How Time Goes By...

Well another month has come and gone

9 months... 

How can that be?

In trouble with Hermana Prince & His Mom

No letter this week...

After not hearing from Rawly on Monday I sent an email to Hermana Prince worried about his welfare since I am fairly unreachable at this time and not knowing if he safely made it to his new area or not. This is what she sent back.

Sister Lyle, I just got off the phone with Elder Lyle. He apologetically said he did NOT write to you yesterday. They traveled into the zoo and they got back to their area late and did not have time to go to the internet.

I told him that hopefully he has learned his lesson...

1st thing we do on P-Day is write to our mothers.

I gave him permission to go to the internet and send you a BRIEF note explaining that he would write more next week. He sighed and said, "I knew this would happen!" 

He is well. 

Hugs, Hermana Prince

Rawly's response was VERY brief.

Here it is:

Hey, just wanted to say I'm alright and that everything is good. We had a really awesome day yesterday, (which was Monday) as we went to the zoo.... for  a little too long and, well we couldn't write our families. Sister Prince bit our heads off. Everything is good. 

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

It's hot.

Talk to you next week.

Elder Lyle

So this is what we do know: 

Rawly is safe and sound in his new area

It is somewhere in Cali, not sure where

And he will write next week.
Hum... Not a happy Mom this week.

It's Hard to Believe...

It is so hard to believe that one year ago today

That Rawly opened his mission call

So this was Rawly's pick on where he was going...

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Here he is stressing out while reading where he has been called to

Craig showing Camden where Cali Colombia is

Everyone was shocked that Rawly was leaving the country

Rawly always gets a new pair of Chucks for any of his adventures

This was going to be quite an adventure and his Dad

 had a brand new pair of Chuck's waiting 

It's hard to believe it's been a year...

CAMBIOS!

HERE WE GO 

TRANSFERS EVERYONE AND I’M GOING TO THE HEAT!

I’m on my way to Cali

That’s right everyone I’m on my way to the Salsa dancing capital of the world

where the heat is intense and the music is loud

This week we had a very difficult time in my old area. We barely had any one who received us. All our appointments fell through so we did a huge service project with the Earzo Family. Their septic tank broke. So we dug all the tubes out and emptied out the septic tank with buckets. I have never done something more disgusting in my life but it was incredible to see that after we did the service, (after everyone had been watching us in our white shirts digging up the pipes and taking out the crap), how everyone started to accept us and our area shot through the roof in terms of acceptance. (So wished there were some pictures of this...)

I’m sorry I don’t have a message for you this week, I was way busy packing up my house, which is a DISASTER right now. It’s crazy how much crap you can accumulate from gifts of little things that you buy in four and a half months, ha-ha. So that is where I am right now, trying to figure out how to pack up all my crap into my suit case. 

Ipiales is hard and easy to say goodbye to. It’s been a really hard area for me. Really emotionally draining, like living in eternal winter. So to go to the heat, well, I’m kind of super excited, the people are:

WAY more active there, 

WAY more happy 

and 

A LOT LOUDER, 

hahahaha

Vamos Bien

It’s hard to say goodbye to some families. Like the:

Vidal Family, it’s been really hard to say goodbye to them

Erazo Family, David. He still doesn’t no that we are going to leave, we are going to tell him right now

The Benavides Family

The Aza Family

The members of the church here are very awesome, super kind and super loving. It will be hard to say goodbye to them. 

It looks like I will be replacing a good friend of mine. Elder Jones. From what I heard, I don’t know if it is correct or not. But it seems I will be replacing Elder Jones in my new area. My new companion will be another Chilean, his name is Elder Lopez. 
President Prince has a list of 5 missionaries in the mission who he never could understand number 1 was Elder Cha the Argentine that was in my district that went home last week, he was SUPER hard to understand even the other latinos couldn’t understand him. 

Number 3... Elder Lopez. 

Ha-ha, I’ve heard only super awesome things about him, he’s super happy, super excited all the time and from what I’ve heard from the President we are going to be very good for each other. We are going to have a lot of fun together it sounds like. I’m super excited. (Actually President Prince should be WORRIED that he put those two together.)

I’m not quite sure where I’m going in Cali. I know I’m going to a zone called San Fernando but what my area is called I have no idea. Some say Israel, others say Jamundi. If it’s Jamundi I’ll be in the rural areas again. I have no idea.

The transfers from Ipiales are: 

Elder Lyle

Elder Hogan 

and Elder Aguilera. 

I’m excited to start over again in a new area. 

Everyone I hope you have an AMAZING week, 

That you embrace the new beginnings that present themselves in your lives 

Love you all
Elder Lyle

Franklin Almeida sent this picture of Rawly

This was his last Family Home Evening before leaving Ipiales

Franklin said: 

Hi Sister Lyle, we're very sad due to your son is going to go out from Ipiales tomorrow. He is going to Cali. 

You have an excellent solider of God

We love him so much

(It is so wonderful to hear from the members of where he is teaching)

Just in from Presidente Prince

Estimado Élder Lyle -  

Your new area needs you!  You will be District Leader in a good ward with a legacy of successful proselyting. Gain the confidence of your Bishop right up front.  Set up a meeting with him at his convenience and ask him what he expects of you or would like you to do in particular.  If you can win his confidence early, it will be a great blessing going forward.  Be sure to fulfill and complete whatever he asks you to do.

In your apartment, there will be four of you, and it is important that you establish and maintain a cheerful but completely obedient atmosphere.  One member of each companionship has already been there for at least one transfer, so they will be able to help you in meeting members, investigators, etc.

The key is to win these Elders´ admiration and respect early on.  It is much easier to be a little "reglista" and establish obedience up front than it is to try to "get it back" later on.  Don´t be slack for the sake of winning everybody´s immediate friendship. I need that district to be focused on its missionary objective.  Watch out for too much casual, light-minded behavior around members and investigators, especially.  If you need help, start with your Zone leaders.  I will be here, of course, to help as well.  You will do a great job.

Presidente Jonathan M. Prince
Mision Colombia Cali

This week's pictures

The Good Shepherd

Lucia, Baby Tatiana & Noemi

David getting baptized

Christian baptized him

David & I

Tired, so I did what any person from Ipiales would do...

Just Do It!

Hello family and friends. 

The transfer is coming to an end and everything seems to be winding down. Converts are moving, missionaries finishing up their missions, new missionaries finishing up their last few days of training, it's the feeling of fall.... However in a mission sense. 

Last week was hectic with mundane things of the mission. We helped Angela pack up her house to go home to Bucaramanga (Bogotá North Mission). Elder Cha went home to Argentina. I had to evaluate Elder Estrada's training. All of our investigators got baptized or told us not come back. So here in the last week we have found ourselves at basically ground zero. 

It's interesting to me how ground zero can feel so refreshing. Some missionaries would say there is no one!!!! And start to freak out and have a panic attack, that was me like 5 months ago. I have learned a lot here in Ipiales. 

Above all things trust in God. 

If we need to start over, it's because their are bigger and better things waiting. 

We had zone conference in Pasto on Thursday. Super awesome we talked about lots of things, how to teach and have faith more than anything.

Ipiales Zone

Elder Lyle & Elder Walker receiving their birthday cookies from Sister Prince

It's been raining here everyday, super cold, lots of muddy puddles.

Saturday I was super done. The signal is horrible where we live I was trying to talk to my district and set up appointments but no one could hear me and all 8 of our appointments fell through. 

I was so DONE. 

I was walking back to the house when a huge semi flew by in front of me and hit a mud puddle sending a wave that just about crushed me with water and mud. Yeah, that was the topper of the day. That's when I realized I just needed to realize how funny the situation was as I stood there in the pouring rain with my umbrella brown and dripping wet from the semi. Ha-ha-ha, oh how some things can change your day in a way you could have never imagined. 

So here is are the questions that I always ask my investigators:

What is faith?

Do you know?

Are you sure?

How do you know you are sure?

Who told you that's faith?

How many of you started to doubt in the original response you had to the first question?

Maybe you had faith in your answer all the way to the end or maybe not. I guess it depends on your stubbornness. 

However the Bible dictionary describes faith as:

"A principle of action and of power, and by it one can command the elements and/or heal the sick, or influence any number of circumstances when the occasion warrants. (Jacob 4:47) Even more important, by faith one obtains remission of sins and eventually can stand in the presence of God."

Awesome, huh?

I love that it says faith is a principle of action.

Read James 2:14-26

Some of my favorite scriptures from this chapter are 19 and 26.

19. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Think on that... Or maybe this:

26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Satan believes in God and Christ, more than us honestly, his fallen angels as well believe. In fact they "believe and tremble". What is the difference between us and Satan's angels? Well we can have all the faith in the world, however, if we don't make it a "principle of action" we are no better than they are. 

DO! Brothers & Sisters

Show you Faith

ACT

A companion that we all know has a great slogan that I would like to implement to finish. 

Please Brothers & Sisters

"JUST DO IT"

Follow the Commandments

Show you Faith

and

Show you Love to your Fellow Being

You say you have faith, I say SHOW ME.

You don't have to show in public, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is make faith a principle of action. 

JUST DO IT

Love you all

Challenge:

THE LOST SHEEP

Visit one less active member of the church or family. If you don't know who ask your Bishop. Tell them they are missed. Show them your love and your faith and then write me about it. I want to receive something... Ha-ha.

Lots of Love

In the name of Jesus Christ

Amen

Elder Lyle