Monday, January 26, 2015

Semana setenta y uno!

Week 71 of 101 (1/19-1/25)
 
Hola,
 
This week was a great learning experience. We had a our fair share of challenges as well as triumphs. One of the highlights of the week was teaching Laura and Manuel, the two children of a less active member that I mentioned last week. They are great. They are learning super quickly and they absolutely love our visits. Laura will run up to us as soon as she sees us and tells us all about her Book Of Mormon reading and Manuel runs up and trys to take our bikes for a joy ride. It is a lot of fun.
 
We also were teaching a family called the Montejo family, who live out in a small village called Esperanza. They are a bit quiet but we always have fun teaching them. They are super intelligent and answer all of our questions really well. The best part is that they seem to have a sincere desire to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. They show it by keeping pretty much all of their commitments, which is just fantastic and rare.
 
This week we also had interviews with President Hintze. It was a great experience to talk to him. He is such a kind, caring person and a great example for the us. We also talked with Sister Hintze, which was also great.
 
A big bummer, thought, was as we rode back to our area from the interviews, we ran into Anthony, who was suppose to get baptized last week and who we hadn't seen for almost a week. He was standing smoking a cigarette and was just absolutely distraught. He wouldn't tell us why or what was happening. It was so saddening.
 
On the bright side, Amalia and Adriana, two from the sisters area got baptized. It was a great experience and we brought Manuel and somebody that we had done some service for in the morning before the baptisms came.

Until next week,
 
Elder Vierkant

Photos: Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the Town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize.


Semana setenta!

Week 70 of 101 (1/12-1/18)

Dear Everyone,

This week was a quiet the experience. Elder Hiatt and I learned a lot this week. We had some really good experiences and some not as fun ones, but asi es la vida.

One thing that really stuck out to me this week were district and zone meeting. The meetings were really powerful. We had the Assistants from Belize with us and we did talked about inviting people to commitments. We had a few examples of ways to invite and ways to not invite. Afterwards, we practiced. It was great experience because we had the opportunity to act as our investigators and we got to put our selves in their shoes. It helped us out to understand our investigators a lot more.

Yesterday we went out teaching with Brother Moody (who is incredible). We took him all over to a bunch of different appointments, which all ended up falling through. A bit perturbed, we asked Brother Moody if there was someone he wanted to visit. He lead us to a very nice women that the Elders had taught previously. We were delighted to her that the daughter was reading the Book Of Mormon. We spoke to them for a bit and then Brother Moody, who is great, invited them to baptism. The she responded positively and said that she would really like her children to get live the gospel. It was a great experience.

Through out my mission, time and time again, I have learned that members are the best way for this work to move forward. Without a doubt in my mind, we are all missionaries. Everyone of us, missionary name tag or not, has a part in the work of salvation, and I hope that we never forget that.

Elder Vierkant

P.S. photos are of a ruin by the Guatemala border. You can see Guatemala from the picture of me and Elder Hiatt. Also some pictures from last weeks adventure and a Bob Marley record.
 




Semana sesenta y nueve!

Week 69 of 101 (1/05-1/11)

Hello!
 
How are you all doing? This week was pretty crazy for Elder Hiatt and I in Santa Elena.
 
It started on Tuesday. We had a great lesson with someone we had met last Saturday whose name is Darren. He is super cool. He said he had use to go to a church in the past but bad friends led him away and now he wants to get back on the straight and narrow. He accepted a baptism date for the 1st of February. After we met with Darren, it was a bit down hill from there. Pretty much all of our appointments fell. We went with the senior couple to a place called Spanish Lookout, which is pretty far drive from Santa Elena. We had an appointments to visit both the branch president, which ended up falling through. We were able to talk with his wife though and we found out they had had a bit of a house fire.
 
Wednesday was cool because we got to go out and help clean up all the soot from the house fire in branch presidents house, which helped us improve our relationship with him a lot, which is super important because the missionaries haven't had a good relationship with him for a long time.
 
On Friday we found out that the couple that was going to get married had decided they wanted to call it off and she isn't so sure about baptism now. They have some struggles in their lives, it was sad to see that those things over came their desire to follow God's commandments.
 
The best part of the week, however, was Sunday. Anthony ( who is doing great and is addicted to read the Book of Mormon) came to church again and Darren came for the first time. The speakers were all great and we received a suprise visit from about 40 LDS tourists on a trip to Belize. It was a great Sunday Experience.
 
Today we went on an expedition through the jungle to an ancient cave. In one word: Incredible. But there isn't enough time for more than one word, so onward we go!
 
Love you guys!
 
Elder Vierkant
 


Semana sesenta y ocho!

Week 68 of 101 (12/29-1/4)

Hello!
 
We had a great week this week. It was probably one of the fastest weeks in my life. First of all, on Wednesday, I got to go with Elder Withers from Bullet Tree because our companions had to go to Belize City for a district leader meeting. It was pretty fun, we got to teach a few new investigators, one of whom trains with the Belize national soccer team. We also met an extremely muscular man with his shirt off walking down the street singing hymns at the top of his lungs. He stopped us and preached a short sermon to us, which included a little game where he would start quoting a scripture and we had finish it. Being New Years, were told to go in a bit early for our safety.
 
Thursday we had a great zone meeting. The zone leaders had a us blow up a ton of balloons and then had a us try to keep them up in the air. When it was just one balloon that we had up in the air, it was really easy, but as they added more, we started dropping some. They then compared it to how we set a lot of goals, especially at the beginning of the New Year. But we often set too many and we can't focus on them. It was a great lesson and has helped me set a few New Years resolutions and so far (I know it hasn't been long) I have been doing pretty well. Finding people to teach that day was a little hard as a lot of them were resting and recovering from New Years Eve.
 
On Friday we didn't have much to do either. We mostly just set return appointments for Saturday.We taught Anthony about the Book of Mormon and how it was brought forth to help end the Great Apostasy. He started to understand that a lot of the things that he had been reading before didn't have a lot of truth in them and so far he has loved reading the Book of Mormon.
 
On Saturday we had a great day. We were able to finally teach Hieke again after not having seen her for almost a week. She was really positive about everything and it seemed like she was back on track after the holidays. We were also able to talk to Jessica, whose boyfriend is a member. They committed to get married and she accepted baptism for this month and they have already started the papers for everything! I am super excited for them.
 
Sunday was a bit rough. Hieke and Anthony weren't able to make it to church. Fortunately, Jessica did make it, which was fantastic. We had a great Gospel Principles class with her and the senior missionaries. Afterwards we went teaching with Brother Moody, who is just a fantastic member of the church. He has such a strong testimony and is so willing to fulfill his calling.
 
Today, we went to some Mayan ruins by the Guatemalan border. They were incredible. I will try to send some more pictures next time.
 
The Church is true and the Book of Mormon too!
 
Elder Vierkant
 

Semana sesenta y siete!

Week 67 of 101 (12/22-12/28)

Muy buenos dias,

This last week we had a lot of fun, considering it was Christmas and all that. The Christmas Spirit made the work just that much better. And what better way to spread the Christmas Spirit then sharing the " He is the Gift video" (If you haven't seen it, its on  christmas.mormon.org.)

We had a great experience this week sharing the video. We were riding down the street from an appointment that we had just finished when we saw a man walking up the street. He was a rasta man and he had a beer bottle in hand, which normally isn't most positive type of person to talk to. But the Spirit told us to stop and my companion and I pulled up and started to talk to him. He started to ask us what being a Christian was about and what Christmas was about. So we pulled out the " He is the Gift" Video and shared it with him. It was amazing how the Spirit testified to him through the short video of Christ, that great gift that Our Father gave us. It answered all of his questions and he was ecstatic. Since then, we haven't been able to find him again, but I know that it left a lasting impression on him.

Christmas day was great. We were able to have lunch with the Flowers family. We then spent some time with " Grandma and Grandpa", who are from Texas. They took us out to eat at a resort and then we Skyped from there house. It was great to be able to talk to everyone and I am glad to know that you are all alive still.  After that we went and taught Hieke and her friend, whose name I don't know how to spell. We had a nice lesson about tithing and we were able to speak with her mom also. We then got suprised by a nice Christmas meal with incredible cake to finish off.

Boxing day was a bit rough because most people were sleeping off Christmas. We were able to teach a few people, but nothing that we had planned worked out. Saturday was similar, although we had a very powerful lesson about the Plan of Salvation with a woman named Caroline. She felt the Spirit strongly and it was one of those moments where you feel that you are accomplishing your missionary purpose.

Sunday was a little disappointing but also successful. Caroline and Anthony both showed up. Caroline left after Sacrament but seemed to have had a good time. Anthony stayed for the entire block, and he loved it. He absorbed everything.

Anthony is a guy we met a few weeks ago that disappeared for a while. We started teaching him this week. He is very accepting and loves to learn. It can be a challenge to teach him because he enjoys talking but he accepted to get baptized, so we are working hard with him.

Love you all, listen to the Spirit and be good this coming New Years.

Elder Vierkant

Semana de sesenta y seis!

Week 66 of 101 (12/15-12/21)

Hello, how are you all?
 
This week was great, although we had to travel a lot and we weren't able to get as much work don as we would have hoped.
 
Tuesday was a normal day. We were able to go teach Hieke. She is so very prepared. She accepts everything and told us that she got her answer in church this Sunday. We have even started to talking about going to the temple. It is incredible how the Lord has made the path ready for people to receive the gospel.
 
Wednesday we went to Belize City for the Christmas activity with all the missionaries in all of Belize. It was a lot of fun. We put on Skits, watched the "Christmas Carol", ate a lot of good food and then we had a great devotional from the Belizean Assistants and from president Hintze and his wife. The Spirit was especially strong when all of the senior couple got up and bore their testimonies. They had a lot of great things to say and experiences to share.
 
Thursday we had zone meeting. It was really interesting because Elder Rinderkinecht (I don't know if I spelled it right) and his wife taught us about the addiction recovery program that the church has so we can better help investigators that we have who are addicts. It is really sad to hear some of the stories that they tell but it really puts into perspective the importance of the atonement and the how much we have to rely on the Lord to over come temptation.
 
Friday we had to travel back to Belize City again in order to get my work permit done so that I can stay in Belize. We got home pretty late, so we weren't able to get as much done as we had hoped. Hieke was also really sick with the flu, so we were unable to visit her. Also, the flowers family had company over so we couldn't visit them. Asi es la vida.
 
Saturday was crazy. As we had been unable to do it all week, we did weekly planning in the morning, then we quickly ate and went to an interview for a investigator of the sisters. We then had to ride out to the village of Esperanza to get to an appointment. The lady was nice, although she wasn't ready to commit to following Christ. We then biked back to Santa Elena  to visit all the people that we possibly could in order to prepare them to go to church tomorrow.
 
Sunday Hieke wasn't able to make it to church, however, Debbie and Whitney did and so did someone we met in Esperanza. The Sisters had their baptism and then we had to take down the portable baptismal font, which took a while. After Church we went visiting with Brother Moody, who is the best, and we had some great lessons.
 
Meri krismos!
 
Elder Vierkant