Dear Family,
Anyway, this week we had an abnormal amount of blessings. This was one of the most blessing-filled weeks of my mission for way more reasons than I could mention. So get the details below...
-> Large Plates <-
-Monday-
What would missionaries do without P-Day's? Suffer. That's what we would do without P-Day's. However, sometimes we suffer even with P-Day's. That happens when you spend 4 hours cleaning and maintaining your bike because there's nothing else for you to do. That's what I did on this P-Day after all the normal shopping and emailing and stuff.
Later on we were able to get in with Jo for the first time in forever. He's the 17 year-old who wants to learn how to repent. We were finally able to go over repentance. We didn't spend long with him but it was time well spent. We had a solid lesson with him. He told us he knows he needs to repent and he wants to, but he thinks he's not ready for full repentance yet. We're trying to teach him that a desire to repent comes from the Spirit and that proves that he's ready for it. We'll see what happens.
-Tuesday-
Tuesday is bingo day. We called bingo again. Nothing abnormal happened.
Later on in the day we had our interviews. I mostly talked about how sick I've been... Yeah... That's that.
We met with a man who used to meet with missionaries in the past but he hates how we get transferred around so much. He's willing to meet with us more now. Hopefully he goes somewhere.
We saw Ms Ro. Taught her about the church's addiction recovery program. She wants her daughter to go through it. She really needs the ARP... Yeah... Tuesday was pretty normal.
-Wednesday-
This is where the blessings really started. Last year the church had a worldwide broadcast about missionary work. They did the same thing this year. The Diels drove us to Madison for the broadcast. In the broadcast the members of the Executive Missionary Council gave great trainings on missionary work. Elder Bednar had especially good comments. Besides all the trainings, they made significant changes to the daily schedule and key indicators.
Here's an example of the old schedule.
6:30 am, wake up and exercise (30 minutes)
7:30 am, breakfast
8:00 am, personal study
9:00 am, companion study
10:00 am, begin working
9:00 pm, return home and plan for the next day
10:30 pm, go to bed
That was the set schedule we lived by. There wasn't really any changing it. Now, they've given us the freedom to customize our daily schedule. They still want certain things done before 10:00 am, and they still want us up at the same time, but they now let us decide in what order the other things are accomplished. They've also moved planning to the morning. They want us to do companion study at a time that's less effective for proselyting. Here's the schedule Elder Kloepfer and I customized.
6:30 am, wake up
7:00 am, exercise (30 minutes)
7:30 am, breakfast and preparing for the day
8:30 am, personal study
9:30 am, planning
10:00 am, began working
12:30 pm, companion study
9:00 pm, return home. Write in journal. Go to bed.
I'll tell you now that the new schedule is a a lot easier on us. I feel like I have more energy to do things. I get more sleep now. It's great!
Now, onto the key indicators changes. We used to have to report on 11 key keywords. Those were:
-Investigators baptized
-Investigators confirmed
-Investigators with a baptismal date
-Investigators to church
-Member present lessons
-Other lessons taught
-Progressing investigators
-Referrals received
-Referrals contacted
-New investigators
-Lessons taught to recent converts and less actives
There were a few mission key indicators that we just reported on in this mission. Those were:
-Service hours
-Lessons in a members home
-Member referrals
-How many people you talked to (TWE's)
There used to be more mission ones but they've gotten rid of them over the months. We had to report on 15 numbers every week. But with the changes, the Missionary Executive Council knocked it down to 4:
-Investigators confirmed
-Investigators with a baptismal date
-Investigators to church
-New investigators
That's it. Only those 4. No more mission key indicators either. The Executive Council threw down on having "too many key indicators". That means the TWE Accountability is gone too. Yay! :)
After the training the Diels took us to the Downtowner again. I hope that becomes a weekly tradition. Later on we saw Miss B and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She's doing well as a new member. Right after we finished the lesson we got a call from Sis Terrell, asking if we could go to the hospital and give a friend of hers a blessing. She's a less active from another unit. Elder Diel gave her the blessing. She really appreciated it.
We went to Lake Iola in the dark. Normally there's no one there in the day, but for some reason there were a lot of people there at night. It was odd. But it was the beginning of many odd blessings we would experience over the next few days.
-Thursday-
We went to the Clearinghouse with the Diels. They really hit it off with some of the staff. Like, abnormally well. Hopefully they'll become investigaters soon.
Later on in the day we picked up some potentials we haven't had in a long time. One was a nice guy who has his head on straight and wants to talk with us, which is rare. He said we could come by anytime.
We did Food 4 R Souls again. This time I served cheesy potatoes and chicken noodle soup.
We finished the night with a less active named Ms Do. We tried working with her in the past but she was always impossible to catch. We got her this time! We had a decent lesson with her. She's a convert of about 4 years. She's not terribly confident in her gospel knowledge but she wants to come back to church. She wants us to visit more often. Maybe this means we'll be able to work with her now.
-Friday-
We spent some time trying people out in the country on Friday. After we burned through the list of people we picked out without any answers, we felt impressed to go further into the country to try a member named Sis Cha. Her husband lives in the nursing home we call bingo at. He doesn't come to bingo though. She lives in a nice home way out in the country. Dad would absolutely love the place. When we got to the home she invited us right in and talked for a bit. After some chatting, it became apparent that she needed a blessing due to her recent trials. So we gave her a blessing. A rather strong one too. It really helped her out.
Later on we had a 2.5 hour dinner with the branch president, President Penrod. It was so long because we spent a lot of time talking about missionary work in the branch. It was a good visit.
-Saturday-
We saw Bro L again. Read with him like always. He's sort of progressing.
The big blessing of Saturday was Sister Staker. Her husband is in the branch presidency. She called us in the middle of the day and said "Hey! I'm shopping now. What do you guys want?" To which we replied something like "Oh! Thank you! We really don't need much though." Then she said something like "I have 2 boys that served missions. I know how hungry you guys get. What do you guys need? Eggs? Milk?" She went on to basically squeeze a shopping list that had to have been worth about $100 out of us. She asked us question after question about what we wanted and needed and wouldn't be satisfied until she knew our cabinets were full. She bought so much food for us. 6 fancy bags full. It took 10 minutes to put it all away. Milk, eggs, bacon, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, bread, pancakes, syrup, sales, dressings, a pineapple, and several other things too. She even got us paper towels. I've never had a member treat us like that. It was quite the act of kindness. #Blessed
-Sunday-
We had an abnormal church service. President and Sister Brough came and spoke in Sacrament. They did a great job. Then they attended gospel principles and guess who teaches that... It's us! We got to teach a gospel principles class with the mission president and his wife there. It actually went very well. I was surprised. The Brough's taught the members more in the 3rd hour. It was combined. The Brough's are quite the characters.
After church I made breakfast for lunch. I cooked one of the bacon packages Sister Staker gave us. Bacon is delicious. #Blessed. Later on we tried a couple formers we dropped a while ago because they never answered, but they answered this time and we set appointments for both of them. Yay!
We finished the night by discussing part-member families with President Penrod. Yay!
-> Small Plates <-
Here's a hymn that summarizes this week.
When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.
Count your many blessings; money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.
So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
Count your blessings;
Name them one by one.
Count your blessings;
See what God hath done.
Count your blessings;
Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings;
See what God hath done.
-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)
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| Groceries from Sis Staker - Thank you! |
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| Breakfast for dinner! |
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