The man gave away 6 copies of the Book of Mormon before he was even baptized!! And he is extremely humble about it too. Everyone in the district was practically in tears by the end. The opportunity to hear a conversion story from both the convert and the missionary's perspective can only be described as deeply beautiful. 

The Funny

This past week, Elder Ontiveros, my companion, and I had the idea to give each other english/spanish tongue twisters to help practice pronunciation of difficult sounds in our respective languages (Elder Ontiveros's vocabulary in english is actually excellent, it is just his accent that he needs to work on). He gave me the following one "Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal". I didn't have any good ones for him at the time but after some collaboration with Wesley, I presented Elder Ontiveros the next day with the following: "Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said this butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter. So Betty Botter bought some better butter to put in her bitter batter to make her bitter batter better." Blank faced and frozen, he sat there in silence for a few moments. When he broke the silence, all he said in the best english accent he could muster was, "I tink I ewas nicer wit my tong-twister."

On a separate occasion, Elder Ontiveros told me that he heard that United Statians (apparently calling ourselves "Americans" is arrogant and prideful because Mexicans consider themselves as part of America the supercontinent (North and South America combined)) sometimes use "bean" as a derogatory term for Mexicans. I, never having heard this term, asked "bean??" He said "yes, bean" then paused for dramatic effect, patted his cheeks with both his hands, put on the widest grin and said, once again in his best english, "I am a good bean." Elder Ontiveros really keeps me laughing every day.

The Spiritual

There once was a young man named Parker who loved to climb and jump and flip. One day, Parker was attempting to jump from one end of a hand railing to the other without falling down the 10 foot fall between the two, but during his attempt, he hit his leg rather hard on the opposing rail. He started bleeding. The wound had to be cleaned properly to ensure that the healing process would be effective. So copious amounts of alcohol were applied to Parker's leg which caused him even more pain, but he knew it was necessary for his leg to be made whole again. After time, the tissue that grew back in place of the cut was stronger than his original skin. Parker's experience with his leg is much like all of our experiences with sin and repentance. We make a mistake which can cause us spiritual pain in the form of guilt and shame. To start the healing process, we must recognize the sin and admit that it in fact was wrong of us to commit, which can add to the guilt and shame that we feel, but is still necessary to allow the cleansing power of Christ's Atonement to take effect in our lives. In the end, through the process of repentance, we will become more resilient to temptations in our lives and will be closer to the Savior. 

Thank you once again for reading. I love all of you and keep me updated on your lives!

The Pictures

1. The 4 Amigos

2-3. Jack and Spencer respectively (some of my best pals)

4. My second Momma (and goofballs in the back)

5. My Kentucky Boys

6. I can't believe it has been an 11 year friendship and still going strong