1/11 17 months!!

So another week is down! This week I will officially complete 17 months in the mission field. There is still a lot of time left.. but there isn’t. I am concious of the time, but I don’t feel trunky. I just feel motivated to keep working and keep helping others come to Christ. But still, where the heck did the time go?

So we had our leadership council with President and the other zone leaders and sister training leaders of the mission in Arequipa this week. It was really good, and holy cow, it was awesome! President Zobrist is inspired, and he taught a lot about the importance of teaching our investigators so that they truly understand the doctrine. We have to ask questions to really be sure they know. Because if they don’t understand, we are just teaching people, and not lessons. Often times as missionaries, we try the "firehose approach." A simple question about the nature of God leads to an unleashing of the doctrinal firehouse and we end up drowning the investigators in a sea of information. What we are ultimately called to do is to teach repentance and baptize converts.  

21 And I command you that you preach naught but repentance, and show not these things unto the world until it is wisdom in me.
 22 For they cannot bear meat now, but milk they must receive; wherefore, they must not know these things, lest they perish. (D&C 19:21-22)

We also learned about how to better ask for referals from the members. A lot of times we just go in guns a blazin and are like Liam Neeson asking for names, but that really doesn’t work. We have to sit down with the members and have them pray to have missionary experiences and have them really ponder in the people that they know, and then come back a week or so later to see how it went for them. I invite you to do the same. (D&C 15:6). 

We taught one of the coolest first discussions ever this week. We were teaching one of our new investigators, Jonathon, about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. As we shared the Prophet´s own words in describing the First Vision, he began to cry and said how incredible it was that the Lord has called a prophet in our day. That had never happened to me in my mission, so that was really cool. 

We continue to work hard. We are really excited to have a week where we don’t have to do anything crazy, like travel to Arequipa or Ilo, and just work in our area. We do have our zone conference this week, but we are going to do it here in Moquegua, so it will be a lot less hectic that the last one. Thanks for everything, have a great week!

Elder Matheson

"downtown" Moquegua

1/4 Happy New Year!!

So 2015 went by pretty fast! I still remember really distinctly last New Years, and yet here we are again. 2015 was the calender year in which the entire year I will be in the mission field. Well, now its over! We are here in 2016, and that means we have arrived to the year in which I go home. I feel very old haha. I still remember Grandma´s advice to me before I left: sprint until the end. I really don’t want to waste any time here in the mission. As I have gained more experience, I have really realized the value of taken advantage of our time. We have to be effecient and work hard! So this year of 2016, I will work hard and do what I´m supposed to do!

We had a number of really cool things happen this week. Vicky, Eduardo, and Milagros continue to progress. They have had a number of problems in their relationship lately, but we went and really kind of burned them pretty hard with the scriptures becuase they started arguing in front of us and in front of their kids when we were there, and I basically laid down the law with Moroni 7 and then my comp came in with 1 John 4 and they shut up pretty good. We told them they needed to talk it out and make goals to improve their relationship and we came back the next day and thay had done that, and havent had any problems since. We told them it is better to happy than right. 

We also found a really cool family this week that we have now taught twice. Dangalo and Marta and their 3 kids Angel, Antony, and Adys. Angel is 12, Antony is 15, and Adys is 6. They really are a really cool family (their 15 year old son is kind of a punk though). We taught them the Restoration Saturday night and everyone but Dangelo came to church yesterday, becuase he already had commited to going to work. He told us that next Sunday he would be there. 

So yesterday I got a call from one of our converts in Chachani, Janet. She was baptized last February and I really haven’t heard much from her since then. Well, she called me yesterday and told me THAT SHE HAS HER MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow, she hasnt even completed a year as a member and already has her mission call! And she’s going to Spain. When we get news like that as missionaries, it really just validates all of our hard work that we do. I now have 2 people that we have baptized on missions, and one of the less actives that we taught is also on a mission. Super cool stuff. 

Well guys, thanks for everything! Have a great week and a great 2016!

Elder Matheson

12/28 Hello All!

So, first off, this week was changes, and Elder Evans and I are staying together for another change. 6 weeks ago, I told you guys that Elder Jenkins and I would be together for another 6 weeks and that all went down the drain, so we´ll see what the change brings I think haha. I am super excited to be able to work another change here in Chen Chen. So with all of the stuff happening in the zone (the obedience stuff), President decided to open up two new area, and literally every companionship had a transfer. We will also have 4 missionaries training here in the zone, which puts a lot of weight on the shoulders of their district leaders to make sure everything is going well there. With the new areas opening up, we have had to scramble to find rooms and stuff to put in those rooms for the missionaries, and we were able to find some stuff that could at least be a temporary option for them until we can figure out something more concrete. We had to make an emergency run to Ilo yesterday to buy all the bus tickets for the missionaries leaving, check out the rooms, and then get back to Moquegua in time to be able to receive all the reports from the DLs, so we didnt get to bed until like midnight, then got up early this morning to send off all the other missionaries going to Arequipa. So we are going to be tired today haha. Also, with the new areas opened up (President is going to open up another area during this transfer as well) we are now the biggest zone in the mission (32 missionaries!!!!!). 

So, we finally have a family who might progress! Their names are Vicky and Eduardo, and their 16 year old daughter, Milagros. We have kind of been working with them on and off for a few weeks, but they have finally showed some signs that they might progress. They need to get married, but are willing to do it and they also have the financial means to do it, so that could happen. Eduardo is SUPER catholic, but told us the other day that he believes in everything we have taught him. We are working to help him pray to know if it is true, rather than just taking our word for it. Vicky is super gung-ho and wants to get baptized and everything. She has a testimony and is really just waiting to get married. Their daughter, Milagros, has never been baptized, so she wants to learn more and be baptized as well. They said they were all going to go to church on Sunday, but only Vicky went. Eduardo was sick and Milagros, being a teenager, slept in and never made there on time haha. But, pray for them, they look really promising, and we dont really have a lot of people to teach so this could be it!

We found out this week who our new mission president will be when President Zobrist goes home. Some guy named Doug Johnson, from Salt Lake City. We were all expecting a latino president, so i think we are super surprised. I will actually meet him before I go home (for like 3 weeks), so if he´s cool, awesome, and if not, well, I´ll be with him for 3 weeks so whatever haha. 

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and happy bday to Christian---warn the good people of the Tri-Cities who drive.

Love,

Elder Matheson