"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean. Who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero. He is everything. He must be a complete man, a common man, and yet an uncommon man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. By word, by deed, without thought of it and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man of his world, and a good enough man for any world."
-Raymond Chandler
Iba a escribirles en inglés, pero ésta siendo mi última carta de mi misión decidí escribirles en el idioma de mi papá. El idioma en cuál mi testimonio está escrito en mi corazón.
Hace dos años dejé mi hogar y mi familia, mis amigos y mis sueños. De verdad dejé por atrás mi vida y entré en algo que nunca había imaginado. Salí de casa en pura inocencía y ahora, después de todo siento como por fin he aprendido algo de la vida. Me falta mucho todavía, sin embargo sé en quién he confiado.
No quiero dar una historia entera de lo que ha pasado en estos dos años, sin embargo deben sentir y conocer todo lo que siento en este momento.
Fui tirado en un país hablando nada del idioma y más perdido que un pez en tierra seca. Fui asaultado no sóla una vez, sino dos, con pistola a mi pecho. Fui rechazado y maldicido. Conocí personas que habían perdido su esperanza por completo y negaron la posibilidad de una vida mejor, y a las vez tuve la gran previlegio de conocer los escogidos del Señor en este pais que tomaron la decisión de cambiar sus vidas y luchar adelante cada día, los cuáles están a la par nuestra perseverando hasta el fin. Atrá vez de cada tristeza, de toda dificultad y prueba que he pasado en estos últimos dos años, lo haría TODO otra vez. Si supiera de todas estas cosas de antemano lo haría de nuevo. Porque ésta es la obra del Señor.
He visto milagros, y he sentido y visto el Espíritu de Dios literalmente trabajando a la par mía, y no puedo negarlo y nunca jamas lo haría. Sé que no soy nada, y siempre me he visto a mi mismo abajo de tódo. Sigo así porque así es. En las palabras de Ammón del Libro de Mormón "Sí, yo sé que nada soy; en cuanto a mi fuerza, soy débil; por tanto, no me jactaré de mí mismo, sino que me gloriaré en mi Dios, porque con sufuerza puedo hacer todas las cosas; sí, he aquí que hemos obrado muchos grandes milagros en esta tierra, por los cuales alabaremos su nombre para siempre jamás ." De verdad no he hecho nada en este país, porque vi la mano del Señor en tódo. Él que es el Todopoderoso realizó su obra, y doy gracias por ser el instrumento en Sus manos.
Mis palabras no son suficientes para testificar de tan grandes cosas. Sólo puedo decir lo que he dicho a todos, y seguiré deciéndolo por el resto de mi vida:
Ésta es la iglesia de Jesucristo. La única sobre la faz de la tierra guiado y dirigido por Él que creó el cielo y la tierra. Sé que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios y que en él se encuentra las respuestas de todas las preguntas de esta vida. Por 180 años éste ha sido atacado como ningun otro libro religioso en historia y todavía está se sostiene, porque es un testimonio más de la divinidad del Señor Jesucristo, y fue sacado a la luz cómo José lo dijo, por el poder y el mandamiento de Dios Omnipotente.
Dos años han pasado y me siento como acabo de venir. No quiero irme. Hay mucho que hacer y almas que salvar, pero mi tiempo está al final y viene el momento por alguién más para continuar lo que empezé, y lo que alguién más empezó antes que yo. Con este pensamiento en mi corazón, les dejo con estas palabras más.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of good deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who if he wins knows the triumph of great achievement, and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
(quoted by John F.Kennedy in his inaugural address)
No ha sido facil, pero valió la pena. Estoy a punto de entrar una nueva división en la vida, pero tengo la base por la cuál venceré el enemigo de mi alma. Y ahora, me despido de todos. Hasta que nos veamos una vez más en la tierra de la restauración.
Adios.
Elder Ryan R. Nuñez
-Misionero del Señor Jesucristo
Misión Costa Rica San José 2008-2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Opposition in All Things
September 13 email:
This last week was insanely busy. Thursday I had to do baptism interviews in Grecia for the hermana misioneras. We ended up doing divisiones with the zone leaders since their planned divisiones with another area fell through (the bus route was closed). Elder Nelson and Elder Hoyt ran some errands for us in San Ramon in the morning as Elder Logan and I left for Grecia. I did one interview as Elder Logan did the other. It was interesting working with Elder Logan again after being companions. Some things have changed, others not so much. The four of us (Nelson, Logan, Hoyt and myself) spent the night in Naranjo. I slept on the tile floor as usual. I miss carpet. I think I´m just gonna throw myself out on the downstairs carpet for a good half hour when I get home. I might even sleep there at some point. =P
Friday morning Elders Nelson and Hoyt took off for San Ramon to fijar our baptism for Saturday as Elder Logan and I went to San José to pick up some legal documents for a wedding we had planned for Saturday. That turned out to be a frustrating mess. From one office to another, not once, not twice, but four times before we finally figured everything out. We treated ourselves to some Taco Bell since it was close by, and I realized my body just doesn´t deal well with fast food anymore. Not that that´s a bad thing. =P
Elder Logan and I continued working in Naranjo for the rest of the day. I met quite a few people that just made me depressed and frustrated to talk to. One lady went so far as to say she´s happy with life and doesn´t want any blessings from God. This is after having told us how her not-husband beats her and how they´re about to be evicted from their rotting wood shack.
Saturday morning I got back to San Ramon. We played some early morning soccer with some of our investigators, after which we stopped by to drop off our dirty clothes with the Hermana Mildred. Mildred had made us a surprise breakfast of flapjacks, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The rest of the day didn´t go as planned. I can honestly say I´ve never seen Satan working so hard to stop a baptism, but he was definately against us every step of the way. The wedding was planned for 3 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. the wife-to-be was not to be found and no one in the family was ready to go to the church anyway. They asked if we could wait until 4 p.m. We called the lawyer, who had another wedding to do at 4:30 and said it would be impossible to wait until 4. So we had to wait until 6 p.m. We ran back to tell the family, after which we had to call all the members and tell them of the time change. Then came our ropa bautismal problem. The hermana who was getting baptized is..."bigger" than those we usually baptize, and the issue came that we had no baptism clothes that could fit her. We found 2 dresses, one that was about the right width, just not long enough. We had the Hermana Mildred had one to the dress to make it just a little longer, and it was ready just in time for the wedding/baptism.
But even then Satan didn´t stop. First there was issues with the man´s ID, but we got over that issue and started the wedding. The couple had invited several family members to the wedding, and after they were wedded we began the baptism service. As one hermana spoke on baptism, a drunk cousin of the family apparently didn´t like what she was saying and yelled out something I didn´t understand through the drunken slur. The son of the family led the man outside as we finished with the talks and continued on with the baptism itself. I had the pleasure to baptize the Hemana Laura, and following that Elder Hoyt and I sang a duet of "How Great Thou Art" in spanish.
After all was said and done, Elder Hoyt and I felt exhausted and drained. We had had a few other issues with the branch presidency at the baptism as well, all of which I discussed with them yesterday after church. Luckily, the district president was with us. The man was so stubborn and so set in NOT doing things as they should be that I told him straight out if he didn´t listen, I´d call President Gálvez right then and there to set the record straight.
It´s been a long week, but the month isn´t over yet and we still have a goal to meet. We´re gonna be running ourselves dry, but we found a new family that´s just incredible and we´re working to get them all baptized by September 25th (it´s a family of five). The work keeps going despite the opposition. That´s all I can really ask for.
Today were just chilling with the district here in San Ramon. About 2 weeks ago Elder Hoyt and I found and carried home and huge stalk of bananas, of which has been all we´ve been eating ever since the bananas ripened a week ago. There´s still a lot of bananas and they´re soon about to over-ripen, so we invited everyone over to the Hermana Mildred´s house to make banana cream pies and banana smoothies. =P It´ll be good to kick back and rest for a few hours before we start killing ourselves at 6 p.m. tonight with all the work we still have left to do. =D
I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Time really is flying. I just hope I can finish what I´ve started here before hitting the end.
Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie
This last week was insanely busy. Thursday I had to do baptism interviews in Grecia for the hermana misioneras. We ended up doing divisiones with the zone leaders since their planned divisiones with another area fell through (the bus route was closed). Elder Nelson and Elder Hoyt ran some errands for us in San Ramon in the morning as Elder Logan and I left for Grecia. I did one interview as Elder Logan did the other. It was interesting working with Elder Logan again after being companions. Some things have changed, others not so much. The four of us (Nelson, Logan, Hoyt and myself) spent the night in Naranjo. I slept on the tile floor as usual. I miss carpet. I think I´m just gonna throw myself out on the downstairs carpet for a good half hour when I get home. I might even sleep there at some point. =P
Friday morning Elders Nelson and Hoyt took off for San Ramon to fijar our baptism for Saturday as Elder Logan and I went to San José to pick up some legal documents for a wedding we had planned for Saturday. That turned out to be a frustrating mess. From one office to another, not once, not twice, but four times before we finally figured everything out. We treated ourselves to some Taco Bell since it was close by, and I realized my body just doesn´t deal well with fast food anymore. Not that that´s a bad thing. =P
Elder Logan and I continued working in Naranjo for the rest of the day. I met quite a few people that just made me depressed and frustrated to talk to. One lady went so far as to say she´s happy with life and doesn´t want any blessings from God. This is after having told us how her not-husband beats her and how they´re about to be evicted from their rotting wood shack.
Saturday morning I got back to San Ramon. We played some early morning soccer with some of our investigators, after which we stopped by to drop off our dirty clothes with the Hermana Mildred. Mildred had made us a surprise breakfast of flapjacks, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The rest of the day didn´t go as planned. I can honestly say I´ve never seen Satan working so hard to stop a baptism, but he was definately against us every step of the way. The wedding was planned for 3 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. the wife-to-be was not to be found and no one in the family was ready to go to the church anyway. They asked if we could wait until 4 p.m. We called the lawyer, who had another wedding to do at 4:30 and said it would be impossible to wait until 4. So we had to wait until 6 p.m. We ran back to tell the family, after which we had to call all the members and tell them of the time change. Then came our ropa bautismal problem. The hermana who was getting baptized is..."bigger" than those we usually baptize, and the issue came that we had no baptism clothes that could fit her. We found 2 dresses, one that was about the right width, just not long enough. We had the Hermana Mildred had one to the dress to make it just a little longer, and it was ready just in time for the wedding/baptism.
But even then Satan didn´t stop. First there was issues with the man´s ID, but we got over that issue and started the wedding. The couple had invited several family members to the wedding, and after they were wedded we began the baptism service. As one hermana spoke on baptism, a drunk cousin of the family apparently didn´t like what she was saying and yelled out something I didn´t understand through the drunken slur. The son of the family led the man outside as we finished with the talks and continued on with the baptism itself. I had the pleasure to baptize the Hemana Laura, and following that Elder Hoyt and I sang a duet of "How Great Thou Art" in spanish.
After all was said and done, Elder Hoyt and I felt exhausted and drained. We had had a few other issues with the branch presidency at the baptism as well, all of which I discussed with them yesterday after church. Luckily, the district president was with us. The man was so stubborn and so set in NOT doing things as they should be that I told him straight out if he didn´t listen, I´d call President Gálvez right then and there to set the record straight.
It´s been a long week, but the month isn´t over yet and we still have a goal to meet. We´re gonna be running ourselves dry, but we found a new family that´s just incredible and we´re working to get them all baptized by September 25th (it´s a family of five). The work keeps going despite the opposition. That´s all I can really ask for.
Today were just chilling with the district here in San Ramon. About 2 weeks ago Elder Hoyt and I found and carried home and huge stalk of bananas, of which has been all we´ve been eating ever since the bananas ripened a week ago. There´s still a lot of bananas and they´re soon about to over-ripen, so we invited everyone over to the Hermana Mildred´s house to make banana cream pies and banana smoothies. =P It´ll be good to kick back and rest for a few hours before we start killing ourselves at 6 p.m. tonight with all the work we still have left to do. =D
I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Time really is flying. I just hope I can finish what I´ve started here before hitting the end.
Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie
Monday, September 6, 2010
Blessed in both body and spirit
This week has felt like a week of blessings, in more ways than one. One the temporal side of things, last Monday we discovered the first and ONLY Jamba Juice in the country, which happens to be found in my lovely area of San Ramon. The zone leaders changed our district meeting location to San Ramon for just that reason. =P We had a "district Jamba fest" and the zone leaders went crazy. Everything is about half the price it is in the states since it´s so easy to find fruit here. The look on the Hermana Ho´s face (she´s from Guatemala) as she took a drink was hilarious. A look of pure shock and bliss. =D
It´s felt like we´ve been working a "reconstruction" of the area this last week. Since February the missionaries have been focusing in one neighborhood, and things are starting to slow down there. We´ve started to work one other area, where Eduardo and Jeannette live, teaching other family members of their´s. To tell the truth last week was just hectic. We´ve run into some legal document issues on top of that with 3 of our investigators, all of which need to be married. I´m praying the Lord will show us the way in how we can fix all of that, but I also have to accept His will if I´m suppose to be here when they get baptized or not.
Friday was work as usual, but we did celebrate the best we could. The fair was in town, so we treated ourselves to some churros and, of course, some Jamba Juice. It was raining all day, but I´ve gotten use to the daily downpours of Costa Rica. Friday morning our wash lady, the Hermana Mildrid, and her two kids called around 6:30 a.m. and sung me Happy Birthday. Later in the day we stopped by quickly, which was my mistake, because they all egged me 5 minutes before our next appointment. =P Friday night I made banana cream pie and Elder Hoyt made the crust. I´ve definately gotten better at that, it turned out great and we ended up sharing it with the Hermana Mildrid and her family, and they too loved it. =D
Saturday the Hermana Mildrid invited us to a "2-in-1" birthday party. Since the 3rd was my birthday, and today (the 6th) is her daugther, Tatiana´s birthday, the Hermana made a chocolate cake for both of us. It was pretty good. I´m not much of a cake person, but I did enjoy celebrating my birthday with good friends.
As I said this last week has been hectic. There´s so much to do and so little time to do it. Too much for just one companionship to tell the truth. San Ramon really needs four missionaries here. The work is progressing and last week we just couldn´t do EVERYTHING we wanted and plan to. It was simply impossible. We ended up teaching 30 lessons last week, and there were some other 10 lessons we ended up missing due to lack of time. Despite running around like a crazy man the Lord kept us going and we didn´t feel exhausted until lasy night (Sunday). It all hit me at once then. Elder Hoyt has been great though, I´ve been truly blessed to have him as my companion at mission´s end. He´s here to work and he knows what he´s doing. He only has 4 months in the mission, but he´s far from being a "greenie". Plus our common interests are off the wall, it´s been so much fun. I haven´t had a companionship like this since I was with my trainer, Elder DePriest.
The work keeps going and life keeps coming. Today we went to Volcan Arenal and took some pictures there. We all wanted to kill the zone leaders for making us go in ropa misional, knowing we´d be hiking around the volcano. One of the hermanas in San Carlos, the Hermana Turnbaugh, and I were plotting what we´d do to the zone leaders IF we could catch up with them. =P
I love you all and I hope you have a great week! It´s so weird that school has already started. Time really is flying. Cuídese mucho a todos. ¡Ciao!
Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie
It´s felt like we´ve been working a "reconstruction" of the area this last week. Since February the missionaries have been focusing in one neighborhood, and things are starting to slow down there. We´ve started to work one other area, where Eduardo and Jeannette live, teaching other family members of their´s. To tell the truth last week was just hectic. We´ve run into some legal document issues on top of that with 3 of our investigators, all of which need to be married. I´m praying the Lord will show us the way in how we can fix all of that, but I also have to accept His will if I´m suppose to be here when they get baptized or not.
Friday was work as usual, but we did celebrate the best we could. The fair was in town, so we treated ourselves to some churros and, of course, some Jamba Juice. It was raining all day, but I´ve gotten use to the daily downpours of Costa Rica. Friday morning our wash lady, the Hermana Mildrid, and her two kids called around 6:30 a.m. and sung me Happy Birthday. Later in the day we stopped by quickly, which was my mistake, because they all egged me 5 minutes before our next appointment. =P Friday night I made banana cream pie and Elder Hoyt made the crust. I´ve definately gotten better at that, it turned out great and we ended up sharing it with the Hermana Mildrid and her family, and they too loved it. =D
Saturday the Hermana Mildrid invited us to a "2-in-1" birthday party. Since the 3rd was my birthday, and today (the 6th) is her daugther, Tatiana´s birthday, the Hermana made a chocolate cake for both of us. It was pretty good. I´m not much of a cake person, but I did enjoy celebrating my birthday with good friends.
As I said this last week has been hectic. There´s so much to do and so little time to do it. Too much for just one companionship to tell the truth. San Ramon really needs four missionaries here. The work is progressing and last week we just couldn´t do EVERYTHING we wanted and plan to. It was simply impossible. We ended up teaching 30 lessons last week, and there were some other 10 lessons we ended up missing due to lack of time. Despite running around like a crazy man the Lord kept us going and we didn´t feel exhausted until lasy night (Sunday). It all hit me at once then. Elder Hoyt has been great though, I´ve been truly blessed to have him as my companion at mission´s end. He´s here to work and he knows what he´s doing. He only has 4 months in the mission, but he´s far from being a "greenie". Plus our common interests are off the wall, it´s been so much fun. I haven´t had a companionship like this since I was with my trainer, Elder DePriest.
The work keeps going and life keeps coming. Today we went to Volcan Arenal and took some pictures there. We all wanted to kill the zone leaders for making us go in ropa misional, knowing we´d be hiking around the volcano. One of the hermanas in San Carlos, the Hermana Turnbaugh, and I were plotting what we´d do to the zone leaders IF we could catch up with them. =P
I love you all and I hope you have a great week! It´s so weird that school has already started. Time really is flying. Cuídese mucho a todos. ¡Ciao!
Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie
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