Before I start, I don’t think I mentioned in my entry last
week about Tate’s baptism. I don’t know how I overlooked that. It’s kind of the
reason I’m doing missionary work. Sometimes there are lots of trees in this
forest.
Monday, January 22nd, 2018:
A
24 month mission has 18 transfers. Each transfer is a period of six weeks. Missionaries
commonly refer to how long they’ve been out by counting the number of transfers
they’ve been through. For me, this week starts transfer 14. On Saturday, I
leaned that I was changing areas on this transfer. Today I learned that I am
being transferred to Midvale, about 5 miles south of where I’ve been for the
past 4 transfers. My new companion will be Elder Hardt. Elder Cannan (from my
ward at home) and Elder Coker are zone leaders and Elders Haight and Beaman are
double district leaders. In my old area, Elder Shafer is going to train, and Elder
Heyward gets Elder Gudmundsen (good match, but Elder Shafer may have his hands
full because he’s similar to me and may have to learn how to best work with the
two elders).
I
spent most of today (p-day) packing. At one point, I felt overwhelmed because I
had so much stuff to sort through and knew I was going to have to learn a whole
new area and companion. I made a quick PB&J, then laid down to gather
myself. I was on the ground for about thirty minutes while Elders Heyward and
Shafer talked idly. After a bit of prayer, I got up and asked what they were
doing. They told me they were waiting for me to decide who we were going to go
see. I was gruff in saying let’s go. I felt a little annoyed that they didn’t take
the imitative and suggest that we do anything. While I was resting, I had sort
of hoped that my companions would make plans to go and visit someone, so I
would have to get up and go.
Later
on, while looking back on it, I realized that I wouldn’t have been ready to get
up and go. Perhaps more accurately, I realized that I was bothered at my own feeling
of being overwhelmed, and the time I needed to take to deal with it. This
realization seemed profound to me. I thought I was annoyed at my companions,
but now I realize that the source of my annoyance was myself. Not like “they
were at fault; no, wait, I’m at fault,” but something more profound. I guess
it’s greater understanding of myself? I don’t know why I feel this is so
significant.
 |
| The Canyon Rim missionaries |
In
any event, we went out and visited people, and I was able to say some goodbyes
to some of the people I’ve worked with in this area.
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018:
Here's my new area: All of the Union Park stake, and part of
the Midvale East stake. The Union Park stake has six wards, numbered 1-6.
We split the Midvale East stake with the district leaders; we cover the 1st and
5th wards in that stake while they cover the wards 2-4. I’m told that the
area is going along somewhat. We have a few investigators, but apparently
it’s been difficult making contact with them and setting appointments.
My
new companion is Elder Hardt (with a silent "d"). He has been out for
seven and a half months. His dad is in the armed forces, so he moved a
lot. He was home schooled. He's the 5th of 7 siblings. He’s
pretty quiet, and I have not yet gotten to know him. He could easily still be the "I'm a newer
missionary" feeling that I know I had early on. I didn't know how to
relate as well to people.
 |
| Garrett with his new companion, Elder Hardt |
Lately,
I've felt a lot more competent as a missionary. It's evident in how I'm
able to do more compared to earlier on in my mission. I don't know if
that's good pride. I'm still trying to figure out how God fits into the whole
picture of "good pride" and self-esteem/confidence.
We
planned contacting, but we only got to some of it as we met a few ward and
stake leaders during the day.
Elder
Hardt's old companion, Elder Neilson, took Elder Gudmundsen's place with Elder
Evans in my old double-sized area. We did a three-piece swap for
transfers.
Wednesday, January 24th, 2018:
We have lots of names of people to teach in the Union Park 2nd
ward (I'll refer to Union Park wards by just a placement, like 1st, 2nd) First,
there is a less active family returning to activity. They caught the attention
of their non-member neighbors, so now both families are all interested in
returning to/learning about the church. Second, a single mom who had missionaries
coming by, but then they stopped, and she wants to have us visit. Third, another
single mom who was raised with an LDS father and non-member mother. She was never
baptized, but now wants to come back to church.
I'm looking forward to this transfer. I feel that I've had a
lot of experience in contacting people and working through the ward leadership
to know how to best help people. It already has a very different feeling
than my last two transfers in my last area when I was with Elder Heyward.
Really, though, as I type this up I don't know what the best
way to think about how I should be going about the work. I don't want to
become arrogant about my own abilities, but I'm happy that I've grown to the
point where I'm not worried about myself. I think this is both because I'm more
skilled and because I’ve learned to worry less. I'm trying to figure out
how to give God the credit.
The bishop of the 2nd ward came across as a little unexcited
or unimpressed, but I think it's his personality. How he communicates things may
come across differently to me than to some other people. Maybe it’s because the
area has more work than other places I’ve been in.
It's been cold in the evenings but overall it’s been warm
for a winter in Utah. People keep talking about it. We've had some
snow, but not much.
Elder Hardt and I are working on being better at street
contacting. It’s something in which we could both improve. We haven't had
much experience.
My goal this transfer is to internalize my purpose.
President Hillier mentioned that it's the defining characteristic for good
missionaries. That's not to say I haven't been doing well in my mission
already, but I have a specific goal for the next six weeks.
We had a mini zone meeting. I really do think our
mission culture equates successful missionary service or a strong area to one
that reaches the Standard of Excellence for key indicators (people baptized,
people with a set baptismal date ["on-date"], investigators at
church, and new investigators found). I don't mean to criticize, as it
doesn't feel like a competition and we aren't looked down on. The mission
leaders care about us. But it does feel like if a missionary companionship
isn't able to bring up the numbers in their area, then they then aren't
proficient. Or, at the very least, they can't really take (good) pride in
the service they have done. They may still work very hard, though, and we
all recognize "A Successful Missionary" from PMG--a missionary's
success is measured by his or her commitment to invite people and work, not by
numbers. Nonetheless, the implicit emphasis on numbers makes it hard to
feel good if you can't seem to find someone to teach and baptize.
I want to internalize doing missionary work and becoming
more Christlike because I want to follow Jesus Christ instead of just “doing
missionary things”. The "How do I Fulfill my Purpose" resource
for planning discusses how planning can be done in such a way that we know
every goal or plan we make is God's will. This is an area I can work on. Right
now, I feel that some of my planning is not strongly in tune with God’s will. I
need to be listening to the spirit and making sure there isn't anything to change.
The hope is we'll be so in tune to the spirit that we will know what God wants
us to do and easily can recognize the guidance of the spirit. That same
resource also mentions that, by conducting a careful and prayerful planning
session, every plan we execute is an exercise of faith in Jesus Christ.
That is a vision I'm trying to obtain, on my mission, and after.
One other thing I got from the mini-zone meeting is how
missionaries are driven. For some, it's figuring out how their daily actions
can bring others joy through the gospel and connecting into that. For
others, it's about serving Jesus Christ.
********
Something a little fun: grammatical structures found in
Utah! Utahn: "Jim and I, we go to the market often." [Elsewhere:
Jim and I go to the market often.] Utahn: "He's never been able to
barely do it!" [Elsewhere : He hasn't been able to do it.] Utahn
(especially older Utahns): "She wanted to go, but I says let's
not." [Elsewhere: She wanted to go, but I said let's not.] Utahn: "MOUN'AINS!"
[Mountains.]
********
Thursday, January 25th, 2018:
[To be added!]
Friday, January 26th, 2018:
Although our morning planning could improve, we have been very
focused on our purpose.
At our weekly District meeting, the district leaders
emphasized securing appointments for potential investigators and investigators.
Focus on that! Have fellowshippers offer rides to people to go to
church. Help them support the investigator going to church. Work on
ways to know if investigators went to church. The training also was on
finding. We generated ideas for finding, came up with obstacles or fears
in finding, and started to make a finding plan by identifying which wards would
be good to go to and where apartment complexes are.
Saturday, January 27th, 2018:
Tristyn (from my old area) was baptized today! Yay!
Sunday, January 28th, 2018:
It was a busy Sunday. We got to all eight groups of
priests to ask them to sign up for visits with us. Elder Heyward had that really
good idea in my old area, so we’re starting it here as well. We managed
calls, rides, and time very well. I’m very happy with how this church
block went. One ward was annoyed we didn’t give them earlier than Thursday for
notice on dinners; they’ve proceeded to line up appointments with less active
and part-member families! That ward is very missionary minded, and it’s
great!
We found three new investigators at the end of the night:
Tyson (a man getting out of detox that Elder Hardt met before I got there), Alia,
and her mother, Mandy. We had a more casual lesson with Mandy and Alia
because, as the ward mission leader warned us, Mandy doesn’t like being talked
to instead of having a conversation. They are a lot like Staci and
Tristyn that way.
I’ve been very focused. The biggest change is not so much
that I’m better at things as much as I’m not worried about so many things. I
feel very good about the effort I was able to put in this week with Elder
Hardt, especially because it was a steady, consistent effort. There is a lot of
potential in this area. Many potential investigators are going to church;
we have many on our radar.
I figured out what I want to study in the Book of Mormon:
joy, how obedience brings happiness, God’s influence in my life–how the gospel
will help me overcome any obstacle.
 |
| The SLC South mission office is in my area. But don't worry, I'm still in the SLC East mission. |
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