Monday, May 28th,
2018:
On our Memorial
Day/p-day, we went to a Korean picnic for our preparation day activity. Because
Elder Flaminiano had limited belongings at our apartment and neither Elder
Vandehei nor I would be transferred, we had more p-day time and spent some time
at the picnic. It was my first contact with the Korean ward, and I
enjoyed it. I love the food of other cultures. We also played some
enjoyable volleyball, as all the participants were able to keep the ball in play
well. There were also some silly events, such as balloon-popping (balloons
around ankles, trying to pop others' balloons), a relay, and a large jump-rope
contest. It was nice to relax and have fun.
In the evening, the ward
mission leader joined us as we visited Dawnette and her sons, Daegon and
Hunter. They needed help getting their house ready to be sprayed, as they
found some weird bugs -- two within a few weeks. I suppose you can't be too
safe.
We've had some more
contact with Eddy and Jennifer as well as Jeremy, Elaine, Joshua, and
Kristie. We were able to work more with Eddy and Jennifer later this
week, but not the other family.
Tuesday, May 29th,
2018:
We said goodbye to
our trio this morning. Elder Flaminiano is training (which is funny, as
he's also on his last transfer). We dropped him off at the mission office with
his car. Elder Price gave us a ride home.
I have started My
Plan. My Plan is the program for missionaries to think about how to
transition to being a normal person; it starts with the missionary's last
transfer. The landing can be tougher than the takeoff. Each week
introduces a topic. I'm not going to write too much about this in my
journal, as My Plan going to be more for me at home. This week was about
recognizing who God has helped me become and finding out who he wants me to be
still.
Also today, we
transitioned the 2nd, 4th, and 6th wards of the Midvale East stake to Elders
Goold ("Gold," but with an "oo" sound like the spelling
suggests) and Mbambu (Make an "m" sound, then immediately say
"bamboo." But say "bomb-boo"). President
Hillier opened Elder Haight and Elder Hardt's area again, but with different
missionaries.
With the trade-off in
wards, we didn't have dinners for the week. We called the stake presidents
and other local leaders to make the best of it; in a way, it was good.
Scheduling in a regular week where we can prioritize meeting with ward or stake
leaders may be a good thing. We could also reschedule with anyone if
something came up, causing them or us to cancel.
We had a another lesson
with Hunter today. We realized that Hunter probably has a good grasp on
most of the doctrine he needs to know, so for now we focus on the various
commitments for baptism. One at a time. We have puzzle pieces from
a cardstock paper, each with simple commitments. Once he keeps one, he'll
get another. The lesson we had with him focused on prayer. We covered
every aspect an 11-year-old would need to know about prayer; even though he was
sleepy, he paid attention. I have a really good feeling about his
preparation for baptism. Daegon sat on the couch with Hunter, but with
headphones in. We're focusing on Hunter for now.
Dawnette gave me a
nice watch Hunter or Daegon won from a school contest. It's a men's
watch, which none of them need. It was a wonderful gift; I'll keep it for
a long time.
We’ve got things
moving for the Vietnamese family who moved into our neighborhood. They
are recent converts. They decided they like going to the Vietnamese group
in Salt Lake, as the wife doesn't speak enough English.
We had a meeting with
all the WMLs and the HCoMW [High Councilor over Missionary Work] in the Midvale
East stake. Only one mission leader showed up (from the ME 2nd
ward). He gave us a ride home; I asked, based on some things he told us
from his mission, to give a training in district meeting.
Wednesday, May 30th,
2018:
I slept in
today! (I need to prepare for when I’m off my mission.) When Elder
Vandehei got up, he went to the shower. I was cold and a little groggy and
burrowed back under the covers. I think I fell asleep again (I can't remember),
but then got up and started getting ready. I was more concerned about how
it took me a while to be concerned about it. I didn’t sweat about it earlier in
the day; there was a moment later in the day where I realized that maybe I
should be more concerned about it. Or maybe not, since it’s rarely happened
before.
We had a zone
leadership review today. We talked about a few different things in the
zone, with some of the more notable matters including raising the expectations
in the zone, using training opportunities well, and reporting
effectively. The other elders went to a lesson with Michael at 2:00, so
we waited and talked. I
talked to Elder Shaffer about how ideas of how to improve; while he could
relate to me, he wasn't sure what to say. With many different issues, I try to
examine principles behind the issue itself before coming up with an answer to
the problem. When it comes to trying to improve (which is often in gospel
leadership), it's complex. That's the best and simplest I can say it, I
think.
We did dome
contacting, then my gut started rolling and I didn't feel well. We stayed in
the apartment for dinner and for the evening, as our appointments for the
evening fell through. Eventually I threw up. Food poisoning, probably. I felt
better later. Meanwhile, I did some studies for My Plan and worked on Hunter's
puzzle. Elder Vandehei reached out to many people by phone.
Thursday, May 31st,
2018:
An unplanned service
opportunity -- helping some people move -- made our weekly planning short for
today. We planned for the most prominent investigators in our area and
worked on setting goals for both the week and the month.
The service
opportunity was good. The family we helped move didn't have any plans to
go to church for a while. As the wife had knee surgery and the husband
had a bad back, they were very grateful for our help.
We met an investigator
named Patricia today. She had a hard time recently, so she's trying to
set things in order. She described herself as spiritual. A common thing
we find with people who feel spiritual but are unaffiliated with any church, is
that they don't understand why they need a church, prophet, or ordinances to
direct them toward a higher power. Those are things that only the Spirit can
really help with. She said that, with how things have been going, she would
commit to the gospel for the rest of her life if she learned it was true.
One referral we contacted
tonight was from a WML. He sent us by but didn't want her to learn who
sent us. We knocked on her door; "who is it?" "The
missionaries!" "I'm not interested, thank you!"
"Oh, ok. Is this Kimberly's house?" "...my name is
Kim. How did you know I lived here?" Oh. I didn't
remember, so I thought the YSA elders met her first and told us to stop by (as
they've done that with many other people). She told us she had only been
there a week or so and hadn't talked to missionaries. Oh. I talked
to Elder Vandehei; we basically trailed off and backed away without offering an
explanation. It made me very much aware of the importance of being honest.
I never, ever want to go by someone's door like that again. Even if the
members want us to go by the door just to find out if they are
interested. If they don't want us to say they sent us, it's not a
referral. The gospel is not something to be ashamed of.
In the first few
weeks of last transfer, we found many people. The last few weeks, there has
been a drought. We’ve shifted some things in our area. One of those was
going to be dropping some people who haven't responded or kept appointments. But
in the past few days, several of those people (like Chantel, who we talked to
tonight) have been home or been willing to set appointments.
Friday, June 1st,
2018:
I pieced together
district meeting this morning, which took longer than I thought. I should
have done it before, but things worked out. Everyone arrived early to
spiritually prepare (prelude music and a good talk to read set the tone).
The WML I previously invited gave a wonderful training focused on exciting the
members, specifically the ward leaders, to help out in missionary work.
With the zone
leadership review helping me see how to be effective and creative, I tried some
new ideas in district meeting. Some worked (such as inviting guest
speakers, using personal journals with the only instructions being to use them
in whatever way helps you improve), but others didn't (such as trying to assign
people to give specific feedback from pipeline). So I learn.
Jeremy and Vanessa
were home. As they're still in their busy phase of work (and we learned
they both work, not just Jeremy, and each work 90 or so hours a week), we only
set up a lesson. Vanessa sat out with us on the curb for a while as
Chloe, their puppy, burned off energy.
Immediately
following, we helped a sister bring groceries in to someone's apartment.
He, a less-active convert, had his girlfriend with him. The sister said that
she was not as active as she should be. She started going back to church
in her YSA ward a few months ago. We referred the apartment to the YSA
sisters.
We met a man who,
despite living in Utah for a month, didn't know who missionaries were.
Just another evidence that people like that actually exist in Salt Lake City.
Saturday, June 2nd,
2018:
Mark cancelled our
lesson, as he told us he just woke up when we knocked on his door. With
the free time, we were able to visit Eddy and help him move a few things from
their former apartment downstairs
to the top floor apartment. He made chili, beans, and rice for us.
He was pretty open in talking to us about his feelings regarding religion; both
Elder Vandehi and I think he's more open to the gospel than he realizes.
We met with Arash and
Marzi today. They are Muslim and want to be baptized. President Hillier
joined us, as the church has a policy of assessing whether baptizing Muslims
would put them in danger for leaving their faith either under interpretations
of Islamic law, or family culture. In determining whether they could be
baptized or not, he had to assess their risk of future harm, as the Church has
sadly learned that members have been killed by their governments or families
after they return to their home countries. They aren't refugees [refugees can
be baptized because they are guaranteed to not be sent back]. They haven't first
joined another church [in which case joining the LDS church would not the cause
of any problems]. They haven't lived in another country before the US [so they
could be sent back directly into danger]. They hadn’t really practiced the
Muslim faith in their home country [but still there was a risk that the government
might kill them]. Pres. Hillier concluded that, unless they got green cards for
US residency (they currently are here on student visas, doing PhD work), there
was a risk that they would be killed if they got baptized then went back to
their home country. He said that they have to get permission from a
General Authority over the Middle East area of the church before they can be
baptized. So they can’t be baptized until either they get approval from a
General Authority, or get their green cards.
Elder Vandehei got a
flat tire after dinner, so we stayed mostly in one neighborhood. As the ME
1st WML asked us to come by his house and correlate with him. His daughter is
going on a mission next Wednesday, so he’s been busy.
Sunday, June 3rd,
2018:
We went to the ME 5th
ward council and sacrament meeting, the UP 2nd ward sacrament, and the UP 1st
ward sacrament. We met the two new WMLs in our area. The UP 4th WML was
released.
Eddie went to church,
but slipped out with only a few minutes left in sacrament meeting. We
were busy helping Daegon and Hunter behave and missed his departure. One minute
he was there, and the next . . .
We met a member who
is returning to activity in the church. She seemed distressed, but initially
declined our offer of a blessing. The bishop later spoke with her, then
asked us to join him in giving her a blessing. She asked for help to fix
her bike, her main form of transportation. We spent a good part of the
evening working with it, and now it's fixed.
We walked around with
one family I know pretty well. They are all very missionary minded.
It struck me of how missionary minded they are as we were walking around with
them to visit people in their neighborhood. They had no problem
introducing us to lots of people. We will work with them more in the
future. Too few members would be willing to do that. I realize that most
people think too highly of themselves, probably myself included, to take the
time to walk around their neighborhood and introduce the missionaries to their
neighbors.
 |
| May Transfer Board |
No comments:
Post a Comment