La Brujula

Well folks,

This week I left my home in Popayan. This was super hard for me, I miss my white city. Popayan was incredible, the people amazing. I felt as if I was leaving my family yet again. 

I had a VERY long bus ride, 10 hours by myself to the south to the town of Ipiales, good thing the scenery was incredible. Ipiales is high in the Andes, with some huge mountains, gorges and rivers. (9,700ft) It’s incredible, very different from the hilly landscape of Popayan.

Because I live up in the Andes it is super cold. I’m not lying I’m like dying from cold here, so, so, so, so, so, cold. But it’s really beautiful here. I feel like I’m in Scotland, it’s really neat. 

Tuesday I met my new companion, Elder Tedei (Tea-day), he is from Argentina and is awesome. We are having a blast together. His Spanish is pretty cool, although at first it was a bit difficult to understand, but I’m getting accustomed to it. He was the secretary to President Prince for 6 months in Cali and then stayed in Cali for 6 months more. He has only been here for a month and a half and we are both dying of the cold. 

Our area is huge, it covers about 200 km. We have really no transportation so we walk a lot... A LOT in the cold. Although I think it’s actually pretty awesome. 

Our house is HUGE, I have no idea why. I’m talking 8 rooms and two baths. It’s just the two of us. That part is pretty cool, however when it rains, it floods our second story where we keep all our stuff. It rains a lot. The other day we came back to our house to find about 3 inches of standing water in the upper story. It soaked all of our clothes, books and everything. We now have all our stuff located on high ground as it rains here every day. 

The people here are very interesting. It is so different from the culture of Popayan. The people here are not very open. They don’t really answer questions and are kind of cold people. Not very exciting to be truthfully honest. So it looks like Elder Tidei and I just have to change the culture here in Ipiales, no big deal, ha-ha. We are ready to change the culture and the hearts of the people here.

The people here like to drink...and they drink a lot...We split up to bring people to church on Sunday and when I reached the little town where the majority of our investigators are I counted 8 people passed out on the sidewalk. Well, its not really a sidewalk its grass, but yeah... People party hard here. Things are very interesting in Ipiales, but I’m excited to see what the city holds for us. 

This week I want to talk about La Brújula.

The compass.

What function has a compass?

Maybe you immediately received the picture of an arrow in your mind, like the compass Jack Sparrow had or something similar. A circle with an arrow showing where you should go. That is exactly what a compass does. It guides us to where we need to go. 

Now the big question. If we have a compass, and we see exactly what direction we need to take and then stand still, what exactly is the purpose of the compass? It doesn’t have a purpose then. 

In the bible dictionary when you look up guidance, the first thing it says is:

See Scriptures.

We have a great compass in our lives to give us guidance to tell us what direction we need to take. 

Do we sit in our house with the scriptures lying nearby? Do we sit looking at the scriptures and say but I’m too tired to read? 

Do we sit and stare at our compass and do nothing?

Proverbs 3:6

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

If we but acknowledge him he shall direct our paths. However direct is a very interesting word. Direct does not mean that God will take us to where we need to go. It means he will give us guidance, he will give us direction. 

James 2:7

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

We have to do our part; we have to walk in the direction that we are given.

We have all been given the compass we need. 

We all have the scriptures. 

 SO... 

This brings me to the challenge of the week.

CHALLENGE:

Read 1 chapter of the Book of Mormon or the Bible everyday this week. Seven chapters and tell me how you fell at the end of your week.

If you are going to read the Book of Mormon start with the Book of Mosiah.

If you are going to read the Bible start with the book of Mathew

I promise you, if you are able to make time for one chapter a day and no more, you will feel a difference in your life, you will feel yourself progressing. Making steps in the direction you need to take.

I love you all

Elder Lyle

Changes...

Okay, 

This will be a very brief message, as I don’t have much time. I’m on my way to Ipiales. The most southern city in the mission and the coldest city as well. It is in the Andes. I’m really excited but really sad to leave my area. 

This week I want to focus on faith.

I have families that I love here.

Families that have many problems.

I’m currently working with drug addicts, and the family of drug addicts. Alcoholics and their families. Families with abusive fathers. And now in the middle of working with these incredible people I have to leave.

This is a huge test of faith for me.

2 new missionaries will come to my area Elder Campos and Elder Darling. The truth is I can only pray that they can continue with these people. These people need so much love and help in their lives. It makes me incredibly sad to leave them. They have shown so much faith. 

That is my challenge this week:

Show Faith 

Have faith in every aspect of your life.

God works miracles; we must believe that they will happen. 

Have Faith

Ipiales my new area. Elder Tidei from Argentina is going to be my new companion. I’ve heard great things about him. 

It’s super cold there. Everyone is telling me how cold its going to be and how much guinea pig I’m going to eat. 

Everyone talks with an awesome accent there. It’s like Spanish with an Italian accent mixed with the accent Jake always used. The city is very European from what I’ve heard. 

This is going to be fun. 

Love you all

Elder Lyle

Last pictures from Popayan

Timbio! 

My awesome Bennion tie when I'm thirsty in the jungle

We bought a rabbit

Fluffy

We just couldn't say no

HUGE

Family Home Evening

Saying good-bye to 

Elder Borg

Borg's wife to be... in a year...ha-ha

Angelica and her mother, 

Best neighbor's

So going to miss them

I'm on a horse

Sending you hello 

from Timbio!

Hello from Popayan

WELL,

I’m not going to lie; This week has been the hardest week I have had in the mission. Today especially... 

Today I took Elder Borg to the bus terminal. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

Not going to lie we had become really close friends, he is like a brother to me and we may have shed one or two tears…
Or it could have been the awesome cold flu thing I have contracted. It started Wednesday. I sound like a 100 year-old chain smoker, ha-ha.

It’s really easy for me to get tired which is AWESOME as I live in the hilliest area in Popayan, which I do truly love, really. I have the best area. 

Some cool stuff that happened this week:

I WENT TO TIMBIO, which is always a highlight for me. I really love Timbio… And drum roll please, are you ready:

Sergio Perez came back to church and received his mission call!

Can you believe it? The same Sergio that walked with us everywhere for like 1 month straight and then went inactive. He will now serve a mission and wants to serve a mini mission with me. 

This week:

The Familia Astudillo got baptized. Which is a miracle.

Camilo Astudillo, age 15, he has been my focus in this family. It is a family of 6 girls and him. He has been kicked out of every high school he has studied in for fighting, misconduct and the what like. 

We started with his ear piercings and then we worked on his language. Little by little we began to see a huge changes in Camilo. He is a little punk, but now is one of the only boys who goes to church in a suit. It’s incredible to think that he made this change in less than a month. He still has some work to do, but the change is real. 

Yersson Florez was baptized, the same Yersson who we met 4 months ago. His Dad is a less active member and his mother is WAY Catholic. His little brother is preparing to take the first communion. Yersson was baptized and his entire family went to the baptism and his father then went to church. 

Mario Bojorge got baptized. This is a family that belongs to the other missionaries but is really close to all of our hearts. The Familia Bojorge is huge now, about 20 have been baptized, and we are teaching 10 more right now.
Mario had a huge change in his life.
His son, daughter, and wife were my first baptisms I saw here in Colombia. Mario had a huge problem with alcohol. We were teaching him but it has always been a bit difficult because well, he would disappear for month at time drinking. After the change he saw in his oldest son, who was baptized a month ago, he quit drinking. The change has been incredible. 

We had more baptisms but these were my favorite.

I received a few incredible emails this week. 

These emails have strengthened my testimony, thank you.

Now what exactly is a testimony?

That is my job as a missionary. To help others understand what is a testimony and how to grow their own. As a missionary my job is not to convince you, it is to give you a few pushes, to tell people to pray on their own and ask God for help. That is my job. My work here is fairly simple. I do exactly what I feel prompted to do. I trust in the Lord. I lead others to help them achieve something that they can reach on their own, a testimony. 

To gain a testimony at first isn’t easy. Neither is anything at first. Is it easy the first few times you begin to work out? No. How does one get so strong?

Time

Effort

Endurance

In the scriptures faith-testimonies are constantly referred to as a seed.

We can plant the seed in our garden and wait for it to grow, but we will be ultimately disappointed. 

We can plant the seed; give the seed good water, good soil and sunlight. Then we can sit in front of the seed and wait again for it to grow and still ultimately we will be disappointed.

We must wait patiently, doing the things correctly, and before we know it our little seed has grown strong roots and will begin to bear leaves. Keep it up and soon the fruits will appear and the fruits to bear the tree through any storm. 

I know that this gospel is true. I live it every day. I see and feel its miracles. I know we can do great things in the Lord. Be useful in his hands. 

Challenge

Read the scriptures, every night. 

Pray every night. 

Pray with your family every day.

LOVE YOUR SAVIOR WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH

Blessings are coming. 

Patience and endurance. 

I love you all 

Elder Lyle

Things are loco...

All right everyone. 

I just would like to say that things are out of control here. In a good way… ha-ha-ha 

Right now I am balancing 14 baptisms and teaching a ton of people without the help of Elder Borg. I’m going insane, but I love it. 

This week we will see the baptisms of:

Camilo, Natalia, Carolina and Natalia Astudillo. Yersson Florez and Alejandra Villarreal. 

I love my families 

Next week we will see the baptisms of the rest of the familia Villarreal and more. 

I love my area

We are teaching around 28 people who are moving forward with the lessons and I’m so stressed all the time because we don’t have enough time in the day to accomplish everything. It’s kind of awesome and stressful all at the same time. All these families are giving me tons of food and I’m gaining weight.

This week I was able to have an interview with President Prince the President of the Mission. He told me that I have been doing a good job and called my parents right in front of me. I really didn’t know what to do. I was just kind of speechless for a little while as I heard my father pick up the line and then I got to say hi to them. What an incredible experience. 

(I just have to add to this incredible experience. Craig & I were both home when the call came in. President Prince had us put it on speaker. He then proceeded to tell us what an amazing young man we raised and what an incredible job he was doing in the Colombia Cali Mission. He wanted us to know that although he had not been out very long out of the 200 missionaries that he was one of their number 1 baptizing missionary in the field. He then asked if we had another one behind him because they sure could use them. We then had to inform him that as we were sure he knew that Rawly is one of a kind. At this point he asked us if we would like to say hi to our son. Oh my goodness I cannot even express the joy it was to hear Rawly’s voice! I had been having a really, really difficult time and this call could have not come at a better moment for Craig & I. I am grateful for the Lord’s hand in my life!)

I love the mission

My families are amazing. They have such an incredible desire to serve and to follow Jesus Christ.

Okay, update:

Sandro and Yoneida. Both were sacked from their jobs immediately after baptism, it was a very hard time for them. Yoneida now has her own pizzeria and oh my gosh is it awesome pizza, I love it. Sandro has incredible amounts of work and they are receiving all the blessings of the gospel. 

Blessings are all around us we just sometimes have to look really close to find them.

Things that I have become accustomed to that I think I should tell you. 

My every day life includes:

Horses and carriages in the middle of the street, there is a horse and a colt in front of the Internet place by my house right now in the middle of the busy street

I eat chicken feet now like it's no big deal 

Everything is fried. The bread is even fried here

The indigenous people are pretty cool and the men wear purple dresses

The limes are orange

Blackberry is only used to make juice

Cheese is always accompanied by hot chocolate; the cheese is inside the hot chocolate or tea. 

The cheese doesn’t melt here

There are only two types of milk here, that of a cow and that which does not contain lactose.

Yeah, that’s all I can think about now. 

Lesson time: 

This lesson is about the purifying fire of God. 

How do you make silver or Gold?

You take a hunk of metal that contains these substances and heat it up to EXTREME HEATS. Way hotter than you would need to melt iron. The extreme heat separates the pure gold and silver from the rest of the metal deposits. 

Our lives sometimes contain the same. The question is how pure do we want to be?

Do we want to be of great quality? 14 karat, 16 karat, 18 karat and so forth. 

How much are we worth? 

Are we experiencing problems in our lives?

Are we experiencing the furnace that this life often offers us?

It is for this reason we are being refined. As long as we confront all issues with a mind set on God and eternal life we will always find that the difficulties of life will refine us. Personally I am experiencing a fire that was built well.

I’m feeling the pressure in all sorts of ways. But I know that if I can keep an eye on God I can continue forward unscathed like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

I love this gospel.

I know I can always be better.

I am grateful always but never satisfied in my own efforts. That is what makes the difference when facing the furnace. 

Challenge:

Face the furnace attempting to use an eternal perspective. Imagine a rope extending in two directions to infinity in space. Wrap a thread around a point in that rope and that is what this life is like. However we respond to the problems in that tiny part of our eternal existence makes all the difference. 

Today is the day.

Face the furnace with confidence that you will pop out the other side.

You will be different that is correct.

But if you keep an eye on God you will exit shining with glory.

Love you all
Elder Lyle

1/6 down... 5/6 to go

It's been...

4 months!!!

Only 20 to go

Sharing a letter to his sister...

Since Rawly didn't have a letter to share this week. We have decided to share the letter he wrote to his sister this week, mostly because it made us all smile:

HELLO 

I just want to say

THAT I LOOOVE YOU SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH 

AND THAT I MISS YOU
SO SO SO SO SO SO
SO SO SO SO SO SO
SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOS
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

MUCH 

And that I opened up one of your letters of encouragement and well......

It just exploded with love, ahahahahahaha

Little hearts went everywhere. It was the best!

I love you so much 

Thank you for being the best little sister ever

Study hard so we can burn down BYU, ahahah

Lots of love 

Rawly