Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: New Month...
Hey!
Haha okay I'll be honest. That picture of Ginger made me baggy. Haha the dogs here aren't quite the same.
Sounds like a lot of interesting stuff happening at home! Thanks for all the news! Haley! Running for president!? Technically you have the same amount of time in Stuco when I ran, but dang girl! I hope you're sure you want to do that. Being president was hard. Realize that. Pray about your decision, and if it feels right, go for it! If you do decide to go through with that, realize that you may need to give up some other clubs in order to focus on stuco. I recommend sticking with sports, because the exercise is essential. But don't worry about trying to impress on college applications by being involved with everything. Regardless of the outcomes of tomorrow, have fun with it! And I have something important for you to read. It's a talk by Spencer W. Kimball titled 'Jesus: the Perfect Leader' from the August 1979 Ensign. Read it and apply what you can from it. I wish I had realized some of the lessons in there as a leader at school. And take Mom and Dad's advice seriously. They both have a lot of leadership experience, they remember things that Brock and I went through, and they're way smarter than us. During high school, I blew off some of their advice and I regret it.
Mom, I'm doing great! It was another tough week, but I had a few pick-me-ups that helped me out a lot.
Dad, there are no cultural things to do here on P-day. It's really weird, there's nothing in our mission like that. No ruins, no museums, no volcanos, and the beach is about three hours away. (we can see the beach on a clear day from the top of our area, but the roads are so bad that it takes forever to get there). All the other missions in Guatemala have a ton of cool stuff like that. But I guess our mission trades that for more success as far as baptisms. I'm content with playing soccer. Maybe we can come back and visit some of the cool stuff after the mission.
Transfers are in two weeks. I think either I or my companion are out of here. But we'll see.
So on Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Maurer, our zone leader. It was such a great day. I went to his area and his companion came to Cuyo with Elder Tacam. We took care of a lot of zone leader stuff and finally got to teaching in the evening. I haven't known him for long, but he's already one of my best friends in the mission. And I love his area. His bishop is a multi millionaire that speaks english and fed us pizza that night. And we ate it in his mansion.
Elder Maurer was pretty stressed out that day and we had some good laughs to stay sane, but we also had some really cool gospel discussions. I asked him a question that I often ask myself and he had a really interesting response. I explained to him that we all have different gifts and blessings during this life. So that means we should be using those gifts to progress during this life to reach a potential. A lot of times I feel like I'm not working with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. My question was, 'What if I'm not progressing as a missionary at the rate the Lord expects of me? Does that mean I'm failing to reach my potential?' He explained to me that he often worried about that and then he said I need to forget myself. He said that when we worry about stuff like that, it's like we're walking around with a mirror in front of our face all day. We focus on ourselves and see our errors, and that keeps us from seeing the needs of others. When we take that mirror away and focus on others, we progress a lot faster and we're a lot happier.
I was impressed by that response, and it helped me a lot. The Savior never worried about himself, he was always focused on others. Of course, he had no errors to worry about, but perhaps we would have no errors if we were always focused on the needs of others.
I asked him another question, less serious, but it's always something i've kind of wondered about. I asked him what Christ did on the seventh day to rest. He said I dunno and we sat there wondering about it for awhile. After I came back to Cuyo, he called us on the phone that night and then told me he had an answer. He asked his bishop that question. His bishop explained that the Savior admired and enjoyed His creations and expressed gratitude to the Father. I felt like it was a big, duh! Haha it's simple, but it's so cool! Haha why didn't I realize that?
Okay, I don't have a question this week, but I have a favor to ask. A long time ago, I heard that a modern prophet made a promise to full time missionaries and explained that if they memorize a scripture a day on their mission they will come back with a photographic memory. Could you confirm that quote for me? That would be awesome. Regardless of whether or not it's true, I'm gonna keep doing it, but I'm just curious as to whether or not that's a legitimate quote.
Ha blessings in disguise... A lady in the ward, Margarita, was talking to us the other night about financial problems. She wanted advice. We eventually got onto the topic of tithing. I was thinking 'okay, here I am, a gringo, apparently with tons of money, how can I tell them they ought to pay their tithing while they're having financial problems?' Then I remembered when I crashed Brock's car... and how I didn't have much money. And then I needed a job in the summer. I kept paying tithing as I looked for more work and was eventually blessed with a lot of job opportunities. I shared that experience and it really helped out. As horrible as it was going through that experience with crashing the car and all (and how I still have no money), it is all a blessing in disguise. I've been able to use that experience to help other people understand the blessing of tithing. And even though I don't know what I'm going to do for money in the future, I have faith that the Lord will help me out. Maybe that means tough times ahead, but it'll all work out. And when I explain that to other people, it helps them be motivated to stay strong and have faith that it'll all work out.
I found out today that Elder Maurer has changes tomorrow during the leadership meeting. That's kind of a downer, but he's needed elsewhere. Haha he's been here for over a year!
Well, take care everyone. You're all in my prayers. And thank you for your prayers, emails, and support. I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week!
Elder Austin Tyler
