The day the music died - 02/25/13

I hardly ever listen to music in the car here on the mission. Some Elders have lots of churchy music of various sorts, but I'm usually talking to my companion or enjoying the silence when we are driving around. But every morning, I wake up with a song in my head. I've noticed very few repeats. It's amazing to me how much stuff is stuck in my head. It seems like it leaks out onto my pillow at night and I spend some of my shower time trying wash it off. Or sometimes, trying to figure out the lyrics. I think most of my music that I listened to will be appropriate for my new spiritual standard when I return from my mission, but a few songs for sure will be deleted. That's part of progression. You've got to give up some of the stuff you enjoy that is bringing you down. 

For those who didn't hear, my mission boundaries will be redrawn in July to accommodate all the new missionaries. Our mission as it exists today will be modified and become a part of three missions: the California Riverside Mission, the California Redlands Mission and the California Carlsbad Mission. The church is opening up 58 additional missions by splitting existing missions, meaning that no new countries will have missionaries in them, but there will be lots more missionaries in the countries that have them. It's a fun time to be in the mission field, for sure! 

My wonderful companion is working his tail off to get more teaching appointments. I don't think I've adequately taught him anything about finding, but he's already pretty good at filling up our evenings with appointments, and he's excited at how much success we're having with that. We had some very informative visits with our ward mission leaders and our Murrieta Hills bishop that gave us lots of ideas of who we should be spending our time on.

 

We had an interesting time on Thursday, baptizing a convert into our ward that we never taught. The Murrieta ward elders had been teaching her, and she was attending the Murrieta ward with her friends, but she had already been blessed in our ward, and that is where she and her Mom are living, so she got baptized as a member of our ward. The Murrieta elders also confirmed her in our ward meeting this Sunday. Time will tell if she attends the ward she lives in, or the one she's been attending, or both. Bishop told her she could basically do whatever she wants. But she is technically our responsibility, and our Young Women's leaders are busily trying to get her involved in our ward. 

Have I mentioned how much I love our Young Women's President? Everybody in our ward council meetings is so great to work with. Even the Sunday School President is pretty involved and has given us two referrals since I've been here. I'm really stoked about our wards. But! My companion and I have made the concrete goal to make ourselves so busy with these two wards that there will be more than enough work for both wards to function on their own. We want them to be autonomous by by May. Granted, Mission President can do whatever he wants, but we want to make sure that there is plenty of work going on in both wards 

One of the coolest things I've heard this week is about the Holy Ghost. Before being baptized, the Holy Ghost is like a lightning flash that brings you out of the dark and illuminates everything in a detail that you've never experienced before. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is like walking into the sunlight of a clear, sunny day. Pretty cool analogy. 

Well, we have two youth on date for baptism in March right now, and we hope to have two more on date by the next time I email you. The work continues to amaze me every day that I take a few seconds to think about how blessed I am.

Trade your heros for ghosts? - 02/19/13

Transfers! My companion and I stayed put. I had a hunch that they would put a new set of missionaries in the Murrieta Hills ward, leaving us with just the Cole Canyon ward and no car. But my intuition was completely wrong. Things are staying the same for now. I don't know if I properly communicated this, but because of the shortened schedule at the MTC, our transfer schedule is losing a week this transfer. So it's only five weeks until the next transfer, which will be 25 March 2013. That also means my release date will be 8 April 2014. My mission will be a week shorter than two years unless I am given the opportunity to extend.

 

I lost one of my best friends who will be training in Beaumont - Yucaipa Zone - for his last two transfers of his mission. My MTC companion is in Yucaipa, training, as a district leader in the same zone as my former DL who will be a zone leader there. They're also going to be sharing an apartment. I bet they're going to have a ton of fun. Yucaipa is generally regarded as a pretty yucky place. But I'll be the first to say, some people turn their noses up at working in the poorer areas, but the ghetto is my favorite place to do missionary work.

My finger is slowly recovering from where I burned the heck out of it trying to do an object lesson involving a lighter and a boiled egg. It blistered up like a balloon the night after it happened, then it popped, and then the blister part peeled off, exposing the red tender skin beneath. That sore has been healing for the past week, and it's actually a lot better now. I also got a haircut the day *after* the baptism. I guess I'm typically a day late and a dollar short. But I'm glad that my hair is more manageable now.

My motto for the week has been "Go to work and it all works out." And let me tell you, things have been working out pretty spectacularly in the very recent past. We had only a handful of scheduled appointments a few weeks ago. On Sunday, we had 18 appointments scheduled for this week. I know not all of them will bear fruit, but that's a huge improvement. I have been a huge believer in setting up appointments for the week at church on Sunday, and it paid off big time this week. We'll see how many of those turn into return appointments and productive missionary work.

Oh, and we got another new investigator in the Murrieta Hills ward. His Dad is an inactive member. Thanks to some seriously awesome fellowship from the ward, we got a lesson with the investigator on Tuesday, and a lesson with him and his dad on Sunday. It appears that we are on the fast track to reactivating the Dad in Hemet and baptizing the son in Murrieta where he lives with his Mom. Mom doesn't have a whole lot of interest, but Dad wants him to go to church, and he comes every week with the fellowshipping family. So we're on track there.

 

I kid you not, three other youth in the Murrieta Hills ward brought nonmember friends to church and introduced them to us. Two of them don't seem quite ready to take the lessons just yet, but the other one is being taught in a member's home on Tuesday of next week. I am so proud of our youth! Oh, and it looks like another ward member has a friend who's ready to come to church and hear from us, too. It's funny to me how the past ward mission leader was convinced that Murrieta Hills was dead, a lost cause, and now that we have a motivated WML and focused missionaries, the work is just pouring down like the rains from heaven. God is so awesome.

 

Cole Canyon is a great place to work, too. We had our baptism for "RP" on Tuesday, and he had a lot of friends there. I got to confirm him on Sunday. It felt wonderful to see our work play such a huge role in his life and the life of his friends. I don't think we've dried up that gold mine just yet. I think his friends and family are going to come around soon looking for us. I'm still impressed with our WML in Cole Canyon. He got us in with a family that I was convinced wouldn't want us around, and I am very glad that he opened that door that I didn't think I could open myself. He's a very motivated guy and I am very happy to work with him.

Well, it looks like I'm going to have a wonderful week this week. God, my companion, and I are going to do awesome things!

Time Keeps on Slipping - 02/11/13

11 Feb 2013. I've been a missionary for ten months today. I'll be a quarter of a century old in under a month, and then about a month after that I'll hit my year mark. Time flies, and the days are just packed. 

I have no idea what I'm doing. But apparently I'm doing something right, because "RP" is getting baptized tomorrow. I'm still unsure as to who he wants to speak, and if he realizes that he can't wear board shorts (unless they are white). But we're going to fix that soon! I'm just super stoked that he passed his interview with President Smart. He's so excited that he's invited most of his coworkers to the baptism and to church next week. Hopefully his parents will see how great we are and they will want to take the lessons, too. 

I really can't get over how long I've been here. I've long held the belief that I don't experience the passage of time the same way most people do, but the concept of time on the mission is even odder. I feel like I just barely got here. But I am so completely and thoroughly a missionary, to my very core, that I can't imagine what my life will be like when I'm not a missionary. Adjusting back to civilian life is going to be an interesting process. 

I had a really rough time emotionally this week. I'm starting to accept the fact that I am still imperfect, and that I offend people sometimes. Perhaps I can change for the better. But if my intentions are pure, and I am keeping the commandments, then I don't need to worry about what God thinks of me. I think it's a matter of perspective. Reading 2 Nephi chapter 2 helped me a lot in that regard. There is indeed opposition in all things. And it is the ups and downs of life that makes it meaningful and enjoyable. 

I can now add a Smith & Wesson tactical pen to the list of cool gifts I've received on my mission. Apparently our High Priest group leader is a sales rep for them. He used to be a cop, and then he sold for Glock. I imagine his gun safe is full of all kinds of fun stuff.

I'm glad that my companion gets to watch the entire teaching process all the way up to baptism with "RP". And he also gets to perform the actual ordinance. That's something that you don't always get to see as a greenie. Luckily for us, God has provided a way for him to have that experience. 

I've really considered myself lucky so far on my mission. Or I guess blessed is a better word for it. I should be sure to acknowledge God's hand in all things. But I also don't need to be so down on myself, when I've really seen a lot of cool stuff so far. For example, the new investigator we picked up this week. She walked into our lesson and threw out all kinds of anti doctrines without giving us time to talk about anything. But with some love and smiles, we were able to get her to listen as we explained things from the bible one point at a time. Now she's committed to reading our side of the story, and I think she's turned around a lot of the opinions she held about us before. It is easy to love those that treat you well, but it is far more Christlike to love those that abuse you. I think she picked up on that. Also, the wonderful brother from the Spanish branch that has attended our meetings with that family has wowed us all with the power of his testimony every single time he attends the lessons. 

Well God bless, and Happy Valentine's Day!

A Little Bit Better - 02/04/13

I may feel really inadequate as a trainer and as a missionary in general, but at least I can see that I'm getting a little bit better as the weeks go on. In companionship study the other day, I took a little tangent to re-examine what Preach My Gospel says about preparing for lessons. I don't think I've done nearly enough preparation for lessons with my companion. I know my trainer and I used to spend a decent amount of time talking about what our investigators needed to know, feel, and do as a result of our lessons. We had very basic outlines or lesson plans. But with subsequent companions, we would just think of a topic, and then we get there and teach off the top of our heads, of course drawing on our experience and speaking as guided by the spirit. My companion, on the other hand, doesn't know the content of the lessons and hasn't taught them very often, so I need to take the time to make plans for every lesson with him. I think both of us would benefit greatly from planning things out a little bit better. So there's one way I've seen myself improve. 

Of course, we've been struggling to find the time to do that planning. Daily planning sessions are supposed to take place at night, for 30 minutes, ideally between 9 and 9:30. Well, the people who share their home with us like to talk to us when we get home about how our day went, and because of their callings and involvement in the church, they typically have some input on the people that we visited. So that eats up a lot of our evening if we aren't careful. In the mornings, we have two hours of companionship study, and part of that is supposed to be planning for our teaching appointments for the day. But we are also supposed to be working through the 12-week training program that we were assigned, and I'm horribly behind on that. It's week 5 and I haven't finished training him on the week 3 material. It's pretty embarrassing. But when we start talking about our investigators, it seems like that takes up all of our time and then we have to get out and do work. 

On top of all that, if we have demands on our time in the morning, which we often do, we have to leave and then come back and finish up our studies later. Mission President does not like us skipping out on any of the study time allotted us for the 12-week training program. But our homeshare recently gave us a lecture about our time management skills, and told us that he was instructed that we should be out the door at 11am and not come back until after 9pm. So he doesn't quite understand our need to get the studies done, and thinks we are slacking if we are at the house during the day. I guess I could try to talk to him about that if he brings it up again. I know when I was trained, we would often be stuck at the house late if we had service in the morning, or an appointment before 11am. The zone leaders told me that my trainer was correct, and that we needed to come back and do our studies for the training program. So I think I'm in the right here.
In any case, things have gotten a lot better. We're still only teaching one investigator in the Murrieta Hills ward, but several recent converts, less-actives, and active families. Our investigators in Cole Canyon are not all progressing the way we'd like, but we are sorting through the way things are shaking out with Elder "E" and picking up some that slid through the cracks earlier. 

Working with the Relief Society presidents was an excellent idea. I feel like our meetings with them gave us a lot of knowledge and helped out our effectiveness immensely. I'm still going through my notes from those visits and evaluating who we should prioritize next. 

Our friend "RP" took us out to dinner this week and we taught him twice. He wants to get baptized as soon as possible, unfortunately in order for all his family and friends to be there, it might have to wait a few weeks. His interview with President Smart is on Thursday, and I think he is ready and worthy. It's been something that I've worried about for the entire month of January, but I think it's really going to work out. 

I wonder how well I'm managing my companion's expectations of what missionary work is really like. In most parts of the mission, the people aren't as wealthy, and you usually teach more investigators, less-actives, and recent converts. Here we teach a ton of active families. I guess it's more effective than tracting at night. I wonder how these wards operated before I got here. It seems like it got thrown completely off track by the Christmas season. Or maybe it was just me and my former companion, who knows.

I also want to share this month's First Presidency talk with him, A Word for the Hesitant Missionary. Elder "E" saw in my Preach My Gospel where I write down the names and addresses of everybody I've baptized. He did the math and said I averaged two baptisms per month. Most people don't get one baptism per month, in fact in the US missions the average is .55 baptisms per companionship per month. That makes me a pretty good missionary, right? Well here's what Uchtdorf has to say about that. 

"Sometimes we take upon ourselves too much credit or too much blame when it comes to others accepting the gospel. It’s important to remember that the Lord doesn’t expect us to do the converting. 

Conversion comes not through our words but through the heavenly ministrations of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes all it takes is one single phrase of our testimony or about an experience to set in motion the softening of a heart or the opening of a door that can lead others to experience sublime truths through the promptings of the Spirit.

... Brothers and sisters, have faith. The Lord can magnify the words you speak and make them mighty. God doesn’t ask you to convert but rather to open your mouths. The task of converting is not yours—that belongs to the person hearing and to the Holy Spirit."

I feel like we've been in exactly the right place at the right time a lot this week. We visited a family on Wednesday, mostly because we had nothing better to do, and found out that they desperately needed our help. We have a dinner appointment with them soon, and hopefully we can help them hold their family together. We had a similar experience on Thursday: we showed up on a whim, found they had a need, and they were very willing to let us come back for dinner and a lesson. On Sunday, we were pretty bummed about the Super Bowl and didn't know who we could bug during the big game. Well, we visited one home that we knew was a part-member family. We didn't know that they had a member family over, in fact a member family that we had really wanted to see this week. They invited us in, paused the game (I think it was during halftime), and we had a really nice discussion. I definitely saw providence in that. 

Hopefully I can keep on trusting God to work his miracles through me. I'm amazed at the things that have happened in front of my face so far.