Monday, May 15th, 2017:
Elder Gudmundsen got up late, but my studies went
well. We planned.
Shopping took two hours, mainly because we got there at
eight but the photo center--which one of the other elders wanted to use--opens
at 9:00. We then went to emailing, where I was done at the two-hour
mark. I only had to type my journal, which made it easier.
I packed for my transfer a long time. I was slow; it
took me until 4:00 or so to pack. We headed over to the other elders'
place and just hung out with them.
Elder Gudmundsen got news of his new companion early. It’s
Elder Austin who was Elder Gudmundsen’s trainer. Elder Austin was just released
as a zone leader and this will be his last transfer before going home. Elder
Austin showed up for zone leader conferences this morning and was told he was
being transferred, so he came over early. Elder Gudmundsen was really excited,
as Elder Austin was his favorite companion. Elder Austin also seemed
really happy. Elder Gudmundsen was a different person with Elder Austin.
They were back into their old companionship right off the bat.
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| Elders Austin and Gudmundsen |
This evening the call came telling me where I’m going to be
and who I'm going to be with. I’ll be with Elder Clayton in the Winder West stake,
in the Murray Zone. I don't know Elder Clayton too well, but Elder
Gudmundsen told me he's a good match for me. It's my first walking/biking
area, so it will be a new adventure.
Tuesday, May 16th, 2017:
Elder Gudmundsen and Elder Austin are basically twins.
Elder Austin seems more driven, though.
After morning studies, we loaded my luggage and left at
10:45 am. Along the way, we picked up Elder Evans and dropped him off at
the mission office. Then they drove me to my new area. The Winder West stake is
in Murray between 3900 South and 4500 South, and between 900 East and 1300 East.
There are 8 wards and 4 branches at senior care centers in the stake.
Even right off the bat, Elder Clayton seems like a good
match for me. We both strive to be exactly obedient, his favorite subject
is physics, and he came out right after high school. He's the oldest of
five from Texas, has been out a transfer (six weeks) less than me, and is the
district leader. Our district is composed of two sister companionships
and the zone leaders.
We started off our time together with companionship study
and later planned for some activities for that day, like visiting a group of
senior members to talk about missionary work's many forms. We did a lot
of walking, which makes sense but feels weird after only being in car areas. Our
area is only a square mile in size, one mile long by a half mile wide.
We had a lesson with James, an investigator who tries to
puzzle our religion from a scientific angle. I think I got over excited
by the similarities I saw between him and myself before I gained a testimony;
he is the first person like that who didn't reject what we said out of hand, so
I might have got a little carried away.
There was a mini zone meeting today, so I got to meet the
whole zone. There wasn't any training, so I don't have too much to say
about it, but there was a similar atmosphere between here and my old
areas. The fact that walking was more common (and all the other
unfamiliar features to this setting) doesn’t change the basics of being a
missionary.
I don't think I put forward my best impression to Elder
Clayton. He told me that he talked too much about video games with his
previous companion, but that only prompted me to start talking about them.
Oops. I didn't seek for the Spirit at James’ lesson. Finally, I didn't
get to bed until 10:54. I'm hoping, in my time with Elder Clayton, to
re-gain the good things I had at the beginning of my mission while keeping the
good things I've gained on the field. Elder Clayton reminds me of myself
from earlier on in my mission; this transfer could be one of my best ones yet.
Wednesday, May 17th, 2017:
Today was my first full day in the Winder West area. The
weather was very odd today; it snowed in the early morning and late
afternoon. It's mid May! The cold lingered until Saturday, but the
snow melted almost right away.
We went tracting--my first real time at it--and while
nothing miraculous happened, I found I was more capable at it than I
thought. I even did a contact in Spanish. The area is much more
diverse than either of my last two areas were.
As a general note, I'm still getting settled in so my
journals are less detained right now.
We went shopping to get some much-needed groceries. I
can actually make things to eat now. While shopping, Elder Clayton stuck
his iPad into the back of his pants while a lady had stopped behind him.
She was staring and asked what on earth he just stuck in his pants. It was
pretty awkward for him but funny for me. I couldn't tell what he was
doing; even though I saw the lady behind, him I didn't put two and two together
and warn him.
We visited an almost-no-longer less-active member. He
impersonates Elvis. Anyway, long story short, don't work at Walmart.
We then did some visits with our ward mission leader over
the 12th ward. Already, I'm finding that many of the ward mission leaders
here are more proactive in the work. I'm also in a good groove with Elder
Clayton, or at least I can tell we will be good at working together.
Thursday, May 18th, 2017:
Weekly planning took almost the whole day. I dug into
our area and found that many people in our teaching pool should be passed off
to the YSA missionaries.
I really want to gain a stronger testimony of the Atonement
and the Book of Mormon. Not that mine is weak, but a stronger testimony
would really motivate me to action, inspire members, and help investigators
feel the Holy Ghost more. I was so amped up today about it; it was like I
could see who I could potentially be and wanted to reach that so badly.
It felt like a burning fire (passion/desire) and a wave of water (power/force).
Not to be poetic, but that's how I could describe it to myself. I hope I could
have even a fraction of that with me at all times.
I have recognized I cannot inspire members in any way close
to what I want if I only have a vision of such a thing. I need to be a
stronger missionary--wanting to be one is good, but not enough--to accomplish
this goal. I believe it will come through a stronger testimony and a
greater conversion. There's really no way to describe how I yearned to be
better. Words fall short.
In my journals, I'm trying to write less in what I did in
the day and focus more on the spiritual. We had a lesson with a man
returning to activity, we finished our companionship inventory at 10:00 (but
still, we finished planning today!), and I figured out how to use a rice cooker
I found in the apartment.
Friday, May 19th, 2017:
Elder Clayton had to do a lot of preparation for district
meeting this morning. I can't imagine having to do so much extra work
(but I'd be willing to do it if I had to).
I don't know too many people in the zone yet.
Our district meeting was on commitments, particularly on
following up. It's closely related to our VGP for the month. Our
VGP also includes daily contact with each investigator, so it's a powerful
principle to help each person progress daily. I want to incorporate it
into my awareness of "Why are you here?", which is basically how I
use the missionary purpose to motivate me. They are both closely related
to what I talked about yesterday as well as agency and accountability from last
week.
We visited David, but he didn't understand what we meant
when we asked about YSA. We'll probably still pass him off.
We went tracting later and talked to a Korean man. He
was elderly and hard to understand, but I think he was a preacher. He
seemed to care a lot about what he was telling us of religion, yet the only
things I understood were about receiving the Spirit into one's heart, which we
believe in.
Our dinner appointment cancelled, so we had a basic dinner
and did lots of dishes. We then tried to contract a referral. I got
to meet the other two investigators, Randy and Katirina, while we were in the
area.
Katirina is going through a tough time right now. She
got laid off her job, but she's hoping to land an even better one. As it
stands now, her schedule is unpredictable.
Randy and his wife are gamers. They're moving soon and
really busy, so we didn't get to stay too long. He's probably going to
get baptized after they move, depending on how ready he is. While we were
there, I found out Splatoon 2 launches this Christmas, and I don't want to
think about. After, we tried to go by a few more people but not many
opened the door.
My feet hurt a little. It wasn't too bad. We
have to walk several miles daily, so I've anticipated some adjustment pains.
We talked for too long about games, so we got to sleep
late. I think we'll get over it soon, though. It's good we get
along.
Saturday, May 20th, 2017:
I woke up at 6:30, but I had a half-asleep dream that I
talked with Elder Clayton about how our heads hurt, so we went back to
sleep. I fully woke up at 7:00; my head didn't actually hurt.
On that note, we were both tired, which seeped into our
studies. Even still, I had a cool realization that we know who had control
of the Book of Mormon's components all the way to Joseph Smith (and have a good
assurance that nothing substantial was changed after that). The Bible
does not have that same condition.
After we synced in our morning routine, we helped the Fourth
Ward's relief society set up for a baby shower.
As we walked back, we talked to a person who just had GRS
(gender reassignment surgery). I feel like any time we encounter people
like that, tension just floods in: some people are really sensitive about it
and we know that, so it can go south very quickly. After our
conversation, Elder Clayton and I agreed that we needed to work on unity but
also agreed that it would come easily enough with time.
Lunch took an hour; I did a lot of cooking and cleaning but
not so much eating food (I had a full meal but ate quickly). I was
tired. I still am; Elder Clayton seconded me when I told him that I feel
rushed all the time as a missionary. The only real solution, we
determined, is to prioritize and go at it.
We briefly talked about our plans for the rest of the day
and got a ride to the zone blitz, at which we were assigned to the zone
leaders' area. We talked to a good number of people for various amounts of
time, so while nothing miraculous happened, it was a good bit of work.
We had a very long lesson with David. He has a lot of
questions because his interpretation of the Bible conflicts with the Book of
Mormon. He still wants to learn, though, so we'll work with him. My
sense of time has been so skewed on a mission; the lesson was a little over two
hours but it felt like an hour. I'm fine with it as long as I can still
get as much done, but I didn't want my life to start flying by yet. I'm
sure it goes unimaginably faster later on and I'll read this a few decades down
the road and laugh, but still.
Because of the long lesson, we had a very compact
dinner. I heated up leftover nacho chicken; I don't know what Elder
Clayton had.
The meeting we dashed to took us to the end of the
night. It was with the same Relief Society president we had helped with
the baby shower, along with the corresponding ward mission leader.
I feel like I'm with a great companion and area, but
something is still a little bit off. There's something I could be doing
differently to be enjoying my mission more. Part of it is probably not
having a lot of time because of transfers and being too hard on myself.
We are going much faster in contrast to the last few transfers I've had.
Sunday, May 22nd, 2017:
I had a dream about going swimming because I forgot it was
against the rules. I distinctly remember that I had forgotten the rule because
I served with Elder Gudmundsen. I don't think it was that dramatic in
real life, but I'm glad to be with Elder Clayton now.
We left for a ward council at 7:20. Thinking about it,
we should probably plan for Sundays on Saturday nights. Still, we made it
to the 11th ward council, the 13th ward council, and the 4th ward
sacrament. Sundays help in getting to know more of an area.
We ate a quick lunch. Because so many members were
around, we got rides for at least part of each walk.
The thirteenth ward's sacrament meeting was really
good. Both speakers focused on how the scriptures or conference talks
were important to them. One of them sang during his talk, so there were
two musical numbers.
Gospel Principles was a good review on baptism, while young
men's was taken up with ordinations. There was a lone deacon; he was made
president of the quorum within the same weeks as when he was ordained a deacon.
We changed and visited a few people before we went to
dinner. The family was very nice and gave us leftovers, which we offered
to one man we visited who just had knee surgery. He was okay,
though. After trying a few other people, we visited a family and talked
about developing a family mission plan. It wasn't very easy to hold their
little kids' attentions, though.
Down the road was their bishop, who told us that his
ward--12th--was focused on strengthening the members because some people were
slipping away. We'll try as we can to get people to do more than just go
to church, but that's hard to do.
When we walked back, Elder Clayton felt impressed to stop by
a family. A woman was there and told us how she had gone through a lot. Her
first husband hurt her and turned their kids against her after the divorce, and
her second husband died two years ago. She had missed an appointment with
her bishop because she thought it was after church, not before, and was about
to call the stake president when we knocked. Elder Clayton gave her a powerful
blessing of comfort. Things like this is something we can only hope to
participate in; it will happen every so often on a mission and all we can do is
be grateful for our role and pray for things to be all right.
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| Emailing on May 22, 2017 |
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