Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (March 24, 2014)

Well, a lot changed thanks to cambios this week. I am still here in Capullanas with Elder Quispe, but we now are sharing the area with 2 new hermanas, 2 new zone leaders (because Capullanas is now big enough to be a zone), and a new district leader. This guy. Bacan, hermano. Really it just means I get a cell phone. Good times. But yeah, these next 6 weeks will be very different from what I experienced before. I am sure there will be cool things to report. 

There was a lot of stress and running around this week (because of this change), so I apologize that I don´t have any awesome stories or scriptures to share, but I guess it is nice to have a short email once in a while. 

I hope you are all doing well, and I hope everyone is safe! I look forward to hearing more from everyone as time goes on! 

¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

I Like My Baptisms Shaken, Not Stirred (March 17, 2014)

Baptism! Bacan! It was certainly a wonderful night, and what made it even better is that we had a nice mini-earthquake to start off the baptism. Right as the member leading the service began his introduction, the whole church started shaking and Piura experienced a mini-earthquake. It was my first experience with the ground shaking and it was certainly worthy of going in my journal. After everyone calmed down, we continued and had a very spiritual and lovely baptismal service. And now, Alexandra is a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Good week indeed.

To finish off the week, we had one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. To not go too into detail, I will just say that it changed a lot in me and Elder Quispe and really helped me to recognize Jesus Christ in my life as well as his role in this, His church. It was like star-power for my testimony, as I just felt even more sure that this really is the church of Jesus Christ, the same church that He established a little under 2000 years ago. We are very close to another baptism with this specific investigator, and I cannot wait to share it with you all, because I have all the faith in the world that this will work out. But to leave with a scripture; I ran across this scripture and it really just highlights everything in this last lesson perfectly.

In the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Ether, there is a scripture that reads:  (verse 18 in chapter 4) "Arrepentíos, pues, todos vosotros los extremos de la tierra, y venid a mí, y creed en mi evangelio y sed bautizados en mi nombre; porque el que crea y sea bautizado, será salvo; mas el que no crea, será condenado; y las señales seguirán a los que crean en mi nombre."

The señales/signs that follow are real and do come to everyone who accept and live the Gospel. If you want to know if this church is true, visit it! If you want to know if the Book of Mormon is another sacred testimony of the living Christ, read it! It starts with a desire, then an action, then a desire to change, and then baptism and the willpower to endure to the end of your life as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

It is short this week, but thanks for all of you who are reading my blog and keeping Aimee and I in your thoughts and prayers. Much love to you all!

¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

Eres loco, Élder Rich (March 10, 2014)

First off, a shout out to my brother who will be serving a mission in.... well actually I am still waiting his email. But, I do know he will be serving a mission soon and that is awesome to hear, yet also weird. He is still just a little tike! Nevertheless, he will be great in his mission (wherever it is)!

We had an awesome activity this week, the best church activity that I have been involved in. We hosted "Combate SUD" which was a spoof on the popular TV show here: "Combate" with the SUD (santos de los últimos días). We played lots of different games, and yours truly got to host a few of the games, as well as the ultimate dance-off at the end. Yes, I even danced a bit (hence the title), but hey, it was in the name of missionary work! In truth, we had a successful activity and are looking forward to planning more activities like this one!

Scripture of the Week...with a twist! This time, I will send it in English, because everyone should know this scripture. I have it on my wall in my room, and I have it running through my head all the time. In the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Alma sat down with his son, Corianton, the black sheep in the family. Corianton had made some mistakes in his past and as a good father (and a servant of God), his father talked with him one-on-one and taught him some important lessons. One of those lessons is captured in this one line: (Alma 41:10)

"Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."

It is too true. When we go against the commandments of God, sure we might get some instant gratification, which is also called: "momentary happiness." However, when we follow those commandments and go against what the world says is "better" to follow what our father in heaven says is "better," we get something called "joy" which is also called: "eternal happiness." 

If you aren´t happy, and I mean REALLY happy, now is the time to get happy. Study the commandments. Live them. Repent. Trust in Jesus Christ. The promise from the humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ is that you will be happy. Truly happy. You will never know happiness like it.

Thank you all for reading and for your thoughts and prayers. Good luck to Chaz and love to Aimee! ¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

¿Comprendes la condescendencia de Dios? ["Knowest that the condescension of God"] (March 3, 2014)

Asu macho, the power of some people´s faith completely blows me away. Seriously, seeing people without anything good going for them turning to the Lord and putting all that they have into obeying and following God completely humbles me and reminds me that faith truly is not faith until it has been tried.

To begin my retelling of my experiences from the week, I will share a very applicable scripture first. In 1 Nephi 11 (the first book in the Book of Mormon) the young man, Nephi had a vision in which he spoke to an angel of God. During this conversation, the angel asked Nephi this question: (in verse 16)

"Y me dijo: ¿Comprendes la condescendencia de Dios?"

Nephi in response said: (in the next verse)

"Y le respondí: Sé que ama a sus hijos; sin embargo, no sé el significado de todas las cosas."

Yo también sé que Dios ama a sus hijos, y es por esto: 

The first story is that of a woman in our ward who has 4 young kids, is single, lives with her anti-Mormon family, has very few friends, is dirt-poor, and barely makes any money from her job. And, what is more, her oldest son has decided to use drugs and is now hanging out with a shady group of boys instead of heping with the family. Yet, almost every Sunday, she walks into church with her baby and daughter, and asks what she can do to help out in the ward. She always tries to help us out as missionaries, and she constantly tries to have us teach her little children lessons from the church. She is like this spiritual rock, and I sometimes think, "Please, God, just translate her into heaven!" Alas, she has a work to do and an example to set, and I am ever-amazed by her.

The second is from the past Monday. Piura is suffering from an extreme drought, to the point that Piura has declared a state of emergency. So, on Monday, the Relief Society in the ward got together, all of them, and they prayed that God would send rain... in that very day. What faith right? Well...15 minutes later we got a HUGE downpour. It even flooded a bit in our room! But it rained extremely hard for 2 hours straight, and it was the first actual rain in months...and it was after the prayer of a group of faithful women.

So, when people say, you can´t tell me God loves us, I say what Nephi said in 1 Nephi 11:17. ("And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.") Yeah, I don´t know everything, far from it! But, I do know God loves his children.

I love you all and thank you all for your love and support. 

¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich 

Not as Hot... But Still Hot (Feb. 24, 2014)

If any of you are reading my sister´s blog, then you will know that missionary life is crazy and stressful. Maybe my blog hides that fact, but the reality is that yes, life is very, very crazy as a missionary in Piura, Peru. There are lots of good moments to share but also a lot of... "¡asu macho!" moments. Luckily for the hearts and welfare of all at home, I am filling these digital pages with lots of good moments and testimony-building experiences. 

But to share a trail that has finally become a huge blessing: for the second (and more than likely last time) my favorite investigator/ good friend here in Capullanas has accepted the invitation to be baptized and after over 2 months teaching him, he is planning to be baptized at the end of March. I have prayed for this guy for weeks in just about every moment possible, and last night when we met with him he not only accepted baptism but shared some very neat experiences. He told us how he felt the Spirit so strong in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, how he always felt good when he read the Book of Mormon, and how he wanted to change his life and repent when he really got to understand who is Jesus Christ. He then said that after his baptism and all of that, he wants to prepare himself to one day serve a mission to give back everything God has given to him. (Baptism first, my friend!) But wow! Seriously, his testimony was like a shotgun of the Spirit because he literally blew me out of my seat and I could not say anything after that. Long story short, I am super excited to hopefully see the baptism of my good friend here.

I also got to take part in the baptism of a good friend of mine here. The other elders in the ward have been teaching him, but he is always visiting with me and likes to go out and teach with us. He is a fireball, and he finally got baptized yesterday! I will send the pictures next week.

Sorry that there are no photos this week, but the next time I will send some lovely pictures of the wedding we helped prepare and host as well as the "zoo" we visited today for P-Day. The highlight was truly the monkeys, but the zoo pretty much consisted of rabbits, dogs, and parrots: the three most common animals here in Piura. Regardless, we had a good time.

Thanks for all of the prayers and love sent down here in South America! I am sending up some love of my own as well as a "happy end of the hottest part of the year" here in Piura. 

Dios les bendiga y cuídense mucho

- Elder Dax Rich

"¡Espera! ¡Espera!" (Feb. 17, 2014)

As a wise man once said... "Well....that was an interesting week."

First off, logistics: I found out that my companion from the CCM, Elder Fordham is now in the office of the mission! It was very exciting to run into him again and get some time to chat (but this time in Spanish). After that, I met my new hijo: Elder Quispe. He is 20 years old and from Cusco, and he has a sister serving a mission also. Other than that...I know nothing else about my companion hahaha. Oh well, at least I am a Papi! 

Also, to demonstrate the fruits of language study in the mission: Watakushi wa Dax Kanemochi desu.  (Apparently in Japanese it is I am Dax Rich. Bacan.)

Okay, now the explanation of the title. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday, and it was nice and spiritual, and we had investigators there, and people were smiling and singing, and yeah. It was all a good stake conference should be, until a man bore his testimony. A returned missionary got up and bore his testimony, and then said something about how even though Joseph Smith was born 200 years ago, we can still appreciate his story today. Well, that was a mistake. In the congregation of at least 500 people, the man 3 persons to my right stood up and yelled, "¡Espera! ¡Espera! (in Spanish) My grandmother was born BEFORE Joseph Smith! Therefore SHE is older than him!" (Direct translation, by the way.) No one knew what to say or do, and the poor returned missionary stood speechless. We finally got the man to sit down and be quite, until the Mission President’s wife got up and started speaking, to which the man stood up again and applauded her. Yeah....it was certainly worth writing in my journal hahaha.

To finish off this entry for the blog, I´ll share a quick thought from my study of the scriptures. About 6 months ago, I had a meeting with the mission president in the CCM and he talked about how he loved the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, because Nephi grew so faithful and righteous that he got to the point that he just flat out hated sin itself. In 2 Nephi 9:49 his brother Jacob writes: "He aquí, mi alma aborrece el pecado." It is short, but it is awesome to see how both Nephi and Jacob grew so faithful and righteous that just sin itself became displeasing and horrible to them. It is certainly a goal that I want to set for myself: to one day also have such a hatred for sin itself. And that is the beauty of the Gospel: we can always improve ourselves and come closer to God. Anyways, I recommend for everyone reading the blog to study 2 Nephi chapter 9 specifically. It is just full of everything to explain this life, the next life, and well God’s plan for us really. 

Anyways, thanks to all for reading the blog and keeping up to date with me. I am praying for you all and hope that you are all seeing the Lord’s hand in your lives in one way or another! 

¡Gracias y cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

You "Stole" My Heart (Feb. 10, 2014)

Happy Pre-Valentine’s Day to all. May your week be full of love, friendship, and more love. To inspire everyone to express love, I´d like to share an experience this week of how someone demonstrated love for me. Actually, it was two fellows who came over to me, borrowed my money and keys, and were filled with so much joy that they forgot to return my possessions. Truly, this is the meaning of love.

That was the highlight of the week, I´d have to say, because well it was just a sad week. It was my final week with Elder Benitez, and while we finally got to start studying Japanese together (thanks Mom and Dad!) it was not enough to stop us from shedding a tear as we parted ways this morning. So, now I am sitting next to my "Papi." Yep, until tomorrow at 1 PM I am back with good ol´ Papa Chavez. We are both going to be trainers, so we are together until we go to meet our new hijos. The love just keeps going!

I apologize for not having a scripture this week, but I will just leave my letter with a few words of gratitude. Thanks to all who are reading and keeping up with my exciting adventures. Thanks to all who have been supporting my family with different challenges of health, time, and stress. Thanks to all of my friends and family for your thoughts and prays. Thank you all, and otra vez, ¡Feliz Dia De Los Enamorados!

¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

Yo-ho Yo-ho a Pirate´s Life for Me (February 3, 2014)

For those of you who know me well, no this is not an email update on One Piece. Very sad, I know. However, I have seen some great pirates here, especially on P-Days when we go to the market. There are about 5 or more of these folks on every single street in and around the market, and while they don´t have eye-patches or parrots, they do have thousands of great pirated DVDs and Video Games for 2 soles. Here I have seen Monster´s University 2, El Juego de Hambre 2: en Llamas, and Thor 2 being sold for less than one of our US dollars. If I didn´t have missionary rules, I would be so up to date on all of the movies that I am missing, it would be like I never left! Nevertheless, there are rules and I must obey, and thus I will anxiously await the moment in 18 months from now where I get caught up on all of the movies I have missed.

The great joke of the week: we were at a member´s house talking with some of the youth for like 30 minutes when one mentioned that it was the other`s birthday. We looked at each other, feeling silly that we obviously did not know, and thus decided to give her a gift. I whipped out a pamphlet of the Restoration of the Gospel and my companion wrote ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS! on the back, and we awkwardly gave it to her. She looked at us like we were completely crazy, but in the end I think she will find these words to be more powerful than any other gift...or maybe not haha.

However, the real experience worth sharing was yesterday in our lesson with an "eternal investigator" which means he has listened to the missionaries for months and months and has never accepted or denied the message. Yesterday I just decided to throw down the guantlet and so I asked if he had ever prayed to know if the church was true. After a pause, he told us his story of how he had started out very much Agnostic. He never felt the need to believe or disbelieve in God. However, he said he always felt empty. He felt happy many times...but never complete. Never like he has meaning to his life. Never like he was more than just elements fused together through natural processes. Thus, he went through the works: Catholic, Jehovah´s Witness, Evangelist, etc. He said he even tried just a life of yoga to find more meaning, but he never truly gained more than a knowledge that God was his Father in heaven. Sure that made him happier, but he said he never truly "knew" God.

Until he read the Book of Mormon.

Long story short: the Book of Mormon brought him closer to God, closer than he ever had been before. He gained the knowledge of who he was, why he was here, and what life really was for him and everyone else. His only problem: he didn`t know how to truly know if the book was true. The secret from the prophet Moroni, (and now also Elder Rich) is read the book, ponder the words in your mind and heart, and pray. That is how everything falls into place. That is how God works. That is how we become more than just sacks of water on a planet capable of sustaining life. That is how we come to know that we are indeed children of a God with a plan for each of us.

Read.
Ponder.
Pray.

I love you all very much and pray the best for everyone. Stay safe and stay strong! I can`t wait to see you all again! (Ah, but I don´t have eyes. Yohoho! Skull joke!!!)

- Elder Dax Rich