GOLFING ON P-DAY WITH THE BISHOP!
The part two was actually week 10!
But hey! Another week flying by! It was an average week statistically but a great week in general.
Monday: After my email got deleted, we got to do a zone activity called Frasketball or something. Basically you play team handball with a soccer ball into a basketball hoop. It started out slow but turned out to a lot of fun! We then utilized my ping pong set and played ping pong for a while! P-day goes by so fast. We then suited back up and hit the road! We decided to focus on part member families this week. We managed to get into a few peoples homes and teach some lessons but a lot of the time when the non-member spouse answers they don't let us in. That was the day it decided to pour down rain. Everything was completely flooded.
Tuesday: We had distict meeting. Elder O gives such great training and brings the spirit in pretty much everything he does. He gave us each a christ like attribute and to do a journal on it. It was randomly selected but I got Desire. So this past week I really worked on being more converted and having a greater desire to talk to everyone! We recived a few names of people to go by and one is this family. She has 3 sons and really wants them to have a postive male influence on their lives. We stopped by and talked to them about young men, and they said they would go.
Wednesday: We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. I took over our area again and we had a pretty good day. We had a few lessons but For some reason I felt rushed the whole day and the lessons weren't as personal as I wanted them to be. This past week was the trainee takes control of all situations and the Zl litterally decided to not say a word so I really was on my own. It was a good day and he evaluated and was said he thought it was great and he really wanted to focus in on having me take control. But for me it really bummed me out because being the new missionary i am, I wanted everything to go perfect but it is tough sometimes.
Thursday: Wasnt near as stressed because the exchange was over. After we had a lesson with the F Boys who are getting baptized this upcoming saturday! its about freaking time, many missionaries have tried before but we finally got them to do it! We visited some less actives and some people the ward has no clue whether they live there or not and then ate dinner with the Bates familly again... every time we eat their they always ask why I dont like chocolate and why I dont have an accent even though I have told them a thousand times. haha they are very very old...
Friday: was Elder O's last week of planning! He was super bummed, he really really wants to stay. Friday was a tough day but an interesting day. So there I was... bikeing down the street. I stopped said hello to this man on the street. Said "hey hows it going, is there anything we can...adfjasdfjasdkf" Elder O comes crashing into me. He was texting while biking haha. it wasnt to bad of a crash but it did bend up some part of my bike. Soo we were on foot the rest of the day until the Zone Leaders could drive us to a bike shop. That pretty much killed our plans for the day...
Saturday: We helped some other Elders who were setting up for a baptism becasue they were running late. Still without bikes, it took us a while to really get anywhere. We were supposed to have a church tour, and have some people attend the baptism which they all no-showed so we had to leave and walk home. We then had some crazy lady knock on our door asking if she could borrow a phone. We were like sorry we don't have one on us (of course we did but not allowed to give it out") then she stormed off. We knew the lady and were kindof freaked out that she knew where we lived haha. We then had a mission movie night where we bring investigators and less actives to. It went well we had a few less actives come. That is almost harder than getting investigators to do anything.
Sunday; I FREAKING LOVE KYRENE WARD. I really hope this ward doesnt spoil me and the rest be downgrades but Kyrene ward is just so awesome. Church is always great, the people are awesome. We had a little scare because the Foote boys didnt come to church so we thought that they wouldnt be able to baptized. But they ended up coming they were just super late... haha so everything is still a go and their interview is today. We walked and visited some apartments and street contacted some people. Our teaching pool is about to dry up so we need to start working on finding. We got to go to a new member move in party for Kyrene ward and their was food and trivia so it was nice that we were able to go to some of that.
we did get our bikes today and it only cost me like 8 bucks for the repair so that was good
That was my week! So far my mission has been freaking tough. Not a lot happening and have to do the best We can with what we have. But the first convert in a mission is the missionary and these 3 months have strengthened my testimony immensely. I am becoming so much more affluent with knowledge of scriptures and testimony. Miracles are happening, everyday I witness miracles whether it be impressions to knock on that door, or to go over their or to see people share and feel the spirit. It's awesome
Love Parker
Hey Mum! and Everyone Else!
Man if I had to sum this whole week up with a few short words, it would be "well, what now?"
That about characterizes the week haha. Lots of stuff fell through, and there was more open space in our planner than I thought was possible in this ward. But the upside was that we were forced to do a ton of finding, which then resulted in actually meeting a lot of new people to teach. So I wouldn't really say it was a bad week or anything, but it definitely wasn't the kind of week that missionaries have daydreams about.
The highlight of this week was definitely the Mission Tour that happened on Saturday. Soooo cool. Every year the missions in the church are visited and toured by a general authority who then addresses the missionaries and the leadership on all the things that they are doing well, and maybe chastises them a little bit on stuff that they can do better. This year it was Elder and Sister Larry Lawrence (kind of a redundant name huh?). They were legit. Can't wait to see the impact that this is going to have on the mission culture.
P-day was boring last week. Elder A wants to play basketball at the stake center with the other guys, so that generally leaves me with not a ton to do except try and teach myself how to play piano. That hasn't been all bad, but it gets old. I know this shouldn't matter much, but I get a little worried about how that affects the other Elder's opinion of me as a leader. I don't wanna come across as unfun or anything, but at the same time I'm just not willing to play. They get too competitive and I have terrible coordination haha
Ate dinner with the S family. They're cool. They have a son named Josh who is Autistic. But he's a pretty funny kid. Loves video games (shocker) and is still super smart.
Then afterwards we finally got back in with the S family. That was kinda strange. The parents are getting a divorce, but they still live in the same house. They are civil about it, but they're super open about the fact that Sister Smith having an affair is the reason that they are splitting. Awkward. But we taught them about the Atonement and the kind of things it can do for them and their struggles. They were both super receptive. I think the kids need it too, cause I cant imagine how they are taking all this.
Tuesday was a long day. We had a DLC meeting at 11 that morning, so that nixed any opportunity for us to go visit some of the people that we had planned on seeing. But it was a good meeting. I brought donuts just for fun, but really because I know that one of our Sisters just lost her Grandma and was really torn up about it. Donuts cheer everyone up haha. Afterwards we gave both Sister B and Sister G a blessing of comfort. Our Sisters are really cool. I really wanna keep up with them after the mission.
We literally spent the rest of the day contacting potentials and talking to people. I've found a pretty successful way to do that without coming across like a JW haha. People are much more receptive if you just start talking to them on the street instead of knocking on their door. It works a lot better. So we set up a bunch of appointments that day.
Ate dinner with the F family, and then we went to correlation. Our phone bit the dust a few days earlier so we finally got our new one, even if its not that great either.
Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went to their area with Elder D, while Elder A went with Elder R. Neither of them knew how to navigate the area so they ran our miles up a ton. But we had a pretty cool day. Went to some service in the morning, and then we ate at Atlanta Bread Co. Then we spent the rest of the day contacting potentials. Found some cool people. Ate dinner with their recent convert who's name is Amit. He's Indian, but he speaks good enough English. He fed us this really strange Indian dish. Basically a cereal with rice and lentils that you put yogurt, chutney, and onions on top of. It was... meh...
Then that night we had a lesson with a guy named J. It started off as a lesson, but morphed into us playing a Bible trivia game with them. I DEMOLISHED them haha. Good thing I know the scriptures pretty well.
Then we exchanged back. I brought a lot of cool new ideas to my area. And Elder A found a new investigator while I was gone!
Thursday we did some service at the Crisis center. Too many of these projects are just becoming a chill out place where all the missionaries go to avoid doing work. Its a little sad sometimes. So we left when the rest started showing up.
We made it our goal to contact every person in the area book, so we just went area by area. Found some really cool people in an apartment complex, and then we set up a bunch of appointments with some other people who live right by the airport. Our area goes all the way up there believe it or not haha.
Ate dinner with the P family, and then visited a bunch of LA's but none were home :(
Friday was our worst day of the week. We didn't want to go to the church to plan because no one else was gonna be there, and we didn't want to spend the miles. But for some reason that made it really difficult to focus on planning.
Did a lot of LA contacting that day. Actually got a lot of useful information that we can write in the area book. Then we ate dinner by ourselves, got flaked on by both Jeff and the other F family, and gave a card to a couple of interested gas station attendants haha. That was pretty funny. We had a rough day so we went looking for a Slurpee, but the first 711 we tried had a broken machine, and then the second one we tried didn't have any that were without food coloring. But both cashiers asked about the Church and accepted an invite to church! You never know how the Lord is gonna lead you to people haha.
Saturday was a good day. Mission tour went awesomely, and really pumped me for the last 10 weeks of my mission. Elder Lawrence was a heavy hitter on obedience, and he chastised our mission for being a little to casual, which is probably true. Then his wife talked for close to 2 hours on the gathering of Israel and how those who were born into Israel were the most righteous in the Pre-existence. I don't know how much of that was doctrine versus speculation. But it was still super fascinating. Then we got recruited to help our ward clean the building.
Got flaked on by a couple of people that afternoon, but that led us to find a new investigator, Anthony, and then to street contact a super legit potential named Dave. Pretty ghetto area though. Project apartments.
Then we went to the Wedding of Tim and Jenny . She is a LA who is trying to return, and her new husband is a new investigator that we are going to start teaching Wednesday. He told us he wants to be baptized along with his kids. So that is a plus! Can't wait to get that started.
Ate dinner with the R family, and then we went to our appointment with Javier. When we got there, he was SMASHED. Totally gone. I got a little information out of him about how he felt embarrassed that he hadn't made it to church the last couple weeks, so he started to revert back to his old self. Which sucked. Plus he had a bunch of punk kids hanging out with him, also drinking and unloading a bunch of porn out of their car so they can sell it. It was pretty bad. Before we left he made me tune his guitar up and jam a little for him. He was surprised that I could actually play haha.
Then we taught a lesson to the R family that evening.
Sunday was kinda lame. We went around to remind all of our investigators who had committed to come to church this week. None of them came. Even Javier who told us that morning that he would. So that was a bummer. But it was the Primary Program that day so I couldn't really stay too sad about it since I was laughing my head off. The kids in this ward are hilarious. SOOOO LOUD haha. They just belted out those primary songs haha.
After church we went over to the F family, but they flaked on us a third week in a row. They were busy rebuilding the roof of their trailer since their landlord was threatening to evict them.
Ate dinner with President F and his family. He's the patriarch of the whole F clan haha. Hes first counselor in the Stake Presidency. Super good Tongan food haha.
Afterwards we taught Part 2 of the Plan of Salvation lesson to the N family, and then taught Part one of that same lesson to the J family. Both went okay. Its tough to teach the J's 7 year old Elian. But she gave us haircuts so its all good haha.
Whew. I'm gonna cut this letter off a little short today so I can go get some of that school stuff done. I'm gonna call and get permission to fill it all out. Love you! Wish me luck cause this next week looks pretty good.
Elder Efan
No comments:
Post a Comment