July 29, 2011 - Zone Conference was great!

Hey everybody,

As I was telling Anne, I´m a year through my mission and I have completely run out of creative subject lines and greetings to the family as you can see above. I am telling you this so that you have 0 expectation of creativity from this creatively burnt out elder. I just can´t think of anything.

Anyway, I´m glad to hear Mom that you are enjoying or enjoyed girls camp, I´m sure the girls are as well. I forgot you were there when I sent that little email so I hope you don´t think I was being impatient and ungrateful for the emails I always consistently recieve from you and the family. I was just letting you know because I assume you like hearing from me on Wednesday as opposed to Thursday or Friday. Generally I will email you by Wednesday if it isn´t a weird week (like this one was). President has a new thing where he wants someone in the office at all times so I will be more or less regulary switching my P-day from Tuesday to Wednesday and vice versa every other week. It´s a good change but weird for us due to the fact that we are used to taking Pday together. My Pdays are much more productive now as I´m sure you can imagine. I wrote 6 letters this Wednesday, I was very happy with myself. Anyway it would be best if everybody that has the intention of writing me does it by Tuesday so I can respond when I am in the office and take what is called here as "family time."

The highlight of this week was Zone Conference. I was so happy because the assitants and President addressed what I have basically ranted to you about since the beginning of my mission. There are just so many mission traditions that have no source in Preach My Gospel the scriptures or anything resulting in that the teaching on a general level in the mission is pretty awful. Most the examples used aren´t even doctrinally sound, and missionaries use examples to replace the teaching instead of add to it. This isn´t to criticize, but I have just seen so many investigators left confused, left feeling as if they weren´t understood, or left uninterested because instead of explaining the real doctrine in a simple manner applying to the intelligence and the needs of the investigator, a missionary pulls out a pen and puts in the hand of the investigator telling them it is a prophet. Not that these common examples are always bad, but my good friend Elder Knight from Nicaragua explained that these examples that he heard as he was investigating the church for 4 years (he was a very active Evangelical, playing guitar and piano in this church for basically his whole life) made him feel as if the missionaries were trying to convince him that this was true instead of just teaching and allowing him to feel that it was true. It is really cool to see how the mission department is trying to really teach missionaries what Preach My Gospel is trying to say and get them to really just teach this simply and tell people that we have the truth with conviction. I could obviously improve in all of this, but it was great to see that President really understands how we are really going to connect with some people that maybe wouldn´t instantly see the appeal of the gospel from these rote tradtions that have formed in our (and I´m sure many other) missions.

Anyway now that I´m done ranting (again), the most powerful part of the meeting was definitely the little message that Sister Brough gave about how obediance and faith together give us power and the personal conversion necessary to teach this gospel in a way that will result in lasting conversions. We cannot convert more than we are personally converted. President also gave a powerful testimony of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. He told us that in his opinion Joseph Smith understood better than anyone in this dispensation what Jesus Christ felt like because he knew that he was going to die for this cause, that he was going to leave behind his family and the work that he had sacrificed so much for. He told us about how Hyrum Smith would not abandon his brother even though he was told that he would be killed if he went with Joseph. He willing went to his death because of his loyalty to his brother and a prophet of the Lord. Seeing the testimony that President Brough has was really powerful and was a great motivator to keep working hard.

So that was all great, and the area I feel is improving. We are finding a lot of new people that we hope will rapidly progress. Elder Lydiksen is a great companion that is always willing to improve, I just hope my next companion is the same. I will be letting you know next week what is happening with changes in the office because we will find out Monday to make all the administrative changes. I love you all and I´m trying to do my best out here for you.

Love,

-Ben

July 21, 2011

Dear Pearson Family,

First off to answer Mom´s many questions that I am happy to answer, we went to Santiago on P-day, it´s about a 3 hour drive from our house to there (we woke up early), yes we took a car but we no longer have a van we have a Toyota Hilux a truck not allowed in the states, but we took President´s car because the truck didn´t have enough seats. When we email we always email in the office when we can find time, I just wait until you email me. We also have a full P-day when we can and if not we do P-hours when we need a break. Brad, I laughed too the first time I heard that. And last of all, I have 3 more weeks with Elder Lydiksen and then I will be the one who supposedly knows everything... yikes. But it will be fun. I´m excited to see who my new companion will be.

So anyway, this week nothing too significant happened. Life goes on in the office. It has been a great experience with President because he really trusts and confides in us, even if we aren´t the assistants. He asks us what we think and likes to involve us in things when he can. He as such a great vision of what missionary work should be. He is very much against excess, he is taking a way a lot of things that I have thought twice about in the mission since the beginning. He just always talks about how if the manual doesn´t instruct us to have a meeting we shouldn´t have it because 100 meetings can´t make up for just being missionaries. He is going on a lot of divisions and getting to the roots of the work to have the engine function how it should, making sure everything from the bottom up is functioning so that a lot of the stress and pressure is taken off of the leaders. Everything he is doing I´ve agreed with and it is great to see that he just gets missionary work and has a real love for it. It really is an example when he and his wife come in from a taxi ride or something with a referral for us to give to the missionaries. They are great people.

As for the work in the area, Elder Lydiksen and I have found a few investigators that have promise of progressing, but nothing certain yet. It has been slow but I really feel like we are more focused now than were before. He´s a great companion because he let´s me know how I can improve and listens to me if I have something to talk about. When I wanted to talk spanish when we were working in the area so I didn´t lose too much of my spanish he just said ¨lets do it!¨ and has done it with me since. He really is a good Elder with good intentions. The Hernandez Estrada Family is still not progressing, President Brough wants to do divisions with us to see if he could help the situation, but I will let you know how that goes.

I´ve been thinking a lot lately about the quote by Boyd K. Packer where he says that doctrine understood changes behavior faster than a study of behavior changes behavior. This is something that is so apparent in our investigators. There is a stark difference between those who understand the need for a restoration, the need for an atonement, etc. and those who just go to church because they feel good there or because they like the missionaries. It is incredible to see somebody really see the goodness that our message contains. When they are humble and willing, how could they not see it? It´s true. Teaching that, really strenghtens my testimony that it is true and I just hope we can help somebody to see that to the point where they want to start on this path that will make them happy.

I have to end with what happened this morning at the bus stop. So we got off one bus and were going to the next bus that was one of the nicer city buses that you have to go through one of those counter gate things that they have at an amusement park. My companion and I got off after the other companionship and so we were running to catch up. I was digging in my pocket to find my coin because you can´t pass by the gate with out it and the bus and all the other elders were waiting for me. I was the last one onthe bus platform. Anyways I found the coin in the pocket feeling and feeling quite triumphant about that fact I too quickly tried to get through that counter gate that spins. As I pushed one of the rungs the other rung started to go up and caught my leg that was behind. I couldn´t really get out beacuse those things only go forward not backward and I slowly but surely ate it in front of a bus of about 50 latins and 3 northamericans who needless to say started to laugh mercilessly. I got up, said, I´m good, and got on for the bus ride of shame. I feel that it was a situation that was much funnier because of the fact that I was a gringo. I´m glad I provided them with a good laugh. If anyone gets that security camera footage and puts it on youtube let me know, I could be famous.

Well, I love you guys and hope all is well.

-Ben

Hey Pearson Family,

This week was a little hard. We have really been trying hard to focus ourselves in our area and find new investigators, and as we have been doing this, and seeing great progress in the Hernandez Estrada Family, Felix completely lost all progress that he has made over the last 6 weeks that I´ve been here. He had been progressing and progessing, reading in the Book of Mormon, goingto church, trying to apply te things that he has been learning in church, but the moment we mentioned that he had to get divorced from his old wife, he stopped doing all of the above. His wife Arselia has told us that he has completely turned back to all his old habits and has started to act even more child-like in the house, resorting to trying to intimidate her 10 year old kid that she has from another marriage. The last teaching appointment we had where this all came out, Felix just seemed miserable as he hard-headedly told us that life was how it is and he couldn´t change it and wasn´t willing to make an effort. He said that his wife is going to make legal problems for him and being baptized wasn´t worth facing his past. It is incredible the difference that learning and accepting the gospel makes in somebody´s life. He was progressing so rapidly and we could all notice it, including his family, but he has chosen to completely go the other way asking his wife and daughter Astrid to return the copies of the Book of Mormon which we had given them.

This was very disappointing for Elder Lydiksen and I, because we both felt that we just had to drop him. Until he is willing to change this and face up to his past he cannot progress. We tried talking about the importance of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the restored truths about the family that come with that very restoration, and he wouldn´t listen. Arselia and Astrid still want to get baptized so we are hoping that everything will turn out well with them and that Felix will come around a little later down the road. Arselia obviously can´t get baptized until they get married so we will see what happens. We can only do our best to apply this gospel to their lives, but we cannot force anyone to accept it, especially someone who has already felt that it is true. It is sad but were not getting down about it and just tryin to look for the next prepared family.

Speaking of that Elder Lydiksen and I have been talking a lot about what we want to do to better the area where we are and we are feeling really good about the changes we are making. He is a good elder and I´m kind of nervous to see who I recieve as a companion next change. So anyways, we are working hard, trying to better, and waiting for the results to come.

Guess what guys! I went to Santiago Atitlan yesterday and it was incredible. It is so green up there and very tropical. Elder Moore my good fried and the AP right now, served there and was able to learn Tzutujil a mayan dialect that they speak there. It is really cool because it is one of the only dialects that is being preserved because the people are so proud of their culture. The majority have no desire to speak spanish and don´t learn it. It was really bizarre to be back at square one not being able to understand anybody, but it was a cool experience. The lake is gorgeous and I will be sending pictures of course (too bad it was clouded over and we couldn´t see the volcano). I bought some scof as it is called which is the type of pants that the men wear there. I will be sending pictures of that as well. It is really cool to see a preserved culture but at the same time sad to see how it is being lost. I guess you can´t blame them though, they see a better lifestyle and they realize that the way to achieve that is to change what they grew up with. The new generation is really losing a lot of the oldcustoms, with the exception of the language which is really good.

Anyway, everything is great as always. This country is amazing, I just wish you could all meet the incredible people here. They are so kind and so accepting of everybody (an obvious generalization but for the most part true). Spanish is a great language, Guatemalans are great people, and the restored church of Jesus Christ is true. I love you all!

-Ben

Interviews, Walmart and hope of a Guatemalan mustache!

Hello the Pearson Fam that I would consider my clan,

This week has been a really good week as we have been able to get back on a schedule (somewhat). We had interviews with President which was a real highlight of the week. He has expressed to us that his time in the office was not his favorite part of his mission and I wanted to get a little insight on that. I asked him for his insight on how to stay focused when you are called to be an office missionary. What he told me really impressed me. He told me that God knows you have less time and that you just need to show him that you realize that you are more dependant on him in that time, and that he will bless you. He told me that it was hard for him when he was first in the office and that by the end of his time there he felt he really was understanding that principle more and he said he was having much more success. We´ve really been trying to apply that as a companionship and it is helping us seperate office and area time.

We also went out today with Sister Brough to show her where Walmart and everything is so that she can buy what the Elders need and it was really cool to get to know her a little better and get the "Mom´s Side" on the family story, which as everyone knows is the most accurate and juicy side of the family story. She told us a lot about her husband and his dad being in the quorom of the seventy. We also were able to feel super cool because our spanish was better than a white lady from the states who had been in Guatemala for a week. Yeah, our spanish is PRETTY good. Just kidding, she has impressed everybody how she has been so determined to learn the language... she is very driven.

Anyways so much more that, I´ll tell you a little bit about what is going on with the area. The Hernandez Estrada family wants to get married and baptized, but we found out that Felix is married to someone else and needs to get divorced. They both have very strong testimonies though. Arselia (Sister Estrada) told us that she really felt that this was the true church and although she had never seen the need to get married before that she now wants to because she understands that it is a commandment of God. Both of them have expressed to us their gratitude for the fact that we visit them and have brought a message that really is changing their family. They say that they dont know why they couldn´t have heard it before, but that it is better late than never. I hope that the divorce process is quick and that they can be baptized soon.

Also we have been teaching a 16 year old we found named William. He is progressing along nicely and wants to get baptized. It is really sad because he was sent to Guatemala by his parents to live with his sister and he has only been through the equivalent of 5th grade. He has a hard time understanding things but feels good about what we are teaching and actually has told us he wants to serve a mission. We haven´t taught him a whole lot but he has started going to church so we are hoping everything goes well as he starts to read the Book of Mormon.

I love Guatemala and the people here and the fact that I will proabably be able to grow a better mustache after being here. It´s true..... they´ve done studies. I love you all and hope all is well.

Love,

Ben

Mission President Change!

The Office Elders

Hey everybody,

Quickly I will answer Mom´s questions: My "broken toe" was actually probably just a sprain. I go running 3 times a week just fine and it doesn´t hurt me. It was just really purple for a couple of days. But the story is WAY more interesting when the toe was broken isn´t it? The drive to the beach is an hour. Yes I went to super P-day and we do those with half the mission every time because it is extremely difficult to get all the mission together. Also, we all work in the same office space and the AP´s are here about half the time and gone about half the time.

Anyways this week was absolutely crazy because of the transition of President´s. It is official I have met President and Sister Brough (Bruff is how it sounds) and they are incredible. They are very young and still have a 14 year old daughter that will be living with them for 3 years here. He is such a contrast to President Baldwin. President Baldwin is an amazing person, but is very stern, which makes sense because he was a pilot for the air force for years. President Brough jokes around and has a great presence. Sister Brough still looks scared out of her mind everytime we see her, but she is fearless as she gave a little talk in the best spanish she could muster in front of half the missionaries in the mission today in change meeting. I was very impressed because that would be terrifying. You can tell she has been working hard to study the language in the last few months. I will be working very closely with her because that is what the secretaries do. President Brough gave some words and while his spanish is rusty (mostly just his accent) it is very good. You can tell he really feels these things, he just seems very sincere. It is cool because he started his mission 20 minutes away from Chimaltenango where I served.

Other than that we have barely had time to work in our area the last few days, which is sad but necessary because the new missionaries (a group of 13) came in on Monday and we had to basically babysit them for 2 days until change meeting along with the AP´s. They seem like a great group of missionaries. We had to deal a lot with getting food, the transportation, etc. but we are finally done with the stressful days because everyone is situated in the area out of our responsibility.

It´s interesting though because tonight we will be hauling the missionaries that are leaving around and we saw all of them (which includes some great friends) at change meeting. After seeing the nervous new missionaries come in and the nervous old missionaries leaving, I have really thought about how short this time is. The Lord asks us to serve for 2 years, 2 years that we will never get back. We need to take full advantage of that time, and try to learn as much as we can, that´s why the He asks us to serve missions. It´s such a personal experience, two years set aside for spiritual growth, the kind of growth that come from serving and helping others. In doing this we obviously are probably the ones who are helped most. I have just really thought about what we need to do as missionaries to leave everything else behind for two years and just give it our all, knowing that we will recieve so much more than we gave. It´s been a really interesting and thought provoking experience.

Anyways next week I will fill you in on the Hernandez Estradad family (Felix) because he has been working a lot and we haven´t been able to visit them. Thank for all the support you all give me, it really helps. I love you!

-Ben