Families Can Be Together Forever

Family and Friends,

I've been humming that lovely primary song all weekend. This Saturday April 19th, 2014, the Cortes family was sealed together for all time and eternity. For those of you who aren't members of the church, one of the most precious truths we treasure as members of the church is that when a couple is married in the temple by someone who holds the authority of God, that couple will be sealed together with their future children as a family not just "til death do you part" but for all time and even after death they will be together as an eternal family. After a year of being baptized and learning and growing in the church you have the opportunity to go to the temple and be sealed as husband and wife and if you already have children to be sealed to them as well and thus sealed to all future children that you may have as a forever family :) 

Jonathon was baptized on December 22, 2012 and he baptized Maria Fernanda on February 16, 2013 [Elder Remington mentioned her baptism and was sent a picture in previous post entitled "Exciting News! :)"] and ever since then my old companion and great friend Elder Ayala (He's not an Elder anymore but thats how I remember him and he's still Elder Ayala to me ahha) and I have been following up on them through letters, occasional visits with President's permission as an AP, and facebook on Elder Ayala's part. As with all new converts, they had some trials but with our help, the help of some wonderful members in that ward, the strong testimony and consistent example of Jonathon (he really is a rock, he finished the Book of Mormon in 6 months, magnifies his calling as young men's counselor, goes to church always, shares the gospel, and has been constant in work to achieve his goal of going to the temple),  and above all the divine help of the Lord :) they made it to the temple :) wooooohoooo!!! Honestly words can't fully describe how happy I am :) this is a dream come true that I've been praying and working for over a year and it finally happened! Even if all other people in Ecuador rejected me and I didn't baptize a single other person in my two years here....it would've been worth it to find Jonathon and Maria Fernanda, teach them, baptize them, confirm them, and see them endowed and sealed as a forever family :) 

I had the privilege of being Jonathon's escort in the temple and Elder Ayala and I were the witnesses of their sealing. The temple worker explained to us that the two witnesses aren't just there in that moment but that their signature will forever be on the certificate of marriage and that they commit themselves to be guardian angels and look out for the family that sealed and always be an important part of their lives :) we both smiled and said that we had already been doing that and already had planned to continue to do so and that now with even greater dedication and with even more motivation and duty we would do so :) I'll always be there for this wonderful family and I'm so grateful that the Lord trusted us enough to put them in our path and help them. 

Jonathon's two children Domenica and Santiago (James in English) are normally very rambunctious and noisy and frankly I was nervous that when they entered the sealing room that they would be loud and distract from the Spirit. But when they entered the sealing room all dressed in white like little angels with big smiles and a glow in their eyes... the Spirit filled the room so strong that I couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear the entire time :) I looked at Elder Ayala and we smiled and didn't say a word... words can't describe what we were both feeling. The two children happily, quietly, and reverently took their place around the altar with their parents and when the sealing was finished the four of them all gave each other big hugs and kisses and everyone in the room was smiling and a sweet heavenly exquisite peace filled the room. The temple worker said that this was a taste of heaven for all of us.... this was one of the best and tenderest moments of my life and utterly unforgettable. As the saying goes, missionaries leave their families for two years so that others can be with their family for eternity. 

Elder Ayala and I were reminiscing and remembering the good times when we did companionship studies and practices dedicated to Jonathon and helping him finally accept a baptismal date :) and how much we had to work with Maria Fernanda before she finally opened up and went to church with us :) it was awesome seeing Elder Ayala and being with him again and he and the Cortes family will be lifelong friends :) it was also wonderful seeing many of the members from Albonor again and remembering the good ole days haha they will be lifelong friends as well :) After the sealing, the Cortes family invited us all over for lunch and we had a great time together at their house and I had a flashback remembering when we first contacted their house over a year ago and how much one contact has changed our lives forever (Alma 37:6-7). 

After the lunch we were able to go to the terminal and return to Quevedo just in time for the Stake Conference that night and good thing too because I had to give the first talk! (By the way, we had President's permission to attend just in case you're wondering hahah President has always said that we need to focus on families thus the motivation is that all missionaries who baptize families will get to go to their sealings :) yay! Thanks President!) I love public speaking. My talk was on the Work of Salvation and how we can work even better together as members and missionaries :) based on Elder Ballard's last two conference talks especially "Put Your Trust in the Lord" that I definitely recommend reading and applying. We made a little PowerPoint sideshow of some of the baptisms we had in the stake the past few months through members giving referrals and it was great it really invited the Spirit in the room and motivated the members. One of the last pictures was of Carlos and Cristina's baptism and I had his brother Ricardo Romero share his testimony at the end of the joy he felt while sharing the gospel with his brother and the happiness he felt as he baptized his own brother and saw him baptize his wife a month later :) I know a good opportunity to invite the Spirit when I see one :) it was awesome he did a great job! There were 3 key points that as members we need to do

1. Pray asking specifically for missionary opportunities and be looking for those opportunities.
2. Share the gospel in a normal and constant way (first presidency message by President Uchtdorf that is great on that; "A Firmly Set Anchor")
3. Give a quality referral to the missionaries at least once every three months (quality means that you help teach them and support them look up PMG quote by President Hinckley [Found in Chapter 13]). 

I love you all very much and hope you are enjoying life :) remember thats why we're here (2 Nephi 2:25) 

Elder Remington

Celebration

Family and Friends,

I loved General Conference :) I especially loved the talk by Elder Scott about being gentle and loving with people yet firm in helping them be better. Also I loved the talk by Elder Zwick about effective communication and being a peacemaker. Elder Ballard was great in his talk on the Work of Salvation and committed all of you to study PMG and share with your missionaries what you learned... therefore I am waiting to hear from all of you what you learned! You can do it! For all you future missionaries out there I can testify that reading PMG from start to finish before my mission was one of the best things I did before that most helped prepare me. I strongly recommend it and for those who aren't future missionaries remember that we are all always life long missionaries and we have to know what PMG teaches to work in unity. Just do it. 

In these last few months we have been keeping an extra clean and tidy house and trust me that it greatly helps the Spirit be there and makes you feel so much better when you get home. Keep a clean and organized house and you'll be happy. 

One of my questions before going to conference was, "How to best be in the world and not of it?" As our Prophet taught at the beginning and announced the temples that are being built, the Spirit reminded me of a great habit I had developed while at BYU that really helps us be in the world but not of it. That habit is regular temple attendance. While in Provo living so close I had the blessing of going to the temple every week and I remember often times remembering that I would be going to the house of the Lord that week would help me walk away when an inappropriate joke was said or spend time with other people when I remembered that I'd be going to the temple. Going to a little piece of Heaven regularly helps us not be of this world. 

Remember the wise words that my father always taught me, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." 

Love,

Elder Remington 

Mission Leadership

Family and Friends,

Last week we had the wonderful and interesting privilege of doing inspections with President Amaya and the Assistants Elder Rounds and Elder Curriden. As leaders we have a copy of the keys of every house in the zone and from time to time we show up unannounced in the morning to see if they are being obedient and to make sure they are taking good care of the house. Frankly, I've never been a big fan of doing inspections mostly because of what my dad taught me about not trying to be a police officer for your missionaries and I prefer to follow Joseph Smith's advice of teaching correct principles and letting people govern themselves. My dad taught me that it is much better to just motivate your missionaries and be a good example to them and love them and catch them doing good things and compliment them instead of trying to trying to always catch them doing something bad and lecture them about it. He's right. And there are definitely many leaders who sadly haven't learned that and they fall victim to pride (D&C 121:34-40).

However, occasionally when done with the proper amount of humility, maturity, and the correct perspective and trusting but verifying and wanting to help them not hurt them or make them feel bad... inspections can be important, wonderful, and necessary. Thus we went and inspected all of the houses with that attitude and it was awesome. There was one house where four missionaries lived and the week before President asked us to decided out of three of them had who we recommended as the new district leader (our other district leader is a zone leader now and very well prepared I might add). It was a tough decision and we took some time to think it through because two of them had a lot more time in the mission, had been district leaders before, and were very dynamic outgoing and talented. The other missionary had less time and is a little shy but he is super obedient, pure, loving, happy, a great teacher, and really has a great spirit about him. Despite that he was a little shy and had less time on the mission we both felt that he was the right choice and we told President. Therefore, when we arrived at their house at 7:58 to do inspections what we found brought a calm reassurance to my heart and I knew the Lord had inspired us to make the right choice. Two of the missionaries were scrambling to get their ties on and get to their desks. One missionary was just barely coming out of the shower. And the humble and obedient missionary that we had recommended as district leader was completely dressed, knelt down praying at his desk, and had a serene and peaceful spirit about him. It was awesome. The difference in power and spirit between those missionaries was palpable. 

The other missionaries received a loving but firm correction to improve and the obedient missionary received a big hug, big smile, and a big congratulations from President Amaya. I couldn't help but smile and think of what it'll be like when the Lord comes unannounced...how will he find us? Obedience really does have its rewards.

 There was a missionary who arrived in our zone a few months ago discouraged, disobedient, and a little lazy but WOW has he had a drastic change. You can truly see more light radiating in his eyes these days. We were persistent, loving, and patient with him and he has a great companion to help him and he has improved and transformed into a loving, happy, upbeat, obedient, smart, hardworking, direct, bold, brave, and wonderful missionary. I know that one of the keys was that when he first got here we didn't get frustrated or give up on  him and just classify him as a problematic and disobedient missionary and that was the end of it. Instead, we saw the potential he had inside and saw what he could become and helped him reach it. And when we arrived at their house unannounced early in the morning it brought a big smile to my face to find them both dressed, alert, diligently studying, and with the house clean...not perfect... but clean. Its wonderful to see what a change people can have :) 

Lots of leaders in the mission spend their time looking all over for tips and keys for success and they ignore or undervalue or forget to study and apply the divine guidance given by the First Presidency. Often times in my personal study or in my free time while in the bathroom or waiting for a baptismal interview, etc. I'll pull out my Missionary Handbook and go over the leadership section. I highly recommend it. I would like to cite a few pearls of wisdom on leadership from the Missionary Handbook page 60, "A leader helps other missionaries most when they feel a leader´s love. They should feel that a leader is motivated by a sincere concern for their welfare, not by his or her own interests." This is one of the most important and perhaps most underrated aspects of successful leadership. Everyone knows that you have to be strong, smart, efficient, have results, and reach the goal. But they often forget that if you just focus on the results and walk over people to get them then you won't have happy people nor will you likely have good results. Remember the following from the Missionary Handbook page 57, "A missionary leader must be an effective administrator in keeping order and carrying out the work of the mission. A leader's most important influence, however, comes through ministering to others in harmony with the Savior's teachings and example." You have to pray for them all by name everyday and really watch out for them and care for them and love them. Be willing to go the extra mile. If there is a companionship that is really discouraged and struggling be willing to go to their house listen to them, let them vent, love, give them kind advice with scriptures and PMG, and give them a blessing each one to improve and strengthen them and they will LOVE you for it and know and feel that you are there to help and serve them not just to use them to have better results for your own selfish reasons. When they feel that they will follow you out of love and respect not out of fear or for obligation and thus they will trust you and won't question your motives and they'll work better. Thus you will have happy people and happy results :)

Love,

Elder Remington 

Feliz

Family and Friends,

Today in my personal study I felt a wonderful calm and distinct impression that God is pleased with my labors here :) trust me, there are few feelings better than that. In fact I believe that having that feeling is the only thing that truly gives peace of mind and lasting happiness... the knowledge God is pleased with you and that you are living in harmony with His laws is priceless. 

The other day I was in finishing an interchange with a great missionary in our zone and during the companionship study he shared with me some of his struggles, stresses, and feelings of inadequacy. He's a wonderful missionary with a pure heart, deep love and passion for the Lord's work, very obedient, hard working, happy, service oriented, and righteous. He's just has a hard time being organized and remembering all the things he has to do such as appointments, copies of the progress report, give daily follow up, send the goals, etc. etc. and whenever he forgets something or doesn't do something just right he gets a little down on himself. He was very frustrated that morning and shared with me that he feels like he's letting the Lord down and failing when he forgets something or something goes wrong. I kindly listened and felt a prompting to read pages 10-11 in PME [Preach My Gospel] together about what makes a successful missionary. We each read different parts and analyzed it together and I helped him see how much of an awesome missionary he was citing specific examples of things he does great. Then there was a very special moment when we read the following part of PME 11, "When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you." Tears started to stream gently down his cheeks as he read those words. He finished reading. I waited a few seconds and then quietly asked him, "Elder have you felt the Spirit working through you?" He looked up and with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face said confidently, "Yes." The Spirit filled the room. I told him how much I loved him and how grateful I was for his great service and how I happy I was to work side by side with him.

These are the moments that one remembers and treasures from the mission. This missionary and his companion are both very new and very inexperienced and one of them is just starting the mission and hardly speaks Spanish.... yet they were the sector with the most baptisms and investigators in the church each week. They baptized 10 in the month and week after week after week they brought 15, 12, 14 investigators to Church. Stunned, my companion and I asked ourselves how is this happening? We had thought they were going to struggle and couldn't believe nor understand how they were having such great results when they barely knew how to use the daily planner, area book, etc, and barely knew the language!!! The following Scriptures came to mind. 

• 1 Corinthians 1:27
  27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
• Doctrine and Covenants 133:59
  59 And by the weak things of the earth the Lord shall thresh the nations by the power of his Spirit.

Now don't misunderstand here. I'm not wanting to offend those missionaries saying they are foolish or weak, just that the principle really applies here that many times it isn't the smartest, strongest, or the fastest that wins the race its the one who is most persistent, full of love, full of faith, and trusts in the Lord. Those two missionaries are a living example of that to me and their example of love, passion, and dedication to the work inspire me :) 

With the call of the Prophet asking us to go to the rescue, we as missionaries have been focusing much more on reactivating less actives as well as baptizing. The prophetic promise is that the more we rescue the more we'll baptize and its really true because the less actives always have more friends who aren't members and thus better referrals and thus two birds with one stone and a fuller chapel, happy Bishop, happy missionaries, and happy everyone. In this process of rescuing less actives I have realized that there are many members who don't how to treat and help the less actives as they return. Many members will make a joke when the less actives come back like, "Ooohh wow long time no see" "What happened to you?" "Did you forget how to get here?" or lots of other foolish comments that generally aren't intended to be hurtful but truly make the poor less active member feel very uncomfortable. Others will just coldly walk by and won't reach out to say hi, shake their hand give them a hug, and help them feel welcome. 

Being a good member missionary includes doing visits with the missionaries, giving referrals, sharing the gospel with your friends, etc. but it also means helping the less actives come back. Remember that the worth of ALL souls is great in the eyes of God and we as members can do a much better job in helping come back, feel our love, and STAY back. I have witnessed and sadly been a part of less actives coming back but then being offended and leaving again...how sad. We need to do better. Don't say wow how long time no see or anything of the sort to make them feel bad just give them a big sincere smile and tell them welcome, its great to see you :) show them your love. That is really all they need. The majority of the less actives still have their testimony they've just forgotten who they are or have been distracted or forgotten what they're priorities are. Let us do our part to help them remember how important they are and follow the Prophet's invitation to go to the rescue :) 

I lovingly encourage all to study and apply the Prophet's talk "Our Responsibility to Rescue" from October 2013.

May the Lord bless us all in this effort.

Love,

Elder Remington 

Interviews, Burgers, and Baptisms OH MY!

Family and Friends,

President Amaya visited us this week to have interviews and reward us for being the zone that most passed the goal last week. We ate Carl's Junior together and had a great time with him and the Assistants. Elder Galvan and I had a wonderful interview with President Amaya. He said he had sent us here to raise the bar and put the zone on another level and that we had done just that. He congratulated us on the great unity, diligence, obedience, and enthusiasm that he could see and feel were very present in our zone and he said it was all consequence of the example of their leaders. It was actually pretty funny because he said that there's lots of missionaries that came from other less obedient and less focused zones and that when they got here to our zone it was like BOOM a wake up call and shocker. They can feel that its serious business here and then they get with the program and get their act together. He started cracking himself up haha but its really true and thats been one of the most rewarding experiences here for me is seeing the huge change and improvement that all of the missionaries here have had. Sadly, some zone leaders make the mistake of just worrying about and concentrating on REACHING THE GOAL and having results even if they have to intimidate, walk over, or boss around the missionaries to do it. That NEVER works. If you focus on the missionaries as people and children of God with a divine potential as Elder Eyring advises:

"Help others recognize the spiritual gifts with which they were born. Every person is different and has a different contribution to make.  No one is destined to fail.  As you seek revelation to see gifts God sees in those you lead in the priesthood, you will be blessed to lift their sights to the service they can perform.  With your guidance, those you lead will be able to see, want, and believe they can achieve their full potential for service in God's kingdom" ("Help Them Aim High").

and focus on their needs and their progress then they're happier, you're happier, and the goal almost takes care of itself. Yes you still need to give follow-up on the goal and focus on results but the people need to come first. President congratulated us on doing that well and said we're putting an example for the rest of the mission. 

We had 4 baptisms last week but it was so crazy and busy that we didn't have time to take pictures...sorry! But it was a great experience and one of the investigators Didier taught me a lesson that I'll never forget. Didier is nine years old and his mom and older brothers are less actives that we are reactivating while baptizing Didier (the good ole hit two birds with one stone!). Didier is very very very shy and gets scared easily. When I went to baptize him the first time he got scared when he entered the water and he shot his hand up out of the water so we had to do it again. On the second time he got even more scared and traumatized by the water and shot his hand up and came out of the water whimpering and crying. I took him out of the water to help him calm down and tried talking with him to motivate to go back and try it again. The sad part is that lots of members (who had good intentions but insensitive and foolish actions) started to swarm around him and say to him or to each other ¨Are you crying? He's crying. Hey don't be scared of the water you're fine. Just do it. Hey are you alright already?¨ This obviously just made it worst and he literally curled up in a ball against the wall crying and refusing to respond to anyone. Luckily his mom and another member we're smart and he told him in a loving way that he could do it. After about 10 minutes of confusion and crying we finally took him away from everyone and went in to a room just the missionaries and him and one of the members that was a good family friend. We said a prayer together to help him calm down. We waited for several minutes very patiently not pressuring him and then I got down on his level on my knees and said, ¨Hey bud how bout we just try one more time and if it doesn't work we can go home and everything will be fine okay?¨ He agreed and we went to the fount but we closed the door and waited for everyone to leave until it was just me, Elder Galvan, and the member family friend (priesthood holder). As we entered the water he started crying again but we just waited patiently sat down and prayed and then the member made him laugh with quite a few jokes and motivated him and then he decided to do it. I took him in my arms, said the prayer, and we entered in the water together. It worked! He left the water beaming and happy having conquered his fear. 

That taught me a lot about just being patient and not judging or laughing at people and being sensitive and gently persistent. Also the power of humor is very important as well. I've seriously changed since before the mission because before I would've thought what a baby and probably laughed at him a bit... I feel like I've changed quite a bit now that I think about it. 

Love you all so much!

Elder Remington 

Do Our Best and Leave the Lord the Rest

Message from Elder Remington's mother:

We received Jacoby's release date and flight plans....he will be returning home on May 20th at 11:25 am at the San Francisco airport! 

These last few month of the mission are hard....because although you want to go home and see friends and family....you also don't want to leave the people you have grown to love so much in this new country!  Jacoby doesn't talk about coming home at all, he avoids the topic completely, which is alright with me.  I'm glad he is staying focused on the work at hand.  In fact, he is not the one who let us know of his release date, rather it was the mission office that sent us an email and informed us.  He doesn't want to think about it or get distracted....he wants to finish strong and remain focused on his mission.  So if he writes you and doesn't mention excitement about coming home, it's not that he doesn't miss us or doesn't want to come home.....it's that he doesn't want to leave the people of Ecuador or the joy that he feels from being a missionary.   

Thanks for all your love and support that you have shown Jacoby throughout his mission!!

Family and Friends,

My buddy Elder Magill was assigned as zone leader in Babahoyo and another great friend Elder Curriden took his place with Elder Rounds. They are both wonderful missionaries and will do a great job. We're leaving the mission in good hands :) and just as President promised us, Elder Magill and I will get to die with our boots on out in the field! What a blessing it is for us honestly it was hard at first to get used to the field again but now its so great and I'm so thankful that President Amaya is so inspired in all that he does and I'm happy for Elder Magill because he really wanted to be out in the field and he deserves it :)This last week we had a leadership conference and I was able to sit next to Elder Magill as a fellow zone leader just like we did for the first time as zone leaders exactly a year ago! Just like old times we said to each other haha but the crazy thing is all the other people who were in last year's leadership conference other than President Amaya and Sister Amaya are long gone in their houses and all the people in the leaderhship conference this time weren't even thought of a year ago in the mission world or were just barely getting started. We are old! 

These past few days I have been a little let down a few times by people's poor use of their agency. On several occasions, missionaries, members, less actives, converts, and investigators have failed to keep their commitments when we don't give them a ton of follow up every single day. Its a little frustrating at times but then you've just got to remember to do your best and leave the rest to the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6) some will endure to the end and others won't but we've just got to do our best part to help them and never get discouraged. I think of how poor Mormon and Moroni must have felt as they saw their beloved people rot in their own sins and be destroyed for their pride... we can't control others we can just do our part and love them and help them.

Be happy :) 

Elder Remington 

Wonderful Converts

Family and Friends, 

Once again my heart is full of gratitude and love :) what a wonderful week we had. There were some trials and disappointments but as I've kept filling my heart daily with positive things and remembering all my blessings I've stayed happy and upbeat its great! I know many have said and heard about counting your blessings and remembering what you're grateful for and if you're like me you've kind of just shrugged it off sometimes and thought yeah yeah I've heard that before haha. I know its cliche and everyone says it but I'm telling its true! Do it! Decide to be happy and be positive and when things start to not go as planned just smile, laugh it off, and think of five things your grateful for. As we focus on our blessings and all the things that are good, just, and right in this world and we don't worry or complain about the things that are out of our control (other people's agency, the weather, culture, etc.) we find true and sustainable happiness. 

I love Alma 7:23 it has many important facets of living a balanced, positive, happy, and successful life. 

And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

Apply it and you will see the results! 

This week Vanessa Loor and Cristina Romero were baptized together. They are wonderful and will be lifelong converts. Vanesa is the older sister of three recent converts. She's a twenty year old, single, pregnant, college student that is very smart. She had listened to the missionaries before but never wanted to be baptized and we had never really seen much of a chance in her progressing. But then one day we went to visit her younger sisters to teach and strengthen them as new converts and while we were teaching a very distinct impression came to my mind to invite Vanessa to join us as well and I did and we put a baptismal date and the rest is history. 

Cristina Romero is Carlos Romero's wife. If you remember, Carlos is the brother of our first counselor and was baptized last month. He received the Priesthood and baptized his wife with power. It was so special to see them enter the waters of baptism together and I know they'll be sealed as an eternal family in a year and I plan to be there to see it :) they are wonderful friends and they study the scriptures daily and mark them up with highlighters and are really converted to the Lord. What a joy and a blessing to know them and see them progress. We came to know them just by sharing a simple message and asking for referrals after lunch in our first week here and look where that got us. Alma 37:6-7 share messages and ask for referrals after every meal :) 

I love you all and know with all my heart that this gospel is true and changes lives 

Elder Remington