So this week was quite slow. Not much went on with me because I was at a leadership training from tuesday until friday. Apparently this training is training that missionaries in the MTC will start getting. So to make sure that we all have it, they give it to us now and then hopefully all of us will be on the same page.
The first day I was to drive, since the mission office is in Scottsdale, that's where we go. We are supposed to be in our seats at 8:30 and because of traffic, we needed to leave around 7:45. But because of mis-to no communication, people didn't show up until 8. So I was not happy and everyone was highly entertained with my unhappiness. We finally go to the meeting and it was great. Over the next few days, we talked about how we receive revelation through scripture study, prayer and church attendance, which is the 3 biggest commitments that we have investigators do. It was a lot of fun because we focused a lot on having good discussion.
It started off with Pres Ellsworth asking what people thought of the idea that we baptize every month. A lot of people had opinions all over the board with that. Some were all for it and others felt that it was unattainable. I stated that I felt that if I didn't get that baptism then I was a failure. Pres Ellsworth stressed the fact that he didn't want anyone to feel that they were a failure and then went on to tell a story of how a general authority and his wife had faith that they would have a natural birth, and continued to have faith that it would be natural until the needle pierced her skin to induce her. Somehow that related to the feeling like a failure if you didn't baptize every month. I get the faith part.
We also discussed how important it was that we taught people not lessons and how we should, from the get go, state our purpose with the people we teach. That is something that I would like to work on because I know that a lot of the relationships that we have with the people that we teach are more buddy-buddy instead of friend and teacher. So it's something that I would like to go over.
Of course, these trainings entail practices and that was good. I got to work on my Spanish and I got a lot of compliments. :) Sister McKinney, Elder Dursteller (ZL) and some other elder and I were picked to go up front to do a practice to extend the invitation to come to church. We pretended we were Nancy and Manuel. So that was enlightening.
We also played some pretty fun games that involved tic tac toe and scripture chases, baseball and oatmeal cans and other fun games. After lunch we all wanted to sleep so it was a good thing they decided to wake us up. :) So overall it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed spending the time working on helping myself and learning more to apply it. They had taught it to the senior companions and apparently they were supposed to share it with us, the junior comps, but I hadn't learned anything from the senior comp. So i'm glad I got the training.
As a result of the training and VC, we had very little time in our area. Our numbers reflected that... but that's okay, because the lessons that we did have were really good. We finally met with Nancy and Manuel and it was such a great lesson! But was interesting was that we had already been through most of the people we had planned for the day (seriously, if no one answers, you can go thru your day in an hour) and so I wanted to try them one last time. So we stopped by, no answer, and as we turned around to walk away, someone walked out of their house so we were able to get in! Fernando (11 yr old) wanted an english BoM because he had started reading in spanish and wanted to understand it better. We talked of how the BoM would help their family, but when we teach next time, I want to start from the beginning because It's been such a hit and miss with them. They did come to church on Sunday but wanted to leave for sacrament meeting. So Sis Mckenna and I had to work really hard to get them to stay. But they DID! So that was great.
We have also had a great lesson with Miguel and Denise, but they went to Mexico so they are hopefully coming back today.
So, as for the branch. Apparently it was 2 branches that quite recently came together. And that is what is causing a lot of the conflict between some of the members. That would have been nice to know. So we had stake correlation and the other sisters and I discussed some of the concerns we had with the stake pres and he said that he would talk to Pres Smith. One of the main concerns we had is that we were supposed to have an FHE for the branch today but because someone (will remain un named) didn't want to plan it for this week but for next week, rescheduled it and didn't let us, the hnas, know. So we invited our investigators and LA to it and didn't know it was canceled. So we have been scrambling to get something together.
So during our meeting with the ward missionaries, a concern was brought up about having baptisms on sunday for the spanish branch, because it is more difficult to do them on the weekends after a whole lot of i'm not exactly sure, we finally had the meeting we wanted with Pres Smith and Hno Pimienta. (SIDE NOTE: we have been trying to have this meeting with them for over a month and they just wont. We were going to sneak it in by having a dinner at pres smith's home but he was going to be out of town (guess not) so it didn't happen. Pres ellsworth has asked for us to have this meeting with our bishop and ward mission leader.) Anyway, we talked with pres smith about how we need to be more organized and coordinated in our efforts, the goals and plans we have for the branch and activities and so on. It was so great to have that communication there. Most of the time we all go our own way because the others don't to listen to us. Pres Smith described Hno Pimienta as a shot gun that goes all different directions at one but his energy just needs to focus. Yep. That's our Pepper (SIDE NOTE: pimienta is pepper in spanish)
Also, as a result of the Leadership training, I haven't been in the VC as much as I would like, but yesterday, I Top Boxed a cute family that came down here for spring break. They came in and saw the Walter Rane pictures of the Book of Mormon and Loved it, so we talked about how all the stories are in the book of mormon. So they wanted one (and thereby accepted missionaries) and got a BoM in tagolog because they are from the Philippians. They are so cute! I'm excited. Not only that, but I looked on the program we have to keep track of the people that we Top Box (TB) and Confirmed Referrals (CMR) that one person has been baptized and about 4-5 are being taught. Granted 95% of the people I TB or CMR are dropped, but I love seeing that someone got baptized.
So that's my week. Not incredibly insane or busy but enough that I learned new things. I love learning new things. :)
I love you all and hope you have a great day!
Love,
emily
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