cell phones!

Hello everyone,

Well the big announcement here is that the church is giving cell phones to every companionship here in Mexico. Right now, only the leaders are permitted to have cellphones (district leaders, zone leaders, Assistants, and Secretaries), but now, every companionship will be permitted. That will certainly help the work to flow a lot smoother. More safety for the missionaries too.

Things have gone OK this week. We had stake conference last Sunday, so we couldn´t ask all of the members to come with us for teaching appointments. That is what we usually do. On Saturday night, while planning, we look at all of our appointments for the next week and plan who would be a good fellowshipper for that investigator. Then we write out a list. Sunday after sacrament meeting, we jump with all of those people and ask for their help. That has helped us to have more lessons with members present than not. But because of conference, we couldn´t do that, so our fellowshipping was down this week. Oh well, we´ll try harder next week.

I had the chance to go with a couple to be married. The missionaries have contact with a judge who gives us a discount for the marriages, so when our investigators have to be married (in order to live the law of chastity and be a candidate for baptism) and we go with them, it´s about half the price that one normally pays. It was a great experience. The following day I was able to interview them for baptism, and it looks like their whole family will be baptized (4).

Happy Halloween! and happy Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos). Day of the Dead here is in about 3 days (not sure exactly of the date). The people place an alter with lots of food, fruit, bread, flowers, and candles for their deceased ancestors, with the idea that God allows their spirits to return to earth with their loved ones this one day each year. They place the deceased´s favorite food on the altar with their picture. It is a false tradition, but it´s an interesting point of the culture anyway.

Well that´s about it. It is already November and still hot hot hot in the day (not too hot, but enough heat to make us look for shade). But it is really cold in the mornings and at night. I suppose that´s to expect being in the desert and all.

Thanks for all the support, prayers, and help.

Love you all,

Elder Bunker

Conversion

Hello all, Sorry for the delay...in my new area, there is a lot more work to do (it´s not so easy to wash cloths, for example). I don´t have so much time on Mondays anymore because of that. This week has been a good one. We have had a lot more success in finding people to teach and having the participation of the members in our teaching appointments. Last Monday we hiked a big hill in our area. Afterward, we ran down the side. It has a bunch of sand-gravel, so it felt like being superman and taking such large leaps down the mountain. We spent about 45 minutes hiking up the mountain and about 2 minutes going back down. It is really cool because at the top, you can see city all the way around the hill for miles and miles. All the houses fade into the smog-sky. It´s pretty crazy how big the city is (and how large our area is). There are so many people here in Mexico City. So many souls to save. I was thinking about being converted. We as missionaries are asked to read the Book of Mormon and repeatedly follow Moroni´s promise throughout our mission. It is super important, even as members, to do this regularly. To ask if the church is true regularly...not that the answer will change, but the importance of having a fresh answer and experience to relate is huge. I don´t want to tell people ´oh yes, I was born in the church, but I wasn´t converted until age 15, which was 5 years ago´. I would much rather tell them ´oh yes, i was born in the church, but I was converted 5 years ago. And 4 years ago. And again 3 years ago. And yesterday, in fact. Yesterday I received my answer that the Book of Mormon is true. Let me tell you the details of my experience that I had last night...´. That way when something happens in the church, or with the members, or someone makes a mistake, or messes up, it doesn´t put in jeopardy my testimony or salvation. My salvation is not dependant on how well member X follows the teachings of the church. My salvation and testimony depend on what God told me through the Holy Spirit last night. I´d much rather depend on God than on human behavior. I invite all to repeatedly test God on his promise in Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon. Because God cannot lie. Thanks for all of your support and prayers and letters. They really do help and sustain me (but I´m not too dependant on the letters :) Love, Elder Bunker

Dan overlooking Mexico City

Not much time to write today because I am in charge of the District Meeting in about 20 minutes. As a district leader I have a cell phone to communicate with the other leaders, and I receive text messages with the top news headlines every other day.

Well this first week was pretty crazy. My new area has almost NO organization. At least in my past areas, the roads were north-south, and east-west. Here they curve and change and change names and it´s pretty difficult to orient myself. There are 6 Elders in my district, All with less than 4 months in the mission (my companion has 8 months, and I 13). It´s a rather young district, but that´s OK. We all have stuff to learn from each other.

It´s hard

because we only have about 7 hours of time on Preparation Day (we still have to study and everything in the morning). And we have to wash cloths, hang them to dry, clean the house, etc. This morning we went to climb a mountain in our area. It has a section convered in sand, so we went to the top and jumped (galloped) down the mountain. I felt like Superman taking such big strides. Then we went to a members house to wash cloths, and her water ran out. We had to take a big blue barrel (like the ones we have) down the street, drop buckets down into a cistern below ground, and pull the water up and empty it into the barrel, then take the barrel back to the house (a big pain) and take bucketfulls of water to the 3rd story of the house to wash the cloths. Needless to say, I am EXHAUSTED today. I will sleep excellently tonight. Our boiler doesn´t work here either, so we use a big resistor that plugs in and sits in a bucket of water to heat it up. It takes about 30 minutes to heat up a bucket about the size of 4 or 5 liters. Then we mix it with cold water to get luke warm water and we shower by dumping bucketfulls over our heads. It does help save water.

Love, Elder Bunker

Member involvment

Hello everyone, Yesterday our Mission President came to our ward and shared a message on member involvment, as part of a major push for the help of the members. In the church handbook for Mission presidents, it says that the primary function of the full time missionaries is to TEACH. Missionary work is for the members. The finding, searching, contacting, fellowshipping, baptizing, confirming, and retaining is primarily the responsibility of the members. When they find people to teach, they call the missionaries to their home. Ideally, the members offer their home to be able to control the atmosphere of the lesson, and the members make themselves available to the investigators (phone calls, invitations to ward events, etc) to be able to answer questions in the absence of the missionaries. President shared the message using the new testament story of Zacchæus in Luke 19. He was an investigator who wanted to see Christ. The multitude blocked him out, so he climbed a Sycamore tree and waited the passing of Christ. Christ saw him and told him to get down and that he was to lodge him in his house. Sometimes as members, we are like the multitude, going about our church duties, but never acknowledging that sometimes, people not of our faith watch us, wondering, with a curiosity. Or as members we can be as the tree, which served its purpose in helping others to come unto Christ. Everything we do in the church is to invite and help others to come unto Christ...the meetings, conferences, activites, planning, everything. If it doesn´t serve that purpose, why do it? WE are just wasting time. If a tree, which doesn´t walk, talk, have talents, etc. served its purpose in helping someone come unto Christ, how much more should we, who walk, talk, and have talents, do the same. Let´s hope the tree doesn´t beat us. That´s my invitation today. That everyone of you can find your Zaccheus, someone who is curious, wondering, waiting, wishing, not knowing how to come unto Christ. Talk to him, invite him, and call the missionaries to come and teach your investigator, your convert, your soul with which you will rejoice in the kingdom of God. I love you all. keep serving. elder bunker

1 año

Well, beloved friends and family, I will be recognizing the 1-year mark this thursday. Wow, I know. Even for me, the time has gone terribly fast. Being so focused in the work, we count time by weeks. And stopping to recognize how much time has passed only once a week has caused that the time has passed even more quickly. I have learned many valuable lessons, many of which I have shared with all of you. The mission is a huge resposibility. One area of the mission to which a missionary is assigned has several thousand people. I am resposible for carrying the gospel message to every one of them. It is a huge task, but we are not alone. As the prophet Eliseo (in spanish...not sure of his name in english) said, we have hosts of angels in chariots on our side. And as Paul said, they that be with us are more than they that be with them. It has been like the blink of an eye. I just barely left BYU. I just barely left my cell phone in a lonely box in the basement. I just barely said good bye to my friends. But as Ecclesiastes says, To everything there is a purpose under heaven...a time for everything. And now my time here is half over. I hope and pray that my service is acceptable to God. I am striving to be better everyday. To learn patience, to learn hope, faith, love, charity, and all of the other virtues listed in D&C 4, along with those virtues of Christ. A true man is not one who has advanced in his education, work, social life, or anything of the sort, but rather a true manhood is measured by his dedication to God, his recognition that as a man before the Almighty, he is less than the dust of the earth and that as a child of the same Almighty, he has a potential so great that it is beyond his own understanding. As David pondered his existance before the vast array of stars, planets, and the great heaven, we too should ponder our position before God. Are we living up to his expectations? Are we allowing him to bless us as much as He wants to? I hope so. I love everyone of you, friends, family, and people that I know. I wish you the best, and I will see you in a year.

ISAIAH

Hello all. We have been having really cold weather here. about 45 in the mornings and about 60 in the day. But it is wonderful for when we are out walking all day. I am getting really nostalgic about home right now. I have been thinking of the cool weather, the fall fest in Rockton, the harvest, halloween, and most of all, General Conference, the talks, and MOTAB. We´re almost there! 3 more weeks! woohooo! I have been following the instruction that appears about 4 times in the Book of Mormon to study and search the prophecies of Isaiah. They have always been difficult for me. But I read Nephi´s words in 2 Nephi 25, which say that the people find the words difficult because they don´t understand the manner of prophesying in Israel. I have been reading in the OT, which has been really enlightening. I have learned more about that manner of prophesying. I am searching the differences between the book of Isaiah and the citation of Isaiah on the Brass Plates in 2 Nephi. I have understood that the manner of prophesiying is such that the prophesies can only be correctly understood when studied with the Spirit. The pharisees in Christ´s time did not have the spirit when they studied the books of the law of moses and the prophesies. They completely misunderstood, in fact. That´s why the Jews await a messiah even today. They misunderstood that the prophesies were testifying of Christ. So they crucified him. In a similar manner, Isaiah´s prophesies at first seem to apply only to Babylon and Jerusalem, but when understood correctly and wtih the spirit, they apply to the world concerning the second Coming as well. I´m still studying, but I hope to learn more. Similarly, the Book of Mormon, with the Spirit, is the greatest tool in missionary work. The greatest tool to convince ALL that Christ is the messiah. And when ALL believe that, then the abrahamic convenant will be fulfilled and the gathering of Israel will take place. Some people put the Book of Mormon aside, focusing on teh Bible. But the BIBLE testifies and points to the Book of MOrmon, more specifically, in its role in the gathering of israel. So, the BOM will go to all the world, to all the tribes of Israel, to convince them of Christ, and to carry out the gathering of Israel in preparation for the second Coming. It´s so exciting! Thats about it for this week. Love you all and i wish you success!