My Last Week as the Mission Secretary, and 7 Months Left!

Well, after 8 months its time to move on and head back to the mission field next week.  I'm really ready for it, but anxious at the same time because this is what I have known for so many months.  I love the people of Santa Cruz and working for President Rodriguez directly, but I am very ready to be back to full-time missionary work, wherever I happen to be sent.  I'm hoping its Robore, since that is where we have been working on the weekends on special assignment.  The area is beautiful and I love the people already.  I'd like to continue to help get that area open as a branch.

Our office replacements, a senior mission couple, Brother and Sister Bullock, arrived on Saturday and I'll be spending this week training them to take over the office duties and at the same time get ready for mission transfers next week.  Its going to be crazy!

Late Christmas photo from our Christmas Conference

We had to pack up our things and move to the top floor of our building since the new mission couple will be living in our old casa. This meant we had a lot of work to do to get the place up to 'senior mission couple' standards. Now its just Elder Berges and me as roomies since the AP's moved to a different apartment.  I have been with 3 other roommates for 8 months...its strange being back to just the two of us.  That will just be for this week and Elder Berges and I will part ways for our new assignments and new companions.

We have been playing a lot of futsal (indoor soccer) and ping pong in our free time.  Its been fun being back into that routinely.  Not sure if the new area will be as modern as where we are now (middle of the city)....most likely not, so not as many niceties.

As long as we have been in this area, we have been very blessed to be productive in the work of the Lord.  We have had many baptisms, investigators, etc.  Even though it seemed to be repetitive proselyting at times, because we see the same homes over and over, the Lord prepared ways for us to open the eyes and minds of many, even up to now.  We are working with a 75 year old woman who thinks 'she is too old to be baptized'.  Wow, was there some important instruction needed there. After teaching her about the Plan of Salvation we could see the change in her and she said she wanted to be baptized, but learn in baby steps first. "Teach people, not lessons, and let the spirit guide your teachings" .  Later that evening on the way home, we stopped at a store to get bread and we started up a conversation with the owner who asked us about our beliefs, which led to her allowing us to come back to talk to her again.  This is what I mean.....even after all this time here in this area, and with the minimal time we have to speak to locals after 4 pm because of office duties, we have been blessed with success for all these months.

I even got to put my Rubiks Cube talents to gospel use.  We were out searching for contacts and saw these two boys in front of a store with a Rubiks Cube.  Since I am the 'master' of it, we went up to them and asked if they knew how to solve it.  They said no, so I showed them and in the 2 minutes it took to solve it for them and show them the trick, we got in enough talking with them about the Gospel and the restoration to get a return visit with them.  We are given talents by the Lord for a reason, no matter how insignificant they may seem.

We also have a baptism date set for a man named Mario Vaca we have been working with.  He is partially blind, but has been very eager to learn and he told us finally that he is ready.  His date is Feb 2nd and even though I won't be there for it, I know he will get there and get closer to God as he has said he wants to.

We headed to Robore again this weekend (5 hours each way) and i finally got to baptize this 10 year old we have been working with.  My favorite baptism yet!  I got to baptize this 10 year old IN THE RIVER!  I know, a baptism is a baptism, but I have always wanted to do that like John the Baptist.  It was so amazing too....people were swimming in the river, laughing, even drinking, but as soon as we entered it was like time stood still and a quiet reverence came over everyone as they watched us perform this ordinance.  I will never forget this day and how much I felt the spirit. I was sad to leave Robore for possibly the last time, but I am hopeful I will get to back to be full time in the area next week.

I have been studying both the Book of Mormon and the Bible more diligently and am gaining more and more understanding in both.  As we learn, our minds are opened up to learn more as we become prepared to learn more.  I truly testify of this.....study and read with a purpose and your mind will be opened up to more knowledge every day.

So, this has been an amazing last few weeks in Santa Cruz and as I near the end of my time here I know I'm ready to move on for the next challenge in my missionary journey.  I can't believe I only have 7 months left on my mission.  Its going so fast, but I have been blessed to be successful in this time so far and I know I will continue to be with Lord guiding me.

I miss everyone and love you very much.  I look forward to letting you know about my next area.

Love,
Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

Last Transfer in the Office, New Assignment, and MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know my emails are a little sparse lately, but I have lots of good details this week.

After being here in the mission office since May as the Secretary to President Rodriguez, I finally just went through my last transfer here and will be back in the field with the next transfer in January.  I have learned a lot as the Secretary and I will miss working directly with President Rodriguez, but its time to go back out.

On that note, I know where I might be going after this transfer.  My comp and I were just given a very special assignment on the weekends until we leave next month in a peublo called Roboré.   This is a town that does not have an active branch yet so the President wants us to go there on Fridays and stay until late Saturday or Sunday and help missionary work get started there, try to find more potential worthy priesthood holders to baptize so that we can open a branch, baptize a 9 year old in part member family there, and help an 18 year old get ready to serve a mission.  We are very excited to be given this assignment and know its a lot of responsibility.

 Roboré is beautiful, very jungle-like, and very different from Santa Cruz where I am now.  And....its about a 5 hour bus ride each way!  So far I really enjoy this assignment and I am super grateful to my Heavenly Father for the trust he has put in me and am hoping that the President will send me there on the next transfer to work it full time.

Back here in Santa Cruz, we have had baptisms again and its all been going really well.  We had transfers again which is always a very busy week when that rolls around.  As always, I coordinate flight itineraries, buses, taxis, etc.  Everything went well up until two elders decided to miss their flight due to negligence and then it made my week 100X harder and threw my carefully coordinated plans for the week out the window and had to replan.  But, this is what being in management is like and its a learning experience for me....be flexible.  Another 17 new arrivals came in and are off in their new areas. To help celebrate the Navidad season, we had an office party and ate a traditional Bolivian soup, which was awesome.

Had to say Goodbye to Elder Florence, who got transferred back to the field in Bermejo (my old area).  He has been an AP here in the office since I arrived and we got to be good friends.

There was a national holiday this week where everyone uses it as an excuse to protest the Government and get drunk so we were not allowed to leave our casa or office.

I've been reading "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister and if you have not read it before, I highly recommend it.  If you have ever had questions about what the atonement is and how it works, that's your book. 

We have had good visits with our investigators and many of them seem to be progressing in the gospel and their desire to increase that knowledge even more.

Zone Activity!

I bought myself a churango, which is a Bolivian, ukulele-like guitar thingie, but longer.  I am trying to teach myself how to play it. 

Awesome things happened on Monday this week.  Jackie and Jose Coca, who are friends of my parents and live in West Jordan, UT but are originally from Bolivia, came to hand-deliver my Christmas package from my family.  It was so nice to finally meet them.  Their son is in our sister mission, Santa Cruz North, and that office is in our same building so I have met him before.  Then, I received my package from Kolleen and the Russos so got two awesome big Christmas packages the same day.  I am so grateful for all the support I have from everyone at home.

Video

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Then came Tuesday this week and ANOTHER visitor.  Ted Dawson, father of Elder Dawson here in the mission, flew to Santa Cruz with his older son to deliver Elder Dawson's Christmas present to the office for us to deliver to him.  He was amazing and they even brought us treats.

Another weekend to Robore.  It is such a blessed area full of wonderful saints.  We got to meet all the members today.  A sister named Mithra is a store owner who loans her store on Sundays to be used for church meetings.  Another sister was so overwhelmed to see us, missionaries, actually in her area after 20 years of no missionaries here.  I am really excited to be part of getting this area open and growing in the gospel again.

Another 5 hour drive back to Santa Cruz and we listened to the life story of our driver on the way back

Merry Christmas to all my family, friends, and loved ones.  Remember the true meaning of Christmas.

My family made me a picture Christmas
tree to put on my wall  I LOVE it!

Thought:

"Be a little better today than yesterday"

Love, Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

Miracle week, AHombres, and Happy Thanksgiving from Bolivia

We may not be celebrating it here, but I am missing everyone back home and thinking about you during this LAST Thanksgiving I'll be away from home.

So this was a week of miracles for us.  Lenor is an amazing lady we've been working with for a long time and she got baptized and was confirmed.  He family is so amazing and we know she has been prepared by the Lord for this big step in her life.  She even made us little keychains with our initials on them....so cool!  Now we just need to get her husband to see that the gospel is true.  He comes to church with her and their family so we are hopeful.

Even though we don't get a lot of time in the field, being in the office most of the day and all, we are so blessed with the short time that have later in the days.  We have been able to find so many people looking for answers and needing the gospel in their lives.  We had goals this week to meet and come Sunday our prayers were answered as more and more came to church as we had asked. Finally at the end of sacrament, this couple we had prayed for, Pedro and Magda, arrived.  We didn't expect them ever show up again and we should have had more faith....they were investigators from months ago who had moved away to La Paz and then just recently came back. the first thing they asked us was, "When are you going to visit us again?"  YES!  Again, this was such a miracle week for us and for the Lord's work

One of our contacts who we visit regularly received an amazing testimony of fasting.  She told didn't even have enough money to come to church (about 65 cents each way via taxi) but stayed strong with her fasting for help with her situation.  The following day, a friend asked to watch her child and would pay her 70B's and another friend brought her a pineapple and gave her 100B's.  She knows the Lord will always provide a way to help us through others when we ask in faith.    D&C 82:10.

So this was the funniest thing ever....we had a cita with one of our contacts who is getting baptized soon and he said, "Isn't saying 'Amen' at the end of prayers the same thing as saying 'Ahombres'?" HAAAAhahahahaha.

Finally put my hammock here in the casa after all these months.

Had my ecclesiastical endorsement interview with President Rodriguez to finish up my application to BYU.  I completed everything and submitted it this week.  Prayers for me to get accepted will be so appreciated.

The goals we set this week for investigators, getting people to church, etc were all met.  This was one of the best weeks ever.

Sunday....it poured!

Video:

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The gospel is so true....I love being a missionary to these amazing saints in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  I love and miss all of you.

Con mucho amor,
        Elder Connor deCocq

Helping to Change Lives Daily (and less than 9 months left!)

Had a good week this week with lots of amazing and spiritual experiences.  We had a few citas (appointments) fall through, but that is just kind of what happens here a lot. On our way back from one of those, we met up with an old lady on the who was really hunched over from a sickness she has had for a long time.  We stopped and talked to her and helped with her heavy bags.  It turns out she was really down on her luck and out looking for some sort of job to help pay for her medical treatments.  It turns out she was homeless and my heart aches for her and so many of these poor Bolivian people who live at much lower of a standard than we are so fortunate to in the US.

As the mission secretary, I have had to spend a lot of time at the Immigration offices in Santa Cruz with various new elders and sisters.  One day I was there for 6-1/2 hours!  Shoot me.  They are flying in from all over the mission to get this done.  We will usually go out to lunch or dinner with them also before they head back.  We haven't had much time to proselyte because of all this other 'busy' but we'll get back to it.  Bonus on this day:  Elder Florence brought home some ice cream for all of us in the casa.

Elder Florence and me on a video message to home

As the week went on, we were able to meet up with our ongoing investigators, so that was good.  On Wednesday evenings we are also running an 'English Connect' class for those who are interested.

We had a District Council meeting and I got to teach a lesson on Patience and Diligence in Missionary Work (because sometimes...very often..., there is a lot needed of both).  The lesson was on how focusing on both of these Christlike attributes can help us become better missionaries.

One of the most spiritual experiences this week was a very sweet moment.  We visited one of our investigators and brought with us a bible and a triple combo set of scriptures.  During our lesson we gave these to them as a gift, but they thought they needed to pay for them and said they didn't have the money to do so.  We told them that they were a gift from us and the mom teared up and said that she would never forget us.  We brought another set over to our soon-to-be-baptized investigator, Lenor.  She is super excited!  We even got to bring Lenor with us to a baptism that Elders Iparaguirre and Dawson were doing so she could experience that.   The Lord is really preparing the hearts of his children to listen and hear these gospel truths and I am overwhelmed that He trusts me enough to be that instrument in his hands to see this work through.

Elder Berges and me

On Sunday, we were supposed to eat lunch with members but they forgot so they 'went out and bought us chicken and 2-liter of Coke'.  Yes, it was Sunday.  Viva Bolivia.

So, we had a few disappointments this week with the investigators, but that is part of the gig.  We have really up weeks and some not as 'up'.  Being a missionary doesn't mean to give half your effort.  You have to be all-in and help them progress, regardless of how often they may disappoint you. You have to strive to help them no matter what.

So a HUGE shout out to my man, Elder Ward (even though he is no longer actually 'Elder' Ward, he still is to me).  He just completed his mission here in Santa Cruz and went home over a week ago.  He took a big ol' package home to my family in Utah for me.  They loved it and they loved geting to meet you at your homecoming.  I look forward to seeing you again when I get home.

Status update on me as Secretary:  The mission will be getting a full time mission couple to take over both secretary and finance positions in late January so I will likely be in the office until then since it doesn't make any sense to train new elders for such a short period of time.  I've been here since May and this has been a real growth experience for me, but I'll be ready to go back into the field.

Spiritual thought for this week:  "The Lord isn't waiting for the world to reach a certain wickedness before the second coming, but rather for the righteous to become more sanctified" - Elder Christofferson.

I love the people of Boliva and I love my mission.  This is the best experience and opportunity to serve that I could hope for.  If you are thinking about going on a mission, don't delay...prepare and make it happen.


I hope everyone is doing well back home.

Love, Elder Connor deCocq

Growing the Flock

Well, another very exciting week for us here in the offices. Conference was amazing as always and I have two favorite talks to share:

Elder Robert C. Gay
Elder Jack N. Gerard


Our seed finally produced the fruit we had been waiting for. Sol Dayanna Vargas Sanchez was baptized and confirmed this week and she is awesome! Her family are all members and were baptized 2 years ago roughly but Sol had recently had a child so she decided not to be baptized. We were able to teach her and help her along her journey towards baptism and an eternal family. (Excuse the sun burn lines in the baptism pictures... White people problems) We also had over 40 members at our baptism too (which is a ton in Bolivia) so the ward support is definitely improving a ton! We are really seeing a lot of miracles in our area now!

We were able to find 8 really solid new people to teach this week as well and we have another baptism (por lo menos) planned for Oct. 20th so that is exciting! Since I am a District leader now I got to give a baptismal interview for the first time too which was really spiritual. On Friday morning, we had immigration stuff for over 5 hours with some missionaries which obviously is the highlight of my week...not. Then that same day it started to pour rain and there was thunder and lightning. This country is bipolar.

Anyway got to go to San Pedro to help with a new englishconnect something for latinos so they can learn english so that was cool on Sunday also. Apparently it´s some new world wide program or something. Anyway that´s about it for my week. Stay fresh and stunt it

P.S. - Scored a new scripture case and my little plant I've been growing for awhile now is doing well.

Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

Misión Bolivia Santa Cruz