Sunday, March 31, 2013

How Sweet It is...

As we travel through the northern part of the mission
The roads are lined with SUGAR CANE
This is one of the Primary crops in our mission 
 It often grows to a height of over 8 feet before they harvest
And then the big sugar cane cars are loaded and what a sight to 
see them being slowly pulled down the highway.

We see fields of sugar cane in all stages:
just harvested, newly planted, small tender plants
and mature plants ready to harvest.

So it is with missionary work...
We see investigators, missionaries, and members in all stages:
Newly planted seeds of faith 
small tender testimonies
and 
faith that is ready to harvest at the waters edge.






Sweet is the work...
"For behold the field is white already to harvest..."

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Train up a missionary...

"Train up a missionary in the way he should go:
and when he is older he will not depart from it"  
Proverbs 22:6 (with liberties!)

This is the hope with the training program for the missionaries
We believe in our trainers, we hope they will follow the plan,
and then we wait to see after 
The first 12 weeks program
how they have done.  

Today was a day of training in the office with our new missionaries.
Then they met their new traininers
 Elder Vera and Elder Sanchez
 Elder Silva and Elder Viza
Elder Henostroza and Elder Xochicale
LUNCH TIME!!!

A Trip to Cristo Rey!!!



 The missionaries went right to work sharing the gospel message.
They took down the references to visit two families this coming week!
Good work, Elders!!

More training!!!
And they are off to work...
We believe in these great young servants!
It is worth our time to train up a missionary and mold a future generation!

To the airport...

We are thinking that outside of the major transit carriers
we go to and from the airport more than anyone else.
It takes us anywhere from 30 minutes (at 4:30am) 
to 1 1/2 hours (at rush hour) to get to the airport.  
We never know what kind of road work, wreck, or traffic jam will greet us!

Tuesday, March 26 we said good-bye to Elder Jensen.

2 years ago we met Elder Jensen in the Provo MTC...we were all studying Spanish!
Now he is happily back home with his family.

On Wednesday, March 27 we picked up 3 arriving missionaries
 We are SO happy to have Elder Viza arriving AGAIN.  
He arrived 6 months ago on crutches with a broken ankle...after getting an infection in the bone he had to return home to Peru to heal.  He is now back with us in the field!
                                                                                    Elders Sanchez and Viza
                                                         Elder Xochicale and President Prince          
A dinner at Subway before heading back to Cali...from the airport!




Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Called to Serve

One of our great blessings is
sending off missionaries from our districts.
President Prince has the honor of 
interviewing, counseling, and setting apart
these great young men and women.

It seems like the train has sped up and we are seeing more and more applications.
Someone once told me:
"The work is moving faster.  It's time to either jump on or get run over!"
We are ALL called to serve...have you jumped on yet!

This week President Prince set apart 2 missionaries
 Elder Lasso 
from the Tuluá district
He arrived in Cali alone and was brought to the mission home by 2 missionaries.
He is off to Mexico City.
He is a humble, gentle young man.
Elder Edwards and Elder Fuentealba helped with the setting apart.


Hermana Cabrera
from the Palmira district
We went to Palmira to set her apart.
She was surrounded by many friends and church members.
She is off to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Hermana Cabrera is a happy, converted, loving young lady.

Each missionary that President Prince sets apart now
will return home to a different mission president to release them.
We will miss seeing their growth and hearing their stories.
The army of God is growing...
we are ALL enlisted 'til the conflict is oer.
HAPPY ARE WE to be CALLED TO SERVE!!!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Focused on Building Leaders

Every 3 months we have time to do specialized training...
"training focused on specific mission needs"
This month we "focused" on our District leaders.

We met with 10 District leaders from the north zones
Tulua, Buga, Paraíso, and Palmira
(and forgot to take even one picture)
We could see those who listened up, stepped up, and will make up the future zone leaders of the mission.

Next we flew to Pasto...
it is ALWAYS complicated going to Pasto.
After a 2 hour weather delay, we finally made it.
It was COLD
But our 6 Pasto and Ipiales district leaders
are incredible.(here with our assistants)

The following day we headed to Popayán

 
Our leaders come in all sizes
but their desire to serve 
is one size fits all!!

Our last group was the
Villa Colombia, Calima, San Fernando, Farallones, and La Costa zones


Here we are all focused on getting started...
but once they got going
I forgot to take more pictures.
From the lack of pictures, it seems that I was more
focused on building leaders
than 
focusing my camera...
I promise to do better next time!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

On the move again...

Two weeks late...but we have missionaries traveling again from North to South!
It is transfer time or miracle week as we call it.
(it is a miracle that everyone ends up where they should be!)
and even a bigger miracle if they don't lose a suitcase in the shuffle...don't ask!

We decided to pack everything into one day...

New Missionary Training
Missionaries began arriving at the mission home before 10am.
Their trainers arrived at the mission office at 10am.
(or that was the plan...they all arrived, but not quite as planned!)
And then they all met together at noon for lunch and training.
Here are our 12 February missionaries with their trainers...due to the delay in transfers
some are meeting the trainers for the first time and others have already been working hard with their trainer (just lacking formal training from the office)!
Elders Anderson and Flores                      Elders Cha and Sican
 Elders Dahlin and Campos
Elders Jones and Martinez                Elders Garcia and Galvez
Elder Karren and Vaca
Elders Mancilla and Jolley                 Elders Laws and Medina
 Elders Quisbert and Peart
 Hermanas Medina, Mendoza, and Guzman
        Hermanas Galan and Flores         Hermanas Sepulveda and Gonzalez 


LUNCH TIME
Pizza, Salad, Drinks, and an ice cream sundae







 And sometimes you just want to hide when it is all said and done!!



Proselyting Training with trainers and new missionaries
Learning to use all the proselyting tools...keeping commitments!

Showing what it is to make a commitment...how many push ups can you do...si or si??
Pres Prince leads the way
 one more...one more...
 They all exceeded their commitments!

Watch out Cali...here they come!
The compromiso was 157 new investigators by Sunday...si or si!


Happy to report that they all ended up where they were supposed to tonight!

Zone Leader Council
10 new zone leaders
Elders Alvarez, Alvarado, Eliason, Montes, Aldunate, LaBar, Rivadeneira, Zambrano, Valdiviezo, and Rogche
 A lot of counseling in council
24 Incredible Zone leaders
We just created 3 new zones for a total of 12 zones
left to right
Back: Elders Novoa, Stucki, Lamoreaux, Welling, Eliason, Menedez, Montes, Edwards, Aldunate, LaBar, Borg, Jensen, Valdiviezo, Zambrano
Middle:  Riepl, Alvarado, (TIRED President and Hermana Prince), Amado, Rodriguez
Front:  Alvarez, Calle, Inga, Cordova, Rivadeneira, Rogche

We are on the move again...
"For in HIM we live and move...for we are also HIS offspring"
Acts 17:28