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..."

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!

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!!!

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!

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