Teach and testify to everyone clearly..../ Sad news...Elder Oxom's dad dies

April 17, 2012

Hey!
Thanks for your emails, I grabbed some time this morning to write so that I can use Wednesday to get some stuff done. I don't really know how I'm going to write this email, there's so much to write and it's been an interesting week. But first of all... I FINALLY heard from Austin! Bummer I can't be at that wedding. Same with John's! How's Troy doing?
I'm so sorry to hear about Aubrey's job! But I'm sure that will make the whole school thing a bit easier. And it sounds like Brock is doing awesome!!! So good to hear. Mom, I'm excited for Provo. I don't have time to get trunky, but I look forward to everything in the near future. Haley, sounds like you're doing great! Keep up the eating healthy thing. If you do, I will too. Although it's been kind of hard since Tuesday when Little Caesar's opened hahaha! I've eaten pizza 5 out of the last seven days. Oh gosh. It's so cheap and so good. I think Coatepeque just turned into the best zone in the mission. Mom, hang in there with those 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I feel for you today! I dunno how you do it.
Dad, was that really your first time doing nine holes of golf in 8 years?? That's kind of sad, but that's great you could go with the guys! You and that lawn mower have something special. You just can't get rid of it haha. I feel like the house is going to sell soon, especially with all these showings. Ojala! And your new calling sounds awesome! That's a lot of young men, that will be way cool.
And the election will be interesting. I look forward to missing out on the majority of the mudslinging and show up in time to see the epic clash at the end.
So last week was the opening of Little Caesars. Then we spent a lot of time buying medicine for a lot of missionaries in the zone who are suddenly sick. The health exams will continue today with Elder Carnahan and Elder Uasike. Haha parasites are persistent. We also were all caught up with preparations for Elder Gavarret of the Seventy. I'll come back to that.
There's a lady in our ward named Edna. She's from Honduras and she was baptized two years ago. Her son was baptized four years ago and is serving a mission. A couple months ago she brought her oldest daughter, Karen, to church. Karen is 28 years old and has a 7 year old daughter named Karlita. We started teaching Karen with Elder Cortez. She's very intelligent and always had an attitude/desire to do what God wants her to do. That's such a key indication that somebody will progress. She always prayed every day, but when we started teaching her she started reading the scriptures and attending church every Sunday. We challenged her to be baptized, and she said she would get baptized when she felt it was right. We said that was fine, and kept focusing on that goal of baptism. I felt like with Elder Cortez we were pressuring her too much and it got a little out of hand, she sensed an unrighteous desire in us. The first time we visited her with Elder Villatoro we asked how she was doing. She started talking about her baptism! She said she was ready! So we set a date for this past Saturday. As we taught her about keeping the Sabbath Day holy last week she asked what the punishment is for not attending church. We explained that she would miss out on the blessings and that faithful attendance and participation of the sacrament is necessary to enter the temple, which is the next goal for her to reach. She explained that a bank had offered her work, but said that she would have to work on Sundays. I asked her what she thought about that. She responded that her commitment to the Lord was much more important and the she would be rejecting the offer. Elder Munns interviewed her and said she was the most prepared investigator he'd ever interviewed. The baptism was so wonderful. I think it was the best baptismal service I've had in the mission, thanks to the members and the Spirit that was present. It was great!
During the baptism a sister in the ward informed me that one of our former investigators passed away on Thursday. Her name is Lydia and she was battling cancer, but thought it was gone. She went to the doctor after feeling an intense pain in her stomache and they found a lot more cancer in her pancreas. When we were teaching her, we had some very spiritual moments and we could see a change in her. We invited her to be baptized, but she didn't accept the invitation. I thought we should have tried a different approach in how we taught her, but we kept going with the same principle of the Restoration. Her last day she was in bed and a member of our ward, a good friend of hers, was by her side. She whispered to him to tell us thank you for all we did for her.
I feel so thankful that we were able to help her through a rough time and help her feel God's love for her, but at the same time I can't help but think that there was something else we could have done for her spiritually. Jacob 1:19 comes to mind every time I think about her. When I think about the immense responsibility the Lord places upon us as 19-21 year old men, I remember what Elder Holland said, something like ´we know it's hard, but we don't apologize for what we ask of you young men. It's what the Lord expects of you.´ I know that's true and I hope I can learn from this experience and use it to make sure I do everything I can for everyone I come in contact with. Elder Gavarret told us yesterday to make sure we teach and testify to everyone clearly so that they can't say we didn't try. We did teach and testify, and I know everyone has their freedom to choose, but there's still that doubt of whether we could have done more.
Yesterday was just crazy. The conference was wonderful. It was like putting on a stuco event with the pressure of a general authority coming to inspect it. I did forget to get the keys to open the stake president's office so that Elder Gavarret could do interviews. We were running all over town and finally got the keys after he had finished two interviews in a hallway. President wasn't too happy with me. But it all worked out ok. I did my best. I feel like it was nearly perfect aside from that one key detail haha!
I would share what I learned in the conference, but it's so much. He talked a lot about the law of chastity and being a consecrated missionary.
After the conference and the interviews we were his guides around town as he and his wife inspected the houses of the missionaries. We were stressing to find a family he could visit with us to teach. None of our investigators were home though. But the houses were clean. I got to contact with Elder Gavarret. That was pretty powerful. He taught a teenage couple about the plan of salvation and the law of chastity and put an appointment. Haha it was sooo cool!
Then we got some terrible news. There's an elder in the zone, Elder Oxom, who is from a little village near Peten. He's an awesome guy, always smiling. I was standing next to President when we got the news that Elder Oxom's dad had been killed. We immediately left the houses we were visiting and headed to Elder Oxom's house (forty minutes away). So Elder Villatoro and I went with the assistants and President and Sister Maravilla and Elder and Sister Gavarret followed close behind. We got to the house and it was so terrible. President and Elder Gavarret gave Elder Oxom a blessing and we made some plans to get him to his house to see his family. So Elder Villatoro is on his way to Coban (a sixteen hour bus ride) with Elder Oxom and Elder Lopez. I am with Elder Oxom's companion, Elder Yat. Elder Yat is also from a small village and he's been kind of traumatized by this experience. He doesn't speak much Spanish and I speak no Kekt Chi, but we're hanging in there. He's such a nice guy, seems like a little boy. But it's been a little crazy around here. Didn't sleep much last night and we've got a leadership conference this afternoon. Right now I've gotta go take some sick elders to a clinic and share the news with the zone. It's going to be a good week, but we've had some intense ups and downs and a lot of stress. These are the times to show our quality.
This is the Lord's work.
I love you guys so much! Gotta run, but I'll write next week. Thank you all for everything!
Much love,
Elder Austin Tyler

Fulfilling our duty to God

April 9, 2012

Hey family!
So I'm still alive after that Book of Mormon marathon. Our zone ended up finishing first out of the whole mission and we will supposedly win a prize!
It was so dang hard, we didn't sleep at all and finished in 24 hours and 25 minutes. It was pretty tough to make it a spiritual experience as we were all in zombie mode. It was pretty hilarious, heads bobbing up and down. To stay awake we armed ourselves with plastic balls and threw them at everyone who fell asleep. We also stood up and switched seats every time we read 'And it came to pass'. It was quite a challenge.
As we read I focused on finding examples of people fulfilling their 'duty' and I realized that that's all the Book of Mormon really is, a history of men and women fulfilling their duty to God and being blessed for it. As we fulfill our duty we grow closer to the Savior and receive power and blessings, which naturally result in happiness and joy. I spent some time afterwards (after a good night sleep) meditating on my personal duty. I came to the conclusion that I sincerely want to be obedient. What I need is divine asistance in turning that desire into action. My plan of action is improve my habits of prayer in order to enhance my relationship with Heavenly Father so that I can more fully rely on His power to help me be more obedient and diligent with my time. That's my focus right now. I mention it because when I tell people my goals it motivates me even more to reach them.
Mom!
The dentist appointment sounds good to me! Regarding the backpacking trip...I would love to go backpacking when I get back. Whether it's Rawah, Wind Rivers, the Neversummers, or RMNP, I would love to go backpacking and camping. I miss the mountains even more than I miss apple juice and warm chocolate chip cookies.
Easter was great! Very spiritual, David, a recent convert (three months of being a member) gave a talk on the Atonement yesterday and wow! So cool! I celebrated Easter by making a steak and egg sandwich with a can of cold root beer. I'm good on supplies for right now. I may have to buy a couple shirts here, but I'm doing alright. Thank you for all you do!
I've been thinking... since I've been on my mission each of us has been through some of the toughest trials of our lives (at least that's what it seems like to me. I mean the whole selling the house, moving, crazy work schedules and changes, really tough callings, crazy school schedules, Brock having a rough time, my challenges in the mission, etc.). And I was thinking about the messages in General Conference. Looking back I feel like we've all grown so much and in so many ways. It's hard, but cool how the Lord has tried us all at the same time and we've progressed so much as a result. It makes me happy to think of it all that way.
Dad!
Speaking of crazy work schedules, sounds like things are pretty intense. Thanks for all you do to provide for our family. I'm sure sometimes it feels like an obligation, but I really am thankful for what you've done to provide such a secure lifestyle for us. My companion is still great. Being around him without sleep was kinda hard haha, but that was the case with everybody during the reading marathon. Haha it was so crazy. How goes the election?
Brock, I'm going to bring my mini-chess set when we go backpacking.
Oh, yesterday I saw a preview for the new Avengers movie. It's amazing how such a little thing can become such a huge distraction.
Aubrey! Thanks for your note! Good luck with school! You'll do great!
Haley,
thank you for Mike's address and WHAAA!??? After this concert vacation sounds so epic that you probably won't have anything to pass that up until you get married... And CONGRATULATIONS on your ACT score! Keep that up! What would be the female equivalent of 'stud'? Studnisha.
I think I'm still tired from this past weekend.
I don't know if I mentioned this, but Saul got baptized! He is doing great! His wife is still in recovery after the new baby and all, but she also wants to get baptized! So wonderful!
So this week we will be preparing for Elder Eduardo Gavarret from the Seventy. He's coming here to Coatepeque to share a message, inspect our houses, accompany us to appointments to evaluate how we teach, interview some of the missionaries, and there's a lot of pressure on me to make it perfect! That will happen on Monday, so you might not hear from me until Wednesday. On Tuesday he's going to meet with the zone leaders in Retalhuleu. That should be cool, but intense. After that we have a stake conference and then the temple trip!
So it should be a tough, but rewarding few weeks. I look forward to it, but it's a lot of stress.
I absolutely love Elder Bednar's message in the Liahona/Ensign. I read that yesterday and I think I'll read it a couple more times this week to really study and meditate about it. Way cool. I gotta get off now, but I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week.
Haley, I love that scripture you shared.
Love,
Elder Austin Tyler