Dax "Big Z" Rich (October 20, 2014)

Well, big things happened. I am now a Zone Leader and am back in Piura Central! So, about half of my mission will be purely Piura Central. But, that isn`t the craziest part! *Drum roll* My companion, for the first time in Piura-history is a Gringo! (Well maybe not the first time in Piura`s history, but the first time in a super long time!) It is CRAZY to be with a Gringo! His name is Elder Eddington from Utah, and we are now the Dynamic Duo from the USA. Crazyness. 

Also, to add to the craziness, the national mailing system in Peru is on strike. Soooo, I wont be receiving any packages for a while, and thus I advise everyone who wants to to wait until this gets resolved to send me a package or even a card. Crazyness X2. 

It was quite emotional to leave Pueblo Nuevo, and I choked up a few times during this past week as I said goodbye to some amazing families. I have seen the Gospel bless and change families and I will miss this environment and opportunity to help the Gospel spread in a humble town. 

Well, there are LOTS of new things that I will be doing from now on. It will make the mission a lot more...interesting, let`s say, but I am excited for the test and hope to keep everyone involved and up to date on the exciting adventures of Elder Rich!

Thanks and best of luck to everyone! ¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

Last Beach Day (October 13, 2014)

Well, today marked the last P-Day for me in the beaches of Paita. And, to celebrate it nice and good, we went to the beach closest to Pueblo Nuevo: the beach in Colán. It is also the only beach you will find if you look at most traveler´s guides about beaches in Piura. It was quite sweet, but it turned into a big game of monopoly after a series of interesting events transpired. Oh well.

So, the week was quite an interesting week of emotions and faith. The highlight (besides the conferences) was a super cool moment I had on Thursday. So, if you all remember, a while back I sent an email about the "Book of Mormon Challenge" to prove if the book is divinely-inspired, or not. Well, Thursday, I took the REAL Book of Mormon Challenge. I have always heard stories of people praying, opening up the Book to a random page, and then finding the EXACT answer they needed to a question. I won´t tell you all of the details transpiring to the event, but I did just that. I gave a quick prayer, whipped open the book to a random page, read one first, and then thought to read the next verse too. Those two verses contained EXACTLY the information and guidance I needed in that exact moment. I was blown away, and my testimony of the Book of Mormon shot through the roof. So, thanks to this REAL challenge, yes, I do testify that the Book is divinely-inspired.

 

Well, next week were get transfers. I will be leaving and only the Lord knows where I will go. Let´s wait and see! I pray the best for everyone back home and hope that everyone is healthy and happy! Enjoy your October! ¡Cuídense!

- Elder Dax Rich

Going With the Wind (October 6, 2014)

My six months in Pueblo Nuevo are coming to their end. I spent part of the weekend this past weekend here in Paita and saw a few of the conference sessions, and prepared myself for what will be my penultimate week in Paita. Still much to do, but now I am kind of just going with the wind. Supposedly the President will be stopping by Paita tomorrow, and might stop by and check on us so that is exciting if not freaking intimidating, haha. Pero así es la vida.

 

The work of salvation keeps on rolling here. We are all working on getting more baptisms, meeting new families, and spreading the Gospel (which speaking of, is now VERY HARD because all of the workers in the mailing department in Paita have gone on strike so I can´t send ANYTHING until these people calm down and get back to work. Freaking strikes). We haven´t had many new things happen this week, but certainly I have had some great spiritual experiences through personal prayers and through my relationship with God. I hope everyone who reads this prays or at least gets the chance to pray once a day. There is nothing as special or as encouraging as a heart-filled, sincere, and faithful prayer. Truly there is a God in the heavens who hears our prayers and knows us perfectly. 

 

I truly do love being a missionary in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no other truth except that given by the Christ Himself. I hope everyone can be brought into the fold of the Good Shepard one day and that we can all be together as family and friends for all time and eternity. 

Gracias a todos y espero que tengan muy buena semana. ¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

Milagros cada día (September 29, 2014)

That is the best part of being a missionary: looking for the miracle in every single day of your 18 months - 2 years. Sometimes they are a bit harder to find, but sometimes they are pretty obvious and give you an overwhelming sense of humility and gratitude.

 

To share one with you, yesterday was the first Sunday after the baptism of the family we baptized last week, so that meant it was the day of their confirmation. However, the daughter had repeatedly told us that it would be impossible for her to come. She had already gone through a brutal time asking for one day off to be baptized and one more time just wouldn´t fly. We prayed for her, but knew that sometimes the Lord has other plans. Well, obviously His plan was for her to be confirmed, because seconds before we closed the door to confirm her parents members of the church and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost, she ran through the door and took a seat in the front. We were pretty blown away.

 

I then had another HUGE spiritual experience seconds later when I was asked to confirm the father who I had baptized the week before and the little boy who I had also baptized the week before. (Confirming someone a member of the Church and giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost was the only ordinance I had not priorly performed, but I got my chance two times!) I felt the Spirit guide my words and thoughts as I promised blessings and transfered divine powers to these two sons of God. It was a very unique experience, and I physically felt exhausted afterwards haha. I felt like Ammon in Alma 27:

"Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength."

Yeah, basically it was a good week. Anyways, I hope you all have a great week, and I hope the Spirit of the Lord can guide each and everyone of you with the Light of Christ that dwells in each and everyone of you. May we all be spiritually humbled in preperation for General Conference this week! Todos debemos asistir! 

Mucho amor y muchas gracias,

Elder Dax Rich

Family Style (September 22, 2014)

Well first off (since I don´t have the pictures of these) I will share with you that I ran into two super-awesome elders. 1) Elder Tunney: my pata from the CCM who I hadn´t seen in literally one year! He is now a DL also and so during the District Leader Training, he was killing everyone with his jokes and wonderful charisma. Two thumbs up. 2) Elder Farias: my pata from Tumbes! Yes, he was a young man of a family who lived in my first area in Pampa Grande and wasn´t sure about going on a mission. Well, I tried to excite him and get him working on his papers, and well one year later, here he is serving in his own mission! He is now a full-time missionary in the Piura, Perú mission!!! Needless to say, I was pretty excited.

Okay, now for the family information. Hermanos y hermanas: may it be known that for the first time in my mission, my companion and I baptized an entire family!!! The Coveñas Rodriguez family was baptized yesterday (along with an 8 year-old son of our pensionista) and it was a day none of us here in Paita will soon forget. We did the baptism in Paita (because obviously we don´t have a chapel in Pueblo Nuevo #grupofamiliar) and sooo many people attended! I even organized a musical number with two youth playing violin and piano while the district (in the other picture below) sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Spanish (watch out David Archuleta, Elder Rich is making his debut in Perú). Each of the three family members then bore their testimonios of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each one spoke 15 minutes and I felt like I was in General Conference again...freaking hahaha. It was super spiritual and we were very happy and filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Now, to look for more families!

In our mission, our new emphasis is talking with EXCLUSIVELY couples in the street. It is super new and super hard for us...for many reasons...but it is exciting and we are running into very prepared people. 

I am super greatful for being here on a mission. I know this is the true church of God. There is no doubt in my heart. This is the truth and I pray with all the energy of my heart that everyone whom I love can one day come unto Christ and be baptized like this family was so that they too can be worthy to enter the Lord´s House and be sealed to their own families for all time and all eternity.

Thank you all for reading the blog and keeping up on the life of Elder Rich. ¡Les quiero y cuídense mucho!

-Elder Dax Rich

 

***pictures are posted under pages "pictures"

Fishing for Families (September 15, 2014)

As a mission, we are focusing hardcore on looking for families to establish the church in Piura, Perú. Every single letter, announcement, joke, call, etc. is centered on finding, teaching, and baptizing families. I also went fishing today. Hence the title, hahaha. I actually caught a little fish too, for the first time in my life. Good day.

Anyways, it has been a good week. We are doing lots of new things in Pueblo Nuevo, have lots of good people progressing and are pretty happy. My new companion is pretty stellar: Elder Rodas. We have a pretty good time, especially because his English is pretty good. We joke around a lot and work hard together to teach and find with the Spirit. 

It feels kind of weird to be in the zone now. All of my old mission pals have been transfered to other parts in Piura, and so I am kind of here on my own. It is kind of like I am old news. Oh well, I still get to enjoy the great weather! Seriously, we get COLD here! It is sooo nice. I will miss Paita when I leave next transfer.

Well, that is about it. Not too much for this week! Thanks to all y espero que tengan buena semana! ¡Cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

Baptism, the First Ordinance of the Gospel (September 8, 2014)

Drum roll. I am....still here in Pueblo Nuevo! Yeah, that makes this my fourth transfer in the family group of Pueblo Nuevo. (6 months, ¡qué loco!) The cool thing is that I get to really take the helm know and work with all of the new investigators that we have run into. I hope to have lots of good news to report to everyone!

My new companion is named, Elder Rodas. He is from Bolivia and he has 9 months in the mission, so I am with someone with experience. (Yes!) He seems pretty great, so I look forward to this next transfer. 

This past week I attended two baptisms of two different families. It was pretty awesome. I also held this baptismal interviews two days before, so it was cool to interview them and then afterwards see them be baptized. They were also grateful that I left Pueblo Nuevo to see them on their big day. (Although, one of the little girls that I had to interview in the first family cried for like 20 minutes because she was scared of the "big, scary Gringo." Oh well, as my district would say to me, "sucks to suck, Elder Rich.") The baptisms were pretty crazy as there was no water in the town, so we had to fill the tank with buckets of water. Crazy stuff. However, the services themselves were very spiritual. I was invited to do another solo, and so for the first time since Tumbes, I sang a solo to "When I am Baptized" (in English!) with a sister from Utah playing the piano. It was quite the performance.

A lot has happened and I have seen a lot, too. Baptism really is only just the start to a new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. I see so many people falling away from Christ after their baptisms and I get so sad. The temple is the focus. It is my focus. I want to come home one day and get married in the temple to have an eternal family. That is the real goal. Baptism means nothing if we can´t enter in the kingdom of God with our families. I hope everyone can one day share my vision.

My love to you all, and I will try to send some pictures next week. Until then, ¡cuídense mucho!

- Elder Dax Rich

But, It's Not My Wallet (September 1, 2014)

Another good ol´ week here in Pueblito Nuevito. We went on exchanges this week and I was with elder Benalcázar, so obviously it was a fiesta. We ran into so many families,  it was bacanísimo. I also learned a great gospel analogy that is part of my title. I will get to  that in a second.

First off, the highlight of the week. For the first time in MY ENTIRE MISSION, i have an entire family with a baptismal date, and their kids who are married are now ALL listening to us with their families. In total, it is four families who are progressing and one with the baptismal date. Transfers are next week so I will probably leave before i see the baptisms, but what a miracle. This area has only seen 3 baptisms in over a year, and now it will be getting a ton more. I truly am greateful and amazed at the blessings of the Lord.

 

Now for the analogy. For those of you who have seen Spongebob, there is an episode when Spongebob and his friend patrick try to teach a villian, Manray how to be a good person. It has been more than a year since ive seen this, so  fforgive me for the incorrect quoting, but I would like to quote one part and then apply it to the Gospel and how Elder B. and I feel about missionary work.

Patrick intentionally drops his wallet and Manray has  to practice being a good person by returning it to Patrick. Manray picks up the wallet and  says to Patrick:

Manray: Sir, i believe you dropped your wallet.

patrick:  Nope, that isnt my wallet.

manray. What? But I saw you drop it.

patrick: nope, not mine.

manray: Inside this wallet is a liscense, and it has your name and your picture. It is your card, no?

Patrick: yes, it is mine.

manray. okay, well I found this inside of your wallet, so that must mean that this wallet is yours, right?

patrick: that makes sense to me.

manray. then take it.

patrick. but its not my wallet.

Yes, it is sadly just like us and the Gospel. Here:

Us: the bible says the true church of Jesus Christ was established with prophets, apostles, and the priethood.

Them: that´s true.

us: Okay, well our church has prophets, apostles, both called of God, and the priesthood restored through the laying on of hands as taught by christ. therefore, our church should be the true church, no?

Them: that makes sense to me.

Us: then be baptized.

Them: but I already go to another church.

Elder Benalcázar had a good laugh about this. Anyways, that was my story for the week. The church is true, the prophet is true, and I am quite positive I am in the work of the Lord. Next week I may be writing from another part in Piura.

Until then, Cuidense.

- Elder Dax Rich