Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 1:48 PM
Family!!!! Thanks for all the awesome news. First of all, Momma, I
didn't get your email last week. But I had the treat of reading two
from you today :)
So transfers are on Wednesday and I don't find out what's going to
happen until tonight. I'm ready for anything I feel like. It'll be
good.
Today we played soccer and volleyball with the whole zone, including
the sisters. It was a good time. It got a little intense and that
was fun, but a bit dangerous haha.
Mom, to answer some of your questions... Studying is still my
favorite time of the day (personal study). I need to work on making
companionship study more enjoyable and effective. Sometimes it feels
like an interview and I don't learn a whole lot. But I'm working on
improving that.
Members are doing well. It's hard not having a chapel in Cuyo. The
attendance fluctuates a lot and the members have a hard time making
visits because the area is so big. A lot of the responsibility falls
on us missionaries. It's tough, but it's good to get to know all of
the members. Last night we visited Luis, the recent convert, and his
family. They're having some really tough trials and I was glad to be
there to help them out. It was really weird though, I felt
spiritually exhausted after that appointment. It was unlike anything
I've ever felt. I felt really stressed for them, but also like there
was hope and all that. It was a heavy appointment, but I feel like we
helped them out.
And Mom, I'm glad you were able to go to the temple. It sounds like
that was a huge boost. Thank you so much for your love and prayers.
I can feel it. And I love you so much. I pray for you daily. I hope
you have a good week :)
Dad, thank you for the banking FYI. I'll keep that in mind, ha I had no idea.
We heard about the earthquake, but I wasn't aware that it was so
devastating. We had tsunami alerts here, but nothing happened.
People were freaking out here in Cuyo even though we are up high and
like 40 miles from the coast.
My buddy, Elder Palea, told me to tell you, Dad, thank you for the
quotes you send. He said, 'Tell your Dad the Hawaiian kid says thanks
for the quotes.' I shared a couple with him and they helped him
a lot this week. Thank you for those.
What you said about ignorance is so true Dad. When there is a lack of
education, it is devastating. A lady tried to explain to me a few
weeks ago that stars are actually giant worms in space. She said she
heard it somewhere and was convinced that I had no idea what I was
talking about when I explained that stars are balls of gas and fire.
And sometimes when we teach people, we ask them if they want to
know if it's all true (leading into the explanation that they can pray
to ask God if it's true). And they tell us that they already know
it's true because we used a couple of verses from the Bible. So then
they aren't willing to keep commitments because they aren't willing to
ask the Lord for a spiritual witness to obtain a testimony. It's
frustrating. And I constantly have to think of how to make lessons
more simple to help appeal to the people we teach who haven't been
taught to think very complexly. It's tough. Sometimes I love them
for it though. Other times I get frustrated. But it makes me
thankful for my education. So thankful.
This week we had interviews with President and it was sooo good.
Hermana Maravilla (the mission mom) reviewed our planners and talked
with us indivudually. She's a really cool lady. The interview was
powerful. President asked me what my most positive attribute is. I
told him it is my desire to always improve. Then he asked my biggest
weakness. I told him patience, oftentimes with myself. He chuckled
haha. Then he told me he wants me to focus on following the spirit.
He said to study and practice it. Then he asked me what attribute I
want to work on. I told him charity because that's what I fasted for
this month. He told me to study it and practice it. He said the
study part is essential in order to understand what I ought to put
into practice. Then he said we learn through practice and that
applies to everything in the gospel as well.
At the end of the interview he congratulated me for my progress with
Spanish and then told me to tell you guys something. He said to tell
you that he is extremely grateful to have me in the mission and he is
very proud of my work. That made me feel good haha.
Haley keep going strong in everything. Seek Heavenly Father's
help in every aspect of your life and he'll help you. Be happy and
have fun!
Brock, you sound like you're doing well. Take it to em at school.
You're a stud. Thanks for making me laugh haha!
I love you guys! Have an awesome week. The Lord loves us more than
we can understand. I have a strong testimony of that. Thanks for
your love and prayers.
Oh snap! I got a letter from Elder Eckel this week! So awesome!
He's doing well. He's safe haha. Ah what a stud.
Love you!
Elder Austin Tyler
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Good communication is key
Whoooaoaaaaoaoaoaoaoaaaaa Haley!
Hahaha CONGRATULATIONS!
That is soooo cool! Good job x1000 and then some!
I wrote you a letter like three weeks ago and the mail place has been
closed the whole time, so I haven't sent it. And now with this news I
gotta write another one! But I'll send that one today if I can and
write another. But quick advice, based on what went through my mind
when I was elected. Be careful of pride (I mean, you're practically
immune to it), but just be careful. And have fun with it! As things
get rolling, have fun, or else you'll burn out. Use the stress as
motivation to work hard, but have a good time with it! The stress
won't hit for awhile, so learn as much as you can now before all the
responsibility shifts. But seriously, fo realz, props.
Haha Dad, don't worry about the doggy pictures. When I say it made me
baggy, it was more of an awwww doggyyy! Not a depressed homesick
baggy. There are different levels of bagginess and I never get the
depressed homesick baggy. Haha so don't worry, I really do like the
pictures of the Ginge.
And thank you so much for that quote by President Hinckley. I wrote
it down and I'll add it to my collection.
Oh and as far as the world news, thanks for keeping me posted on that.
But could you include specifics as to what's happening? haha I get
really curious when you talk about governments collapsing all over the
place. Is it still Libya and Egypt? Who else? What's up with Greece?
So we got a new Zone Leader, his name is Elder Bosen. He's from San
Diego and he reminds me so much of Nick Allegretti. He seems way cool
(he has 20 months and he's still working hard) and he's excited to get
to work here.
Elder Tacam and I fear that one of us is out of here next week (with
changes). We both want one more change together in Cuyo, but we'll
see what happens. We have interviews with President this week and I
look forward to that.
I learned a good lesson this week. So Elder Tacam and I have had some
problems in our companionship, nothing big, but I could sense a bit of
contention. It was kind of weird and I was just trying to take it
easy with things and let it pass. In our companionship inventory on
Thursday, I brought it up. I told him that if there was anything I
could do to help us overcome that, to let me know. That opened the
door to communicate openly how we felt and what was going on. It
turns out his nephew went to the hospital last week and is in a pretty
critical condition. And obviously, he's stressed about that. On top
of that, we both have been frustrated with our lack of success lately.
But that idea of communication helped us figure it all out and get
our heads back on straight. I feel like communication is so key when
it comes to our relationships and interactions with other people, more
than I though before. We can never assume that we know what someone
else is thinking. That's dangerous. That enables contention to come
between people. It's something I know I will need to apply throughout
my life, especially in marriage. It's interesting how much I've been
learning that I can apply in the future.
But yeah, we discussed the advice President gave us. President told
us to take it easy, not get frustrated, and not turn into robots. He
said he know's we're working hard, not only because he trusts us, but
also because he's been watching our area ha. He warned the whole
mission to be careful this month, and he repeated that caution to us.
He said Satan is going to work very hard in March because he isn't
pleased with the mission's success in the past few weeks. He told us
to be very careful. I kind of perked up my ears with that, and Elder
Tacam and I discussed how we need to completely eliminate pride in
every aspect because that's the only way we've seen the adversary get
involved. So it was a great discussion and I was so glad we were able
to talk things through. I'm still a bit (I don't know how to say this
in English) miffed? about our lack of success. It's a bit
frustrating. We're working hard and doing things right and
continuously improving. But all we can do is our best. So that's
what we're going to keep on doing.
It sounds like everyone's really busy, but good and happy. Sorry I
don't have a lot of specific stuff to right about this week. It was a
solid week, a good one, and I'm excited for this upcoming week. I
love you guys a ton! More than you know! Can you believe it's
already March? Time is picking up.
Take care, tell everyone I say hey!
Love you!
Elder Austin Tyler
Hahaha CONGRATULATIONS!
That is soooo cool! Good job x1000 and then some!
I wrote you a letter like three weeks ago and the mail place has been
closed the whole time, so I haven't sent it. And now with this news I
gotta write another one! But I'll send that one today if I can and
write another. But quick advice, based on what went through my mind
when I was elected. Be careful of pride (I mean, you're practically
immune to it), but just be careful. And have fun with it! As things
get rolling, have fun, or else you'll burn out. Use the stress as
motivation to work hard, but have a good time with it! The stress
won't hit for awhile, so learn as much as you can now before all the
responsibility shifts. But seriously, fo realz, props.
Haha Dad, don't worry about the doggy pictures. When I say it made me
baggy, it was more of an awwww doggyyy! Not a depressed homesick
baggy. There are different levels of bagginess and I never get the
depressed homesick baggy. Haha so don't worry, I really do like the
pictures of the Ginge.
And thank you so much for that quote by President Hinckley. I wrote
it down and I'll add it to my collection.
Oh and as far as the world news, thanks for keeping me posted on that.
But could you include specifics as to what's happening? haha I get
really curious when you talk about governments collapsing all over the
place. Is it still Libya and Egypt? Who else? What's up with Greece?
So we got a new Zone Leader, his name is Elder Bosen. He's from San
Diego and he reminds me so much of Nick Allegretti. He seems way cool
(he has 20 months and he's still working hard) and he's excited to get
to work here.
Elder Tacam and I fear that one of us is out of here next week (with
changes). We both want one more change together in Cuyo, but we'll
see what happens. We have interviews with President this week and I
look forward to that.
I learned a good lesson this week. So Elder Tacam and I have had some
problems in our companionship, nothing big, but I could sense a bit of
contention. It was kind of weird and I was just trying to take it
easy with things and let it pass. In our companionship inventory on
Thursday, I brought it up. I told him that if there was anything I
could do to help us overcome that, to let me know. That opened the
door to communicate openly how we felt and what was going on. It
turns out his nephew went to the hospital last week and is in a pretty
critical condition. And obviously, he's stressed about that. On top
of that, we both have been frustrated with our lack of success lately.
But that idea of communication helped us figure it all out and get
our heads back on straight. I feel like communication is so key when
it comes to our relationships and interactions with other people, more
than I though before. We can never assume that we know what someone
else is thinking. That's dangerous. That enables contention to come
between people. It's something I know I will need to apply throughout
my life, especially in marriage. It's interesting how much I've been
learning that I can apply in the future.
But yeah, we discussed the advice President gave us. President told
us to take it easy, not get frustrated, and not turn into robots. He
said he know's we're working hard, not only because he trusts us, but
also because he's been watching our area ha. He warned the whole
mission to be careful this month, and he repeated that caution to us.
He said Satan is going to work very hard in March because he isn't
pleased with the mission's success in the past few weeks. He told us
to be very careful. I kind of perked up my ears with that, and Elder
Tacam and I discussed how we need to completely eliminate pride in
every aspect because that's the only way we've seen the adversary get
involved. So it was a great discussion and I was so glad we were able
to talk things through. I'm still a bit (I don't know how to say this
in English) miffed? about our lack of success. It's a bit
frustrating. We're working hard and doing things right and
continuously improving. But all we can do is our best. So that's
what we're going to keep on doing.
It sounds like everyone's really busy, but good and happy. Sorry I
don't have a lot of specific stuff to right about this week. It was a
solid week, a good one, and I'm excited for this upcoming week. I
love you guys a ton! More than you know! Can you believe it's
already March? Time is picking up.
Take care, tell everyone I say hey!
Love you!
Elder Austin Tyler
A lesson learned comes in handy when teaching about tithing
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
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
Doin' the Work
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: Doin' the Work
Hey!
Sounds like everyone's doing really well! Thank you guys for the
advice and news and encouragement! That's so cool to hear about RJ!
Keep me updated with what's going on with him!
Haley- I think you should compete in track. Competition helps you get
better. And it's fun!
Also, if you don't get VP, I recommend keep running for other things.
You don't necessarily need to give a speech for every position. But
for VP and social chair, if given the opportunity to speak, I would
focus on those. That's great to hear that WNL went well! And yes,
I'm happy! Happy, but not content. A letter to Austin and Jordan
would be great! I'm sure they would love that.
I'm doing great! It was a tough week, I'll explain more in a bit. But
I'm happy and I'm enjoying the mission. Things are so much better
than my first area and I love it. I'm not depressed or anything,
there are just some natural ups and downs with the work.
Dad- Thank you for your advice and all the news. Sounds like work is
busy and it sounds like Gospel Doctrine class is just awesome. I want
to sit in! Good luck with everything with work.
Brock- I already responded to you haha but thanks again for your email.
Okay, so this past week was looking great. We had four baptisms
scheduled for Sunday! I went on divisions with our district leader so
he could do the interviews with them. Everything went well. None of
them showed up to church and none of them got baptized. We went to
pick them up early to take them to church, but they weren't there. We
called them later to see what happened and they informed us that they
forgot to tell us that they would be gone. They then told us that
they went to a different church service. And they told us they aren't
going to be baptized. It was a painful day. But there was an
interesting lesson that I learned. I've been praying and fasting for
charity lately. I remembered Brock telling me about the importance of
fasting when developing charity and how he said he felt a significant
difference in his attitude toward other people. So I've been working
on it. I've felt a lot of excitment and love for people as they've
progressed in the gospel. But I realized that the gift of charity is
not always a gift of happiness. When Christ exercised pure love in
the Garden of Gethsemani, that wasn't a happy moment. I feel so much
more sad for our investigators that changed their minds and
everything. It made it so much more difficult after seeing them
progress and feeling that love and appreciation for them. So for
that, it was a tough week.
The thing with stuff like that, is when you feel down about something,
it magnifies everything else that doesn't go just right. So I was
determined to keep away from negative self talk. I focused on Luis,
our recent convert. We bought him a white shirt and I gave him a tie
this week and he wore them to church yesterday. He also received the
Aaronic Priesthood. So cool! That was the ray of sunshine through a
stormy day.
And P-day has been way fun. Lots of similar things happened in the
zone and everyone was just in a frustrated, goofy mood, so we all went
crazy and played basketball, volleyball, and soccer. It was so fun
and we had some long laughs. Some hard laughs too haha it was fun.
Now I'm really sunburnt, but I feel good aside from that. And I'm
going on divisions with Elder Maurer, our zone leader, on Tuesday.
I'm very excited for that. He's such a good guy, and it'll be nice to
just hang with him for a day.
My companion is still awesome. He is very consistent and level
headed. And it's such a blessing to be with him.
On Saturday we went to all of our visits with a guy that lives down
the street from us. he's our cook's son. He's been inactive in the
church for a long time and because of some really tough trials, he's
realized the importance of the church. He's 24 years old and it was
really cool to work with him. He enjoyed teaching with it and
hopefully that can turn into a desire to serve a mission. That would
be so awesome.
Question of the week:
How can I have more faith to receive personal revelation?
Thank you guys for everything. I love you all so much. You guys
often ask me if I'm depressed haha! Do I sounds depressed? There are
some really hard things to deal with here and there, but I'm still
happy. Whenever I'm in a bad mood, I can always pick myself up. But
thanks for worrying about me :) And thank you for your letters and
prayers.
Con amor y cariño,
Elder Austin Tyler
Subject: Re: Doin' the Work
Hey!
Sounds like everyone's doing really well! Thank you guys for the
advice and news and encouragement! That's so cool to hear about RJ!
Keep me updated with what's going on with him!
Haley- I think you should compete in track. Competition helps you get
better. And it's fun!
Also, if you don't get VP, I recommend keep running for other things.
You don't necessarily need to give a speech for every position. But
for VP and social chair, if given the opportunity to speak, I would
focus on those. That's great to hear that WNL went well! And yes,
I'm happy! Happy, but not content. A letter to Austin and Jordan
would be great! I'm sure they would love that.
I'm doing great! It was a tough week, I'll explain more in a bit. But
I'm happy and I'm enjoying the mission. Things are so much better
than my first area and I love it. I'm not depressed or anything,
there are just some natural ups and downs with the work.
Dad- Thank you for your advice and all the news. Sounds like work is
busy and it sounds like Gospel Doctrine class is just awesome. I want
to sit in! Good luck with everything with work.
Brock- I already responded to you haha but thanks again for your email.
Okay, so this past week was looking great. We had four baptisms
scheduled for Sunday! I went on divisions with our district leader so
he could do the interviews with them. Everything went well. None of
them showed up to church and none of them got baptized. We went to
pick them up early to take them to church, but they weren't there. We
called them later to see what happened and they informed us that they
forgot to tell us that they would be gone. They then told us that
they went to a different church service. And they told us they aren't
going to be baptized. It was a painful day. But there was an
interesting lesson that I learned. I've been praying and fasting for
charity lately. I remembered Brock telling me about the importance of
fasting when developing charity and how he said he felt a significant
difference in his attitude toward other people. So I've been working
on it. I've felt a lot of excitment and love for people as they've
progressed in the gospel. But I realized that the gift of charity is
not always a gift of happiness. When Christ exercised pure love in
the Garden of Gethsemani, that wasn't a happy moment. I feel so much
more sad for our investigators that changed their minds and
everything. It made it so much more difficult after seeing them
progress and feeling that love and appreciation for them. So for
that, it was a tough week.
The thing with stuff like that, is when you feel down about something,
it magnifies everything else that doesn't go just right. So I was
determined to keep away from negative self talk. I focused on Luis,
our recent convert. We bought him a white shirt and I gave him a tie
this week and he wore them to church yesterday. He also received the
Aaronic Priesthood. So cool! That was the ray of sunshine through a
stormy day.
And P-day has been way fun. Lots of similar things happened in the
zone and everyone was just in a frustrated, goofy mood, so we all went
crazy and played basketball, volleyball, and soccer. It was so fun
and we had some long laughs. Some hard laughs too haha it was fun.
Now I'm really sunburnt, but I feel good aside from that. And I'm
going on divisions with Elder Maurer, our zone leader, on Tuesday.
I'm very excited for that. He's such a good guy, and it'll be nice to
just hang with him for a day.
My companion is still awesome. He is very consistent and level
headed. And it's such a blessing to be with him.
On Saturday we went to all of our visits with a guy that lives down
the street from us. he's our cook's son. He's been inactive in the
church for a long time and because of some really tough trials, he's
realized the importance of the church. He's 24 years old and it was
really cool to work with him. He enjoyed teaching with it and
hopefully that can turn into a desire to serve a mission. That would
be so awesome.
Question of the week:
How can I have more faith to receive personal revelation?
Thank you guys for everything. I love you all so much. You guys
often ask me if I'm depressed haha! Do I sounds depressed? There are
some really hard things to deal with here and there, but I'm still
happy. Whenever I'm in a bad mood, I can always pick myself up. But
thanks for worrying about me :) And thank you for your letters and
prayers.
Con amor y cariño,
Elder Austin Tyler
A week of ups and downs
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: Back Home...
I don't know what happened with last week's email, but I just saw that
it didn't send last week. So here it is! I'll write another one
after I send this. Sorry about that. I blame Guatemala technology :P
Wow it sounds like things are way busy! Lot's of good, exciting,
stressful stuff going on. I love hearing about all of it! Haley, let
me know how everything goes this week. I'm glad to hear you're asking
someone to Sadie's. And that basketball game sounded so rad! Wish I
could see it! Take pictures during all these high school experiences!
Mom, you asked how I'm feeling physically. I'm feeling pretty good!
I exercise most mornings and I'm staying pretty healthy. I hope you
and Dad are feeling better today.
Haley, could you send Ryan's zip code por favor? Thanks :)
Thank you so much for that package with the tshirt, letter, and
diagram! The shirt is awesome, I used it today when we played soccer
(which I absolutely love.
I get an hour of internet time, but it goes so fast. I wasted a lot
of time trying to get those pictures sent last week, that's why I was
so pressed for time.
And I'm short again because I wrote a long letter to President
regarding some awesome experiences we had this week.
Dad, regarding re-registering... I don't really know if I want to
register as a Republican again. I hate the two-party system and I
consider myself to be more of a Republican-Libertarian. Would that
make me an independent? I always trust your advice, how are things
looking and do you have any suggestions to help me make a more
educated decision?
Question of the week: I've been praying and fasting for the gift of
charity, and Moroni says that to obtain charity, we need to pray with
all the energy of heart. What can I do to make my prayeres more
fervent? How can I improve that?
Okay, so this week was intense. Ups and downs, like always, but I'm
developing a better perspective.
So first, on Tuesday we went to visit a man who was dying of a stomach
disease. His family (who aren't members) asked us to come and give
him a blessing. So we did, and we taught the family afterwards. When
we showed up, the man was lying on the floor with wet towels over his
stomach. He was barely conscious and I felt like he didn't have much
time. My companion gave the blessing and left a blessing of healing
upon the man. Three days later, he passed away. It was tough for me.
That's the second time that's happened since I've been here in Cuyo.
It was tough for it to happen a second time. But I was praying to
understand better. And now I understand more fully that death is an
essential element to mortality. For some, especially this man, death
was a relief. He was in pain. It wasn't the will of the Lord to keep
him in that state. As I prayed, I felt a true sense of comfort. I
feel a lot better about it.
When we got here in Cuyo, we started teaching a man named Luis. All
of his family are members of the church. He has rejected the
missionaries for 12 years. Yesterday, he came to church for the first
time. Last night, we scheduled his baptism for this coming Saturday.
I'm so excited for him and his family. They've been so happy as he's
accepted the gospel. I can see a change in him and he's discovering
the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've learned that we should
never give up on people. Some reject the gospel, some reject it for
twelve years. But during those twelve years, the Lord is giving them
the experiences they need to be prepared to one day accept the gospel.
I think of Brock and his mission. I wonder how many seeds he planted
that one day may develop into converts.
We had 10 investigators come to church yesterday. We have been so
blessed. All we have done is our best. We've been obedient and we've
tried hard. We've had some failures and a lot of opposition. But
it's all been worth the effort. Good things are in store for the near
future.
It's getting hot here in Cuyo.
Oh! I got a letter from the Cranes! It was so awesome to hear from
them! I read their letter and the ones from Mom three times each
haha! Such a good week. Some really hard things, but some really
good stuff too.
Love you all!
Take care!
Haley, good luck with things.
Tell the Massy's I love them!
Subject: Re: Back Home...
I don't know what happened with last week's email, but I just saw that
it didn't send last week. So here it is! I'll write another one
after I send this. Sorry about that. I blame Guatemala technology :P
Wow it sounds like things are way busy! Lot's of good, exciting,
stressful stuff going on. I love hearing about all of it! Haley, let
me know how everything goes this week. I'm glad to hear you're asking
someone to Sadie's. And that basketball game sounded so rad! Wish I
could see it! Take pictures during all these high school experiences!
Mom, you asked how I'm feeling physically. I'm feeling pretty good!
I exercise most mornings and I'm staying pretty healthy. I hope you
and Dad are feeling better today.
Haley, could you send Ryan's zip code por favor? Thanks :)
Thank you so much for that package with the tshirt, letter, and
diagram! The shirt is awesome, I used it today when we played soccer
(which I absolutely love.
I get an hour of internet time, but it goes so fast. I wasted a lot
of time trying to get those pictures sent last week, that's why I was
so pressed for time.
And I'm short again because I wrote a long letter to President
regarding some awesome experiences we had this week.
Dad, regarding re-registering... I don't really know if I want to
register as a Republican again. I hate the two-party system and I
consider myself to be more of a Republican-Libertarian. Would that
make me an independent? I always trust your advice, how are things
looking and do you have any suggestions to help me make a more
educated decision?
Question of the week: I've been praying and fasting for the gift of
charity, and Moroni says that to obtain charity, we need to pray with
all the energy of heart. What can I do to make my prayeres more
fervent? How can I improve that?
Okay, so this week was intense. Ups and downs, like always, but I'm
developing a better perspective.
So first, on Tuesday we went to visit a man who was dying of a stomach
disease. His family (who aren't members) asked us to come and give
him a blessing. So we did, and we taught the family afterwards. When
we showed up, the man was lying on the floor with wet towels over his
stomach. He was barely conscious and I felt like he didn't have much
time. My companion gave the blessing and left a blessing of healing
upon the man. Three days later, he passed away. It was tough for me.
That's the second time that's happened since I've been here in Cuyo.
It was tough for it to happen a second time. But I was praying to
understand better. And now I understand more fully that death is an
essential element to mortality. For some, especially this man, death
was a relief. He was in pain. It wasn't the will of the Lord to keep
him in that state. As I prayed, I felt a true sense of comfort. I
feel a lot better about it.
When we got here in Cuyo, we started teaching a man named Luis. All
of his family are members of the church. He has rejected the
missionaries for 12 years. Yesterday, he came to church for the first
time. Last night, we scheduled his baptism for this coming Saturday.
I'm so excited for him and his family. They've been so happy as he's
accepted the gospel. I can see a change in him and he's discovering
the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've learned that we should
never give up on people. Some reject the gospel, some reject it for
twelve years. But during those twelve years, the Lord is giving them
the experiences they need to be prepared to one day accept the gospel.
I think of Brock and his mission. I wonder how many seeds he planted
that one day may develop into converts.
We had 10 investigators come to church yesterday. We have been so
blessed. All we have done is our best. We've been obedient and we've
tried hard. We've had some failures and a lot of opposition. But
it's all been worth the effort. Good things are in store for the near
future.
It's getting hot here in Cuyo.
Oh! I got a letter from the Cranes! It was so awesome to hear from
them! I read their letter and the ones from Mom three times each
haha! Such a good week. Some really hard things, but some really
good stuff too.
Love you all!
Take care!
Haley, good luck with things.
Tell the Massy's I love them!
Be Strong and of Good Courage
February 14, 2011
Hey!
Sorry again about that email from last week, did it go through this time?
Sounds like things are going well, and Haley! Sadie's looked great
and from what you said, it sounds like it was a good time! Bien
hecho!
Also, Haley, a word of caution. You might want to check the Student
Council Constitution to see what it says about who is allowed to run
for what. I know that President can only be a senior that has been in
the group for three years. I don't know if there is anything similar
with Vice President. Check that soon. And pay close attention to
Dad's advice.
Wednesday Night Live! Have fun with that! And make sure, Haley, to
go crazy with it. The people who go on stage soft don't get laughs.
Have fun with it!
Mom, the chart and the shirt are perfect! Dad, as far as money, we're doing fine. There aren't any restaurants
in Cuyo, but on P-Days we get to go to a plaza in Mazatenango and eat
at pizza hut or taco bell. I can't even tell you how much I love
eating in those places. It's expensive here, but they gave us a bit
more money this month, so we're great as far as food. Thank you.
Mom, it's great to hear that things are going well at the Massy's.
Please tell them I love them if you get to talk to them this week.
I got two letters from Aubrey this week and I loved them! And I got a
super letter from Haley! Haha I loved hearing from you guys.
Seriously. Today I'll begin constructing a response haha. It sounds
like you both are doing great!
Dad, I love all the quotes you send. And yes, I'm still playing
soccer. We play almost every Monday, today was especially fun. I'm
back in the groove with it and I'm playing really well. Elder
Iniguez, in my district, is from Utah and he's really good at soccer.
He might play at UVU after the mission and he keeps telling me to try
out for BYU. I think I'm going to look into that. I would love to
simply try out.
This week I went on splits to La Maquina and it was so dusty, but I
like that area. The elders down there are a lot of fun and they like
to work. It's a good time whenever I go down there.
Yesterday in the afternoon, we went to visit that family who we helped
when they were building their house. When we got there it started
pouring. It hadn't rained here since we got in Cuyo, so it was a big
surprise. We sat huddled in their little house with flashlights as we
taught them about the gospel and answered all their questions. It was
a really transcendant experience. It was hard to hear with the rain
beating on the tin roof, but we could still feel the Spirit. It was
really cool. The girl, Lesly, (20 years old) told us she wants to be
baptized. And her 8 year old cousins also want to get baptized. It's
been a really interesting time teaching them. We started out with a
bunch of opportunities to help them out around their house, building
and cleaning things up. And they really loved listening to us talk
about the gospel. It's really neat how when we serve people, it
softens their hearts. It reminded me of Ammon. When he showed up at
King Lamoni's house, he didn't bust out some phrase like, 'Hi, I'm a
missionary and I have a message about Jesus Christ.' Instead, he
served the King, and set a good example. Through his Christlike
service, King Lamoni saw that there was something different about him,
and that wrought the change in his attitude toward him. I was
thinking about that last night and it's an interesting parallel.
The Lord has blessed us tremendously for our obedience and our desires
to do what's right. I continue to learn from and love my companion.
Even though we both have our weaknesses, we're able to look past them,
and use each other's strengths to build upon each other. I feel a bit
melancholy thinking that all my companion's won't be like him. But
I'm enjoying this time while it lasts.
I've been trying to get in touch with Troy, but I haven't heard back
from him. Could you ask the Teeples if he's allowed to email people
outside of family? Thanks.
I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week! Joshua 1:9! (I think
that's the scripture. It talks about being strong and of a good
courage).
Love,
Elder Tyler
Hey!
Sorry again about that email from last week, did it go through this time?
Sounds like things are going well, and Haley! Sadie's looked great
and from what you said, it sounds like it was a good time! Bien
hecho!
Also, Haley, a word of caution. You might want to check the Student
Council Constitution to see what it says about who is allowed to run
for what. I know that President can only be a senior that has been in
the group for three years. I don't know if there is anything similar
with Vice President. Check that soon. And pay close attention to
Dad's advice.
Wednesday Night Live! Have fun with that! And make sure, Haley, to
go crazy with it. The people who go on stage soft don't get laughs.
Have fun with it!
Mom, the chart and the shirt are perfect! Dad, as far as money, we're doing fine. There aren't any restaurants
in Cuyo, but on P-Days we get to go to a plaza in Mazatenango and eat
at pizza hut or taco bell. I can't even tell you how much I love
eating in those places. It's expensive here, but they gave us a bit
more money this month, so we're great as far as food. Thank you.
Mom, it's great to hear that things are going well at the Massy's.
Please tell them I love them if you get to talk to them this week.
I got two letters from Aubrey this week and I loved them! And I got a
super letter from Haley! Haha I loved hearing from you guys.
Seriously. Today I'll begin constructing a response haha. It sounds
like you both are doing great!
Dad, I love all the quotes you send. And yes, I'm still playing
soccer. We play almost every Monday, today was especially fun. I'm
back in the groove with it and I'm playing really well. Elder
Iniguez, in my district, is from Utah and he's really good at soccer.
He might play at UVU after the mission and he keeps telling me to try
out for BYU. I think I'm going to look into that. I would love to
simply try out.
This week I went on splits to La Maquina and it was so dusty, but I
like that area. The elders down there are a lot of fun and they like
to work. It's a good time whenever I go down there.
Yesterday in the afternoon, we went to visit that family who we helped
when they were building their house. When we got there it started
pouring. It hadn't rained here since we got in Cuyo, so it was a big
surprise. We sat huddled in their little house with flashlights as we
taught them about the gospel and answered all their questions. It was
a really transcendant experience. It was hard to hear with the rain
beating on the tin roof, but we could still feel the Spirit. It was
really cool. The girl, Lesly, (20 years old) told us she wants to be
baptized. And her 8 year old cousins also want to get baptized. It's
been a really interesting time teaching them. We started out with a
bunch of opportunities to help them out around their house, building
and cleaning things up. And they really loved listening to us talk
about the gospel. It's really neat how when we serve people, it
softens their hearts. It reminded me of Ammon. When he showed up at
King Lamoni's house, he didn't bust out some phrase like, 'Hi, I'm a
missionary and I have a message about Jesus Christ.' Instead, he
served the King, and set a good example. Through his Christlike
service, King Lamoni saw that there was something different about him,
and that wrought the change in his attitude toward him. I was
thinking about that last night and it's an interesting parallel.
The Lord has blessed us tremendously for our obedience and our desires
to do what's right. I continue to learn from and love my companion.
Even though we both have our weaknesses, we're able to look past them,
and use each other's strengths to build upon each other. I feel a bit
melancholy thinking that all my companion's won't be like him. But
I'm enjoying this time while it lasts.
I've been trying to get in touch with Troy, but I haven't heard back
from him. Could you ask the Teeples if he's allowed to email people
outside of family? Thanks.
I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week! Joshua 1:9! (I think
that's the scripture. It talks about being strong and of a good
courage).
Love,
Elder Tyler
A Cool Experience
January 31, 2011
So this was the last week of this change. Transfers are this week
and I think (and hope) that I'm staying here in Cuyo. It was a good
week and we have a lot of positive investigators. President emailed
the mission this week and thanked everyone for their efforts. We had
an extremely successful month (138 baptisms) and the Lord has blessed
us tremendously.
Cool experience... Saturday night we needed to call Hermano Hugo (the
guy that drives everyone around in his truck) to ask if he could help
us bring investigators to church on Sunday morning. The problem was,
we were out of minutes on our phone, so we couldn't call anybody.
We've been out of minutes for over a week and haven't been able to
make any phone calls. The last call we made cut out as we used up the
last seconds worth of our minutes. So Elder Tacam and I were trying
to think of what to do, 'cause it was late. Elder Tacam grabbed the
phone and dialed the number. The call went through. He explained
what we needed and Hermano Hugo said he would be waiting for us in the
morning. There wasn't enough time to say goodnight or anything.
Right after he said he's be waiting for us, the phone cut out.
Miracle. And we were able to bring all of our investigators to church
the next morning.
The Garcia Rucun family is okay, nothing has happened. But please
keep praying for them. I don't know what to write, I don't have
much time and I've been trying to attach pictures and it's eaten up a
bunch of time. Oh! Could somebody please get in contact with Ryan
Wakefield and Derek Dimartino and send me their addresses? That would
be awesome. I need to write them. And did Jonathan get my letter?
I've been thinking a lot about you guys lately, and especially about
friends. This week I was reading about the Sons of Mosiah. As I read
about them, I thought about my abilities as a missionary. I read
about how faith is the key to success. With faith, men can bring
thousands to the truth. I thought about my friends at home who don't
have the gospel. How they think it's rather strange that I'm down
here as a missionary. I have such a strong desire to share with them
the experiences I've had, the feelings I've felt. I tremble to think
that they might never find or accept the true and living gospel. It's
a scary thought to me. This gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ. He
is our Savior and the only way through which we can obtain eternal
life. Joseph Smith was not crazy. He really was called as a prophet
of God. The Book of Mormon is true, as is the Bible. I know it. And
I'm not crazy. There's a quote by C.S. Lewis that I absolutely love.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. Not only
because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." I feel
the same way. I love you guys! Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Austin Tyler
So this was the last week of this change. Transfers are this week
and I think (and hope) that I'm staying here in Cuyo. It was a good
week and we have a lot of positive investigators. President emailed
the mission this week and thanked everyone for their efforts. We had
an extremely successful month (138 baptisms) and the Lord has blessed
us tremendously.
Cool experience... Saturday night we needed to call Hermano Hugo (the
guy that drives everyone around in his truck) to ask if he could help
us bring investigators to church on Sunday morning. The problem was,
we were out of minutes on our phone, so we couldn't call anybody.
We've been out of minutes for over a week and haven't been able to
make any phone calls. The last call we made cut out as we used up the
last seconds worth of our minutes. So Elder Tacam and I were trying
to think of what to do, 'cause it was late. Elder Tacam grabbed the
phone and dialed the number. The call went through. He explained
what we needed and Hermano Hugo said he would be waiting for us in the
morning. There wasn't enough time to say goodnight or anything.
Right after he said he's be waiting for us, the phone cut out.
Miracle. And we were able to bring all of our investigators to church
the next morning.
The Garcia Rucun family is okay, nothing has happened. But please
keep praying for them. I don't know what to write, I don't have
much time and I've been trying to attach pictures and it's eaten up a
bunch of time. Oh! Could somebody please get in contact with Ryan
Wakefield and Derek Dimartino and send me their addresses? That would
be awesome. I need to write them. And did Jonathan get my letter?
I've been thinking a lot about you guys lately, and especially about
friends. This week I was reading about the Sons of Mosiah. As I read
about them, I thought about my abilities as a missionary. I read
about how faith is the key to success. With faith, men can bring
thousands to the truth. I thought about my friends at home who don't
have the gospel. How they think it's rather strange that I'm down
here as a missionary. I have such a strong desire to share with them
the experiences I've had, the feelings I've felt. I tremble to think
that they might never find or accept the true and living gospel. It's
a scary thought to me. This gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ. He
is our Savior and the only way through which we can obtain eternal
life. Joseph Smith was not crazy. He really was called as a prophet
of God. The Book of Mormon is true, as is the Bible. I know it. And
I'm not crazy. There's a quote by C.S. Lewis that I absolutely love.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. Not only
because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." I feel
the same way. I love you guys! Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Austin Tyler
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