43. Intercambios
- L Rshaw
- Oct 13, 2019
- 9 min read
Updated: Nov 25, 2022
"Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with your best friend is an adventure"
--- Emily Wing Smith (Author)
Whereas before you might have been a hammer paired with a screwdriver, sometimes what you needed that day was a wrench to get the job done. Being paired up with a companion had its benefits, but sometimes you needed a fresh set of eyes on a problem or someone with a different skill set. I've said it before, but there's a reason why missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints don't go at it alone. They go in pairs. Intercambios were opportunities to mix and match and make the most out of whole the toolbox.
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I got to work with dozens of missionaries who weren’t my companions in Intercambios (Een-tehrr-kahm-byohs), a trade of companions for a day, like I did with Elder Harvey (See "A-Maori-Cans in Mexico"). Intercambios means, "Exchanges" in English. The purpose of Intercambios is primarily to mutually learn, to see what works and what needs work. It was also a lot of fun. It was invaluable to get perspectives from the outside-in of how my companion and I went about things and to solicit counsel for the people we were teaching.
ELDER MARTINEZ
Let me tell you about Elder Martinez. He arrived with the second Hispanic group just days after my "generation" landed in Mexico, but he was from Chicago (See "Culture Shock of Mexico"). As if his name didn’t give it away, Elder Martinez was of Mexican descent and knew a fair amount of Spanish already. While all the Hispanic missionaries were chatting together, he and I were speaking English just because we could and we felt more at home doing so, especially when we were still so new and a little homesick from time to time.
Elder Martinez taught me a lot. On one of our first P-days, we went to get sincronizadas (Seen-croh-nee-sah-dahs), which are basically really good quesadillas with meat inside, for lunch in a large restaurant in the center of Rio Bravo which I believe is the one in the photo above (See "P-Days & Peceras"). In walked a beggar. Having grown up in a part of Utah where panhandling is generally frowned upon, I’d been raised with the mentality to refuse panhandlers money. But here it was different, not just legally but ethically. He walked up to our table with his unshaven face bowed low and hands cupped towards us without saying a word, his humble actions speaking volumes for themselves. While I feigned that I had nothing to give, Elder Martinez gave him a few loose pesos from his pocket. The man thanked him wholeheartedly and humbly and went on his way.
I asked him about it after, “Why’d you give him money? You don’t know what he’ll do with it”. The essence of what he said has since stuck with me. Paraphrasing (this was over 5 years ago), he told me, “I could tell that was a good humble man, and he needs it more than I do right now”.
I felt like I was punched in the gut. Here I was with a full belly and a roof over my head. Could I really be so selfish? A missionary of all people?! That was just the first of many experiences that reminded me that people are more important than money and that we are not to judge unjustly (See "Our Garbage"). Surely, I too would have days when I would be the beggar.
King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ taught his people, “For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment…?” (Mosiah 4:19). Maybe we can’t solve all their financial struggles but Christ taught us to care for the poor and needy (Alma 34:28; see "Refugees"). That was indeed His mission; to care for those in need. He announced His ministry with the words of Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord…This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:18-21)
Here was a man literally at our feet asking for anything we could spare. I regret looking the other way when I did and I’ve tried to be better since although I fail from time to time. We all make mistakes but it’s important that we recognize opportunities to improve and work on them rather than accepting them as permanent flaws. Repentance is real and we are the ones who decide whether we repent or not (See "Repentance").
Elder Martinez and I got to work together quite a bit. His trainer was Elder Yagual (Chag-wall) who was from Ecuador like Elder Lopez (See "4th Area: Las Torres, Matamoros"). Our trainers became good friends which offered them want and opportunities to frequently work together since Elder Lopez was District Leader and could arrange intercambios (See "Mission Administration"). Elder Martinez and I consequently got to work together when they did, which we didn’t complain about in the least. To be honest, we were both overjoyed whenever we got to work together. He would usually come to Monterreal, and I can think of only two or three times that I went over to work in Nuevo Progresso (which was even more rural and closer to the Texas border).
On one occasion in my area we went to follow up on the C. family (See "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ"). Rent was almost due for the month and she was short on money. But instead of giving her money, as he did the beggar, Elder Martinez saw this as an opportunity to try all our faith so we knelt in prayer and asked God that they would have the money they needed to pay the rent (See "Prayers"). We came back the next week and the mother excitingly told us how a relative from Texas had unexpectedly come over and gave them the exact amount they needed to pay the rent. Prayers were answered because of the faith we all collectively had. That was a wonder indeed.
Faith always precedes the miracle and the miracle is to complement existing faith. Faith is trusting in God and His timing. It is my deep belief that everything has a happy ending if you wait long enough. (See "Faith and Trust")
On a side note, about a year after getting home, I got to attend Elder Martinez's temple marriage (sealing) and help host the wedding reception; it was the first temple sealing I'd ever attended (See "Eternal Family"). What an honor it is to know that friendships last after all is said and done and we go home (see Alma 17:1-3). Those are true friends.
I could tell many stories of different Intercambios; I won’t tell them all but I wanted to add some honorable mentions.
On a rare occasion that I went to his area, Nuevo Progresso, I came to realize just how small the city was. Even though it was situated right on the Texas border, he and his companion Elder Yagual were the only missionaries assigned to the city at the time. As we walked the quiet dusty streets, it seemed to be the case that Elder Martinez had already tried knocking at every house we passed. At one point, we were lucky enough to find ourselves seated in someone's very rural "backyard" in an attempt to teach them something. I don't remember if they'd been taught anything or not before, frankly, I couldn't really make out much of anything in Spanish at that point, but what I do remember is that this husband and wife had some rather extreme questions. Looking back, I think they were probably purposely throwing us some hardballs to catch us off-balance rather than sincerely seeking answers. But just the same, as I just sat there, not able to do much else because my Spanish was so scrappy, I remember Elder Martinez with a tongue of fire effortlessly spouting out answers to every question they threw at him. And I'm talking about esoteric things tangent to the creation of the world, the Egyptians of the Old Testament, and the like. As we left, Elder Martinez told me how amazed he was of his own ability to answer them in such fluent Spanish. Truly, the spirit of the Lord made Him equal to the task and sustained him in his righteous effort as a missionary.
EVALUATIONS
Once, after Intercambios with Elder Martinez in my area (See "1st Area: Monterreal, Rio Bravo"), we got the call that Elder Lopez had gotten sick overnight and would not return until the following day (Nuevo Progresso was eleven miles away and had an uncooperative bus schedule) so I was with Elder Martinez two days instead of one. Later that night, I was told without warning that Elder Green would be following me around the next day to evaluate my "training". (See "Testimonies and Trainers")
Evaluations meant that I was expected to do everything alone so that should I be signed off to become a trainer myself, it would be with some confidence (See "Trainee to Trainer"). Of course, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Elder Lopez had neglected my training, not to mention that we were always going on intercambios, and I stumbled miserably. It didn’t help that Elder Lopez wasn’t in Rio Bravo the night before to help me plan out my "judgment" day either. I was thrown in the deep end. I was lucky that Elder Green was merciful amidst my panic and stepped in when I was at my lowest points. I didn’t pass my training. That night, Elder Green was eyeing my scripture case and was asking about it. To thank him for everything, we traded scripture cases at his request the next morning at the bus station. His were dark green (how appropriate) and worn through, having seen many months of use. Mine were new and black (They even matched our coats!). I figured that making him happy was worth more than a case of synthetic leather fabric so I obliged his trade. This was actually an intercambio on intercambios!
THE SPICE OF LIFE
One time I was with my Zone Leader in the photo above in Monterreal and we challenged ourselves to teach the first person we saw. It was a man who seemed to be at a low point in his life so we sat down to talk with him on the sidewalk. He was seemingly kind but it became clear that he wasn’t entirely in his right mind. He asked if we believed in the Bible. We answered that we did. We asked him if he read it. He told us that he needed glasses but that he couldn’t afford them. This Elder takes out the Book of Mormon, turns to a scripture and asks the man if he could see what it said. He said he couldn’t but I don’t think he even looked at the book. So this Elder reads this scripture which the man took to be from the Bible. I questioned whether it was appropriate for this missionary to pass off the Book of Mormon as the Bible but there was no need to differentiate or favor the one over the other. It's all God’s word. We ended up leaving because the man didn’t have so much interest in the message as he was trying to butter us up to get money from us, not for glasses. Like I've said before in Sí, Dios Quiere, that's why it's so important to gauge real intent ASAP, to sift through the "nice people" and focus on the ones who accept the gospel help missionaries offer.
I once went to this Zone leader's area for the day and had tremendous success. We had like 12 lessons that day. He had confirmed appointments filling his schedule (that's how it should be!) and everyone was home thankfully. And we had a young man from the neighborhood join us for most of the day as well. That was very rare for me but it was a miraculous day. Even this Elder told me the same thing that they were never as successful with their appointments as we had that day. Although some days it feels like there is no hope of finding or teaching anyone, there are days when everything turns out better than we could imagine.
I learned that although all missionaries teach the same doctrine, the method by which they teach is infinitely diverse. Some Elders are jokers. Some are bold teachers. Others are more reserved. Some are good conversationalists. Others are better at listening. Each missionary used their unique talents and methods to teach. Many used different metaphors. Everyone had their own personal life experiences they could share. Even though we taught the same "lessons", no two lessons were exactly the same. We got very good at teaching but no matter the thousands of times we taught, each time was refreshingly different and we learned all the more because of it. We all had our strengths and weaknesses but the beauty was that we learned so much from one another and we complemented what the other lacked. That is the genius of companionships, families, and community! We are not meant to be all the same. But we are meant to be ONE. (See "One")
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