“And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” (D&C 42:6).
Dear Family, Friends, and fellow Xangans,
Today I will give you a play by play account of two days from the past week. I do this in part because Julie wrote me a letter and asked what my daily schedule was like, but also because I learned significant principles from this week I’d like to share. As I do this, keep in mind that my schedule is not a normal missionary schedule because I am an Office Elder (for the time being).
Thursday, June 29, 2006
I woke up at 6:30 to exercise until 7:00. I was showered and ready to go in my white shirt and tie by 8:00. Normally we study for an hour by ourselves and then another hour as a companionship, but we had to leave by 8:20 to get to our district meeting in Monrovia by 9:00. District meetings are gatherings of missionaries that happen every Thursday in which we train each other and practice our “skills” (teaching, finding, committing, planning, etc.).
After district meeting, missionaries plan out the next week for two hours. We had to cut our planning session short so we could make it to the office by noon, but we still had some powerful planning. My new companion and I prayed long and hard over a baptismal goal for the six week transfer. We knew that if there were people to baptize, we hadn’t found them yet. I kept thinking of the number three, but I only felt that we should set a goal for one. Both us really wanted to teach a family. The other two missionaries in our ward had been teaching whole families, one of which they baptized last transfer. Though we wanted that for ourselves, we set a goal for one baptism because that is what we felt right about.
On our way to the office, we grabbed some Subway that we ate as we worked. In the office we are bombarded by tasks that seem important. We try to do them as fast as we can so we can get out into the “field” where our work really is important. Thursday I checked the vehicle information sheets and ensured that during the new transfer the right drivers were driving the right cars. We also prepared for our training for Zone Conference, and we worked on the mission Newsletter. We also had to count/total the supply requests from the zone leaders.
We were finally able to break away form the office at 4:15. As we drove to our 5:00 dinner appointment, we struggled to figure out what to do with a spare twenty minutes. An extra twenty minutes is dreaded by missionaries because it is not enough time to do anything, but it is too much time to do nothing. Remember that missionaries from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm should always be engaged in missionary work.
Elder Pitcher and I decided to just drive and hope for inspiration. As we drove, I made a wrong turn. I adjusted my course, but we still could not figure out what to do. It was then that I noticed a corner that stuck out to me. I felt like we should turn right because the corner was familiar. We were in the left turn lane. We turned around and parked. There was an apartment where my last companion and I had left a Book of Mormon on the doorstep. I guess he had been trying to deliver the book because she had requested it, but they had never gotten a hold of her. When I was transferred in, he decided to leave it on the doorstep and be done with it. So now, twelve weeks later Elder Pitcher and I felt like we should knock on her door. We didn’t even know her name.
We knocked, and she opened the door. She let us in, and we sat down on her couch. She mentioned receiving the book, and slowly her story tumbled out. She was a divorced mother with two kids at home (ages 15 and 5). She had been baptized in the 90’s, but had since fallen less active. She had been fired from her job for being honest. In short, she desperately needed divinity in her life. We taught the three of them briefly, and invited the 15 year old son to listen to the lessons. We left this apartment at 5:10, late for dinner, but with a new family of three to teach. Of course, if this family of three progressed, it would still only yield one baptism.
We had a nice dinner at the Meza’s. After dinner we taught them a lesson. We have been teaching the Meza’s lessons aimed at getting them excited about the scriptures. So far it has actually worked more than I thought it would.
At this point, we didn’t have any appointments scheduled for the rest of the day. We made a few phone calls to set up some appointments for the next day. Then we went to visit a member who had brought a friend to Church the past week. To make a long story short, we ended up having nothing planned from about 8:00 on. Elder Pitcher suggested that we street contact on Garvey. I thought about it, and felt like it would be better to try and make a contact on Las Tunas, a street further north.
When we parked the car and started walking down the side walk, there was not a soul in sight. We decided to walk it anyway. All of a sudden as we stopped at the second intersection, a jogger appeared out of nowhere. We started a conversation with her. She was new to the area, and was a less active member of the Church from Oregon. She had just moved in with her fiancé. We gave her information about the Church because she wanted to bring her fiancé to church with her. It was a perfect contact. Before we knew it, it was 9:00 and we needed to rush home. By 10:30 we were in bed after a good day’s work.
Friday, June 30, 2006
This time we were able to get a full hour’s personal study by 9:00 AM., but we had to skip companionship study. I hate doing that, but it’s one of the things that happens when you’re assigned to the office. We spent the morning boxing up supplies for the zones. Then we picked up 12 pizzas and set up the lunch for Zone Leader Counsel, a meeting where President trains the Zone Leaders. We were able to get out of the office at 2:30.
We went straight to Brother R.’s house. He is a less active member who had come to church twice since we started visiting him three or four weeks ago. We taught him a brief lesson and then headed over to Brother B’s house at 4:00. He is a less active member that we found knocking doors. His wife is Catholic. We taught them a powerful lesson on Eternal Marriage through sealings in the Temple. We committed them for Church again. (As a side note, they both came to churh for the first time that next Sunday).
5:00 brought dinner, this time at our own house. I made breakfast burritos. I’ve gotten very good at it. We had to rush out so that we could get to Maria’s at 6:15. She is the woman I baptized two transfers ago. We taught a very powerful lesson to her about revelation and about Patriarchal Blessings. She loved meeting Elder Pitcher and was impressed by him.
By now I am running out of time writing this. I think you get the idea. We are successful when we teach. Our goal then is to find people to teach and to set up frequent appointments with them.
I have learned a powerful lesson with Elder Pitcher last week though. It is to always be moving forward trusting that the inspiration will come. When ever we didn’t know what to do, we just started moving until the Lord directed us. He directed us every time. I am so grateful that I have learned how to recognize the Spirit’s inspiration and have followed it. I know that it is real. We are guided very specifically. I testify that missionaries are lead by God. I leave you that testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
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