Dear Family and Friends, Monday,
September 22, 2014 at 10:47 a.m. (EDT)
Transfer day is September 23rd.
Are you staying or going somewhere else? I will be staying here as a Zone Leader. I will be receiving another
Zone leader as a companion. He will be a first time Zone Leader. Additional to
that we will be receiving a brand new missionary to train. So for the next 6
weeks I will be in a trio. Sounds like a lot of fun! Elder Holley will be
leaving but he will be staying as a Zone Leader somewhere else.
This week has been awesome. I
went on exchange with Elder Plyler in Manchester. He is such a good district
leader. He does really well with planning and encouraging the missionaries. We
have been working hard in our area and the work is doing good. Everyone seems
to be struggling lately with ITLs. We are really trying to motivate them
without being overbearing. We definitely
used exchanges to promote talking to everyone. Manchester's apartment was pretty clean, except for their bathroom. I asked
them if they could replace their shower curtain because it was disgusting. I
had a tough time showering in there without puking.
Something I have noticed as a
missionary and Casey can use it for advice for his mission. I have been really
surprised the last couple of months serving here in Manchester. It was quite a
shock to come to the city and see how many people are here to talk to. All of
my last areas have been pretty scarce.
There is a clip in the District Movies
of Elder Ballard giving advice to Mission Presidents. He gives the advice to
have missionaries talk to at least 10 people a day outside of tracting, and set
appointments, and members. So in other words talk to the people you see and
pass on the street.
In my past areas when I shared this with the district there
were many excuses of not being able to talk to anyone because an area is so
boonie. which is true to some extent. But you always need to adjust and work
with what you have. when I got to Manchester I was glad that I would never hear
this excuse from missionaries because there are so many people everywhere. I
have been surprised. Unfortunately here it is the same attitude. At district
meeting many of the missionaries complain that there is no one to teach. I sit
there dumbfounded and the thoughts go through my mind. We are in a city. There
are people everywhere. Yet missionaries report of talking to 5 people one day 3
the next and many times we get a report of. "Hey we talked to 0 absolutely
no one today, null, nada, oh and also by the way we taught 0 lessons as well.
There just isnt anyone to talk to."
I have learned that it is always about
attitude. You gotta find the silver lining to your dark storm cloud. You gotta
make lemonade with your lemons. Here it seems that everyone is handed a nice
jug of pre-made grape juice, yet the missionaries are disappointed because they
wanted lemonade. If that makes any sense. So remember that it is always about
your attitude. There is always those that think the grass is greener on the
other side, but you gotta learn to work with what you got and love it.
so theres my other missionary
rant for the day.
Elder CWJensen