I transferred from Santa Cruz 3 weeks ago and was assigned to the Tarija area in the westernmost part of the Mission. This is my final area and then I'll be headed home on August 20th after serving for 2 years in the Santa Cruz Bolivia Mission.
However, I still have 3 weeks of work to do here and we are being super productive. There are many locals here in Tarija who are very open to hearing the gospel, letting us help them, and just being good people to us as we are to them. I've learned that as much as I am teaching them they are likewise teaching me about who I am and who I want to be. This mission is so amazing and I will always love it and the people here.
In my previous area in Santa Cruz, we said goodbye to our Mission President, President and Sister Rodriguez and welcomed our new President couple, President and Sister Stanford, who will be serving here in the mission for the next 3 years. They are going to be just as amazing as President Rodriguez and his wife.
President and Sister Stanford in 2nd row.
President and Sister Rodriguez
Here in Tarija this area is so much different than Santa Cruz, where I was for over a year. Its much higher altitude and winter (which it is now) is very definite here. It actually snowed here in Tarija last week for the first time many decades. It was pretty exciting to see, and especially for the people who live here. We even made a muñeca de nieve, of course (snowman)
My 'group' now who came out together from the MTC
There I am...top row, last transfer. Next stop, HOME!
I can't believe this time has gone so fast and I'll be sad to leave all the friends I've made here and the amazing saints I've helped bring the gospel to, but its getting close to that time to head home and start the next chapter. BYU, family, friends, etc.....but I'll be keeping in touch with everyone here even after I am home. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back home.
** Dad note: Since we now get to speak to Connor each week we don't get emails so I have to arrange the blog posts based on what we have talked about rather than a direct email or transcripts from journals.
Hi Everyone! Its been awhile, I know. I've been in the Abudancia area of southeast Santa Cruz for a few transfers now and changed companions from Elder Farnsworth to Elder Cope, who I also came into the mission with at the MTC. We are having a great time together and we are being very productive. I have been in this area for over three transfers now and I am still really loving the area and the people a lot. We have arranged for a lot of baptisms, but more importantly, 'conversions'. That is the key. Baptisms mean nothing if the person hasn't received a true testimony of the gospel and Jesus Christ. My goal is to help them find that.
With all the trips to Robore we have done since before Christmas, we feel its kind of played out for now. We were hoping it would be productive for us but its really not so right now so the 5 hour each-way bus ride for 2 days isn't an efficient use of our time and we are going to keep concentrating on our area here. But, the things I have gotten to see in Robore and the friends we made were incredible. It some of the most beautiful country in Bolivia with lush jungles, waterfalls, and rivers.
I can't believe I am in double-digits with my mission days remaining and as of today exactly 3 months left. I have my return flight information and will be coming home with my mission group back to Salt Lake City on Aug 23rd. Although it will be sad to leave what I have known in Bolivia for so long and the people I love, it will also be time for me get home to the people I love there and start the next chapter. I'll be starting BYU in the Fall and am looking forward to it.
Transfer are again this next week and Elder Cope and I are hoping for one more transfer together. Either way, Wherever and whenever I go next it will be my last area in the mission. Who knows where that might be and when, but I'd like to stay here one more round.
I hope you enjoy these pictures.
I love everyone back home. Send me an email...I love to hear from you all!
Well, my time in the Mission Office came to an end after 8 months and I am now in a new area. I spent a lot of time training the new mission couple who took over the office duties from the elders. Brother and Sister Bullock are an amazing couple and they will do a great job. I’m leaving a really big piece of me in Cañoto, where the office was and my area. I’m going to miss the office and Elder Berges but the Lord now needs me a new area as a Zone Leader in another section of Santa Cruz on the outskirts known as Abundancia. I’m very grateful for all I have learned there, for the amazing people I got to know and come in contact with, and whose lives I was able to touch there. Much of what I learned there and in the field there has shaped my life and will continue to do so.
My new area, El Palmar 1, should bring me lots of joy and fruits. There are people waiting for me here and I am determined to find them and finish my last 6 months strong. Six months! I can’t believe that’s all I have left. So crazy its gone this fast.
So my new companion is Elder Farnsworth from Lehi, UT, so he is very near my home in Highland, UT also. He came out on his mission in the same group as me, but different MTC. It’s nice to be able to focus on the work 100% for now and not have to train, although I would be very willing to do so.
It seems no matter where I go, futsal is a thing on P-days. Everybody loves soccer in Bolivia, elders and locals alike, so we always have pick up games we are able to play. Since I love soccer so much, that’s really fun to have that every week.
I just found out that my friend from back home, Nathan Strong, got his mission call and is headed to Peru in May. I’m super excited for him and know he will be an amazing missionary.
Elder Farnsworth and I have really hit it off and work well together. We visited a recent convert, Alex Plata, and he told us his whole life story and the hardships he went through. When I hear stories like his, where he was so focused at 14 years old trying to keep his parents together so his little 7 year old sister could be raised in a home with a mom and a dad, I am just so grateful that I was blessed to be raised in such good home and a free country.
I am assisting Brother and Sister Bullock back in the mission office about once a week to get them up to speed, and pretty much daily by phone. It’s about a 15 minute ride by taxi from where we area to get back to downtown where the office is , which is way out on one of the far rings to the southeast of the city….a very poor area. I was spoiled to be in that area for 8 months because everyone is well-off there, for the most part. I got used to that and its very humbling to be back in the areas that are very destitute.
President Rodriguez has given me the authority to go back to Robore on as-needed basis to continue the work that Elder Berges and I started on assignment there. I have had to go there yet after this transfer, but I am ready to do so if the Branch President who is there needs us to do some work. I am excited for Elder Farnsworth to see Robore also.
I had to go to the hospital to get my big toe looked at after kicking a cement post while playing futsal. I didn’t think it was cement, which tells you I knew I was doing it, but thought it was soft. Lesson learned about controlling one’s temper. Anyway, just bruised, not broken. I deserved it.
We have lots of investigators, potential baptism, and scheduled baptisms coming up. Plus, we have completed baptisms and confirmed a few members already. This area is amazing and I can feel the Lord working through me to find these lost sheep.
I arranged and ran my first Zone Council meeting and we came up with a goal of 25 baptisms for the month of February.
Food note: I can make awesome French Toast now
We had a conference with a General Authority Seventy who came to visit us, Elder Alonso. We learned so much from him. The training he gave to the leaders in the mission blew me away. I learned that Apostles and Seventies are literal witnesses of the resurrected Savior, just as they were in Christ’s time. So, we put into practice those things we learned in that conference and contacted a ton of amazing children of God. He blesses the path of His faithful servants.
The days are just flying by in the mission now. As I mentioned above, there are only 6 months left for me here and I know I have a lot of work yet to do. I’m going to finish strong.
I wanted to leave a quick video message that is by far the biggest life changing talk I listen to almost daily. Don`t count the cost and serve in the position the Lord would have you serve for the time being. He truly knows what`s best for us.
I miss everyone.
Love,
Elder Connor Ryan deCocq
DAD NOTE: As of today, Feb 15th, 2019, missionaries can CALL HOME every P-Day!....the 1st Presidency announced it today. So Exciting!!
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.
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.
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!
