19 this & 19 that...

Rawly left on June

Today is January 

And Elder Lyle has been serving for

Months

Some of Rawly's favorite things in Colombia... and yes they are all related to food, hahaha

We sent Rawly an email with things that we are up to and then asked him some questions. This is what followed...

I can’t believe you guys bought another fire truck, hahahahahaha

(I sent Rawly a picture of some chairs that his Aunt Tasha’s friend is making there and has a store, they are beautiful and we wanted Rawly to stop by and see her)

The chairs are pretty epic not going to lie, but I can’t find the store! I would imagine she sells them here in Santa Rita, (Santa Rita is very wealthy) or close because well outside of this area of Cali I can’t imagine a place in southwestern Colombia that would sell those. Why buy those beautiful chairs when you can buy the plastic kind? Hahahaha I love Colombia

We asked about his new house. (A while back the mission home bought a hostal so that when they did transfers and received in new missionaries they had a place for them to sleep. They now can sleep up to 30 missionaries and the missionaries that work in the office live there full time.)

Looks pretty nice

I love our house, it is super fun living there. We all live on the top floor with ceramic floors. When the other missionaries come into Cali they sleep in the other rooms. 

We asked about his favorite food and leave it Rawly he had several along with pictures.

My favorite food here in Cali. Well we can’t eat with members anymore now that we have pensionistas. But also here in the office for the last 15 years Maria has made the food. She is awesome, I love her, she makes us food every day, does our laundry, cleans the house etc. She is so awesome mom I love Maria. The food in southwestern Colombia is the same, honestly the food in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia is very similar. My favorite, is that here they eat green plantains, before they are ripe. They smash them and fry them and put stuff on top. It is honestly delicious.

The most typical plate from Cali is a soup called sancocho. It is made with hen, plantain, yucca, potatoes, and cilantro. It is delicious and you eat it with a banana, hahaha. Then always to accompany it you have a plate of rice and an avocado. 

And you can never forget your lulo juice. Lulo is a fruit here that I love it is typical to Colombia. I love it. I also love the beans. The beans are really good. They are not like refried beans they are like the harder beans.

Also I love something called guarapo. It’s sugar cane juice.  This is the machine that they use to crush the sugar cane until the juice comes out, also they stick a lime in there so it tastes like limeade a bit. I love it. You can find these everywhere. It’s 1 thousand pesos for a cup (.40 cents) I love it.

Also here in Cali the chontaduro is super famous as well. You can always find these ladies peeling chontaduro everywhere in Cali and in Buenavenutra. Chontaduro is kind of like... I can’t describe it. It’s not juicy; a potato is juicier than a chontaduro. It’s super starchy and you eat it with salt and honey (it’s actually an awesome combination on chontaduro). 

Also another I love to eat here in Cali is the unripe mango, Mango biche. It’s served with salt and lime on top. It’s super good as well. 

Interviews begin...

Hello all!

So this week interviews began! 

We went up to Tuluá to start them off, and then we did a few here in Cali.

This week we are going to Popayán. The interviews are easier this round, maybe it’s because Elder Walker and I have spent so much time together that we understand how to plan well together. 

This week also has been super awesome because we have been teaching a SUPER awesome family. 

The Uribe Family.

Mauricio (37) and his wife Claudia (35) and their daughter Valentina (10). 

Mauricio was a leader in another church but for a long time had turned away from the principles he had taught. His wife is a devote Christian; I don’t remember the name of the church it’s like, Love in Christ. Mauricio went to church with his daughter this Sunday and they loved it! We have been teaching the whole family and they are doing awesome and understand many things about the gospel now. Last night we had a lesson with them about how important it is to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. They normally have a lot of questions because they understand a lot of doctrine from being leaders in other churches, however, we understand that the answer to every question they have is related to whether Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. 

¿How do we know that we have the authority of God?

Well you need to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet or not.

¿How do you know if you have been baptized with the authority or not?

First you need to know if Joseph Smith received the authority of God or not.

At the end of the lesson, they understood perfectly. Then Elder Walker and I started to bare our testimonies about how God really answers prayers. That you have to be constant in looking for the answer but the answer will come. How it is the most incredible feeling in the world. 

The spirit was so strong in the lesson. It was so incredible. 

I love being a missionary. 

My challenge is for you all to watch this video and share it with one person.

I love you all

Elder Lyle

Wow what a week!

This week was awesome. 

We started up trios with the Cali Zone leaders and it was so awesome.

This Thursday I went to the Villa Colombia Zone with Elder Sacco and Elder Mancilla, it’s so weird to me that the people I have know for the last 19 months you have never heard of. Villa Colombia is the east part of Cali, and is known to be a complicated area of Cali. All day we were on our feet running from one appointment to the next, it was awesome, all day in a new area. A recent convert accompanied us for the day named Junior; he is 14 years old and was telling everyone that he had to listen to us, ha-ha.

The most awesome experience that I had when I was there with Villa Colombia Zone was that we contacted a family, the Bedoya Family they are epic. The family consists of the mom, dad, and their two sons, 20 and 14 years old. The oldest had recently been in a fight and was shot 3 times in the stomach and since then he has wanted to change his life. It had only been about 2 weeks since he had been shot and he was all bound up to tubes and stuff, however he listened so intently to everything that we had to say and wanted to understand more about every concept that we presented. His family as well was excited to hear and learn about the restoration. We then had a Family Home Evening with the Bishop (who lives in front of their house) and we invited them, they all went and loved it. I love the gospel and the traditions that we have such as Family Home Evenings. Who doesn’t like Family Home Evening??? It was such an awesome day honestly. 

Then yesterday I went with Cordillera, to the Versalles Chapel. Versalles is the first chapel built here in Cali. It was another awesome day. We taught recent converts and some investigators and had an activity. The recent converts were awesome. Like Jose, Jose is 67 years old, got baptized 3 weeks ago, reads the scriptures daily and is awesome. Oh I forgot to mention that he is blind. He remembers everything that you say, and listens so intently to what you say. He is awesome. He lives in a very dangerous part of Cali so we had the lesson in the chapel, and I asked him if he was ever nervous to enter that part of Cali by himself, and he just responded;

"Of course not, when the hoodlums come up and ask me for everything I have, I always just say;

Don’t you have something for me, I’m blind, I’m old, I’m hungry, help me.... and I end up with an extra coin or two in my pocket!"

Hahaha, I was laughing so hard, I could only imagine. Then we had an activity. I was walking with Elder Jara when he told me, "Elder Lyle, I’m worried, we don’t have hardly anyone to play soccer in the activity." In an instant I saw a bunch of boys my age, I called them over and said, "HEY! Do you guys like to play soccer? We are going to play at the church at 6, meet us here at 5:30 so we can go together". At 5:30 there were 4 more boys with them, one of which went to church today. It’s so amazing what happens when we only open our mouths and invite. What’s the worst that could happen, that they say no? 

I love the mission. I find myself constantly trying to be better about talking to everyone. I love meeting new people, but sometimes we might judge a book by it’s cover and say, no they won’t want to hear what I have to say. However, there are many people that are just waiting to hear that invitation that we have for them. 

I am reminded many times of Alma the prophet who said:
(Alma 29 1-2)

1.   O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

2.  Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.”

I love this part of the Book of Mormon. How many times do we have the opportunity to talk and we do not. I love the desire of Alma to be a better missionary, this is something that we can all be better at, and it all starts by opening our mouths. 

I love this Gospel and all that it has to offer. 

I wish you all an awesome week next week.

We start interviews again this next week, busy week ahead.

My Challenge for you all is: 

Visit one person who you haven’t seen in a long time (less-active) and tell them how much you love them and miss having them in your lives. 

I love you so much. 

Until next week

Elder Rawly Lyle

My Father

This week I wanted to talk about my father.

I have so many memories of him and I think that this date will always be a bit difficult. My father was a truly amazing person. I love him so much, and I am so grateful that one-day I will be with him once again. He was an example beyond comparison in my life. As the scripture says: John 5:19

“The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”

My father taught me many things that I will always remember. I learned from him diligence, hard work, love, trust, dedication, how to be honest and always follow through with my promises. 

These skills I will have to continue to develop, however he has shown me by example how I can do it. 

I love my father, he was always there to comfort me and to give me advice, he was my biggest fan and critic. He is the one that always helped me to push myself. 

There are memories that I have of him that will never fade away, such as his laugh, and the way he would yell encouragement during our sports activities. He was always there to support us. 

In the majority of my mission areas that I have been in the thing that is almost always missing from the home pictures is the father, or a fatherly example. 

Here in my mission I have come to appreciate my father so much more as I see family after family that consists of the mother and children fighting to survive. I have learned that the family "is ordained of God" and that the “husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children”. (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). 

Here I have understood and appreciated how incredible my childhood was as I was surrounded almost constantly with the love of my mother and father. I know that with the passing of my father nothing will change, as although he may not be here with us currently, God did not send us here to this life just to be separated upon death. When done with the correct authority the bonds of "until death do us part" are shattered so as to allow the family to be together "For time and all eternity". What incredible blessings. Here on my mission I have taught a lot that we should always have our eye set on returning to our Heavenly Father again. That just as we want to be with our loved ones when they are no longer here, we will have the same desire when we fully understand God’s plan after this life. That all that we do in this life is to fulfill this plan, and to return to Him. He loves us and wants us to live with Him once more. He has given us the example, he shows endless love, what have we shown or done for Him recently?

I have purpose in this life. I do all that I can so that I may better be prepared when the day comes that my family will be together forever. As my mom says I want a "forever family" and the only way do have that is to do exactly what God has commanded me to do, and live the commandments. To love my God over all other things, to love my neighbor as I love myself, and to participate in all the ordinances of the gospel. 

My father was a great man, and I know that he is here with me always. I know that we will be together forever. 

I always ask myself “How well am I obeying the things that my Heavenly Father has told me to do?”

Follow the teachings of your Father and live (Proverbs 4:1-4) 

I love you all, I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and all that my Heavenly Father has to offer us. 

I know that the church is true, and that Jesus is who heads it. I know that we have the authority to have a family for "Time and all Eternity" and not "until death do us part."

Challenge:

Think and right down all the things and qualities your Heavenly Father has shown you that you want to implement in your life this year.

I love you all. 

Have a great week

Elder Lyle

Starting the New Year off with a lot of GREAT photo's

Cristo Rey 

We had new missionaries come in this week

New Year's cooking

New Year's Eve 2014 in Cali, Colombia

New Year's Eve with my companion

Elder Walker

And the sister missionaries

We celebrated New Year's 2014 with all the

missionaries and some members of the

Terron Colorado area

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

So let me start off by saying:

Happy New Year everyone! 

2015 has much to offer I know it. 

This week we had an awesome experience, we were working with an unrecognized address (names and old addresses of members who nobody knows). Elder Walker and I started walking looking for this address. After 3 kilometers we didn’t know what to do as we were getting to the more complicated neighborhoods of our area. When at last we found it, unfortunately it was a gated community and we did not have the tower nor apartment number, that’s when Elder Walker remembered another less-active member that lived in that gated community. We told them the name, the tower and the apartment number and they let us in. We tried every door that we knew of all the less active members of the church. We called active members to see if they knew someone in that complex, but nothing. Had we walked 3 miles looking for this address just to come up empty handed? We were bummed to say the least. We started to walk out when from the top window of another tower we hear,

 “ELDERS!!!!! ELDERS!!!! UP HERE!!!!” 

We look and there is a lady hanging out her window with this huge smile yelling at us telling us to come up to their house. Elder Walker and I had no idea who it was. Thinking that it might be a less active member or a past investigator we went up to meet them. When we got to the door we saw there was like 12 people inside and they all started shouting when we got there, they all came out and shook our hands, saying, “Good afternoon Elder”. At this point Elder Walker and I are super confused. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? They then presented themselves as the Perez Family.

They are all members and they had all come in from all around Colombia and the United States to celebrate New Year’s with their family. There was even someone from Park City, Utah. The people who live there are members as well. We asked them how long it had been since they had been to church because we had never seen them. But they told us they always went to a different chapel. I know that there is no such thing as coincidences in this world. We have a part to play in their lives, what part I still do no know, however I know that if we are doing exactly what we are supposed to do God will lead us to those who need to be in our lives.

Sometimes people think that when God needs you to do something, meet someone, help someone, etc, that you will feel a strong impression to what you need to do. Some think that missionaries walk into a neighborhood and see a house and say that’s the one. At times yes, it’s like that. However, I know that it is much more simpler. God knows where our feet will take us, and he will make it so that everything happens just at the precise moment that it should. We had no idea that we were going to meet the Perez Family, or that we weren’t going to find anyone that we were looking for. However, we did our part and the pieces fell together.

We must live worthy always, for we know neither the time, nor the place when the Lord will need us to work in his name.

I know that the Lord always has a plan, and that if we are worthy we can play the part where he most needs us to be for our own growth and for the growth of others.

I love you all so much

Happy New Year!

I hope 2015 will be a great one for all of you 

CHALLENGE:

Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 and think about all the different experiences you had last year 

And the goals you have for this year

I love you all
Elder Rawly Lyle