Solid week with a lot that happened! I'll start with Tuesday at our Zone Training meeting:
So, we told the zone to meet at 10:30 in a parking lot off of Sahara/Fort Apache and bring 5 bucks instead of meeting at the church building. Everyone was confused, but we promised them it was worth it, so they did it. Elder Herlin and I drove our car down to Sahara/Rainbow around 9:30, parked in a Wells Fargo parking lot, and then took the deuce up to one block west of where we told the zone to meet up. We had our district leaders pretend like we were late and so they directed the zone to the bus stop. All of a sudden, the deuce pulls up, doors open, and we're standing there; everyone was confused and we told them all to hop on. It was so funny to see all the expressions of people as 16 mormon missionaries climbed on to a double-decker city bus. We took them up to the top level in the back and opened up our Zone Training Meeting! It was on "Helping People Make and Keep Commitments", and since we were on the deuce, we had "realplays" instead of "roleplays". Instead of having missionaries teach each other, we had them try their teaching on real people on the bottom level of the deuce; the first lady one companionship contacted on the first "realplay" was interested and set up an appointment with the elders. It was amazing. Pretty soon, the bus got to Sahara/Rainbow where we told everyone to get off. When they got off the bus stop, they saw our car and were like "how did...but wait...". We had a box of copies of the Book of Mormon, so we passed them out and had the zone contact people at a busy Vegas intersection (in our zone). Thirty minutes later, we hopped the deuce again until it got to the very last stop before crossing into the east mission (Sahara/Rancho), right at 12:00. It was an awesome training, and after the closing prayer we had lunch down there and then took the bus to hear Elder Anderson and Callister address us at 1:00, at the building only a couple blocks away.
It was amazing to be able to shake the hand of one of the Lord's Apostles. He shook the hand of every single missionary there, and then spoke to us directly, walking around in the aisles and using our names. His knowledge and public speaking skills were incredible; he was working the room and had our direct attention. The first thing he let us know was that we were not to compare ourselves to anybody else, ever. It kind of reminded me of golf; you're only playing against yourself - it's about day-to-day improvement. Elder Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy talked about changing our nature rather than changing our behavior, and that really hit home. The last thing they put a lot of emphasis on was the message of the Atonement and the reality of a Savior. One thing I really liked that Elder Anderson said was that when we don't know what to say, testify of Him. When we're at a loss of words, or when there seems to be nothing more to say, testify of Jesus Christ and the fact that He lives. I love that. I've been doing my best to do that as the week has gone on, and it's been easier to be a missionary as I find myself completely centered around that message. We're ambassadors of the Lord, and our sole purpose is to testify of Him. If I'm not doing that, I'm doing something wrong.
With transfers, I'm not sure what's going on. Elder Anderson said our mission presidents need to keep us in our areas longer, 6-8 months being the AVERAGE. I was glad to hear that, because I want to spend one more transfer in Lakes, but looking at the mission logistically, everything is pointing to me getting transferred :( I might go to South zone, not sure. It's not that I don't want to serve in these other areas with these other missionaries, it's just that I really feel like we're getting into a groove and a lot of good has yet to be accomplished. We'll see, though; we get our calls on Saturday, so you'll know Monday!
I love you all and hope your week was as good as mine!
Jesse
 |
| The Lakes Zone missionaries on "The Deuce" |
No comments:
Post a Comment