It was a pretty good last week here in Sabana. A little dissapointing because the parents of some kids of a family that we were teaching didn't give them permission to get baptized. We know that they will really soon. I am excited to hear about what happens here in the coming weeks.
Okay I have a story that I totally forgot to tell last week but it is hilarious!! When we have zone conference we have to wake up really early and leave because we are so far away from everything. So we get up and I got ready and was ready like 30 minutes early so I started working on a tie that I wanted to wear that day, I had to fix it up a little. But long story short I didn't get it finished by the time the guagua came, but it was almost done so I just took it with me and finished it in the guagua (we rented a small private one to get there all together.) We had been out 30 minutes so we were far away from our house. I am sitting there looking out the window just thinking about life and tapping my feet up and down and I realize that something didn't feel right down there. When I realized what happened I felt my blood turn to ice, I turned to the Elder sitting next to me and said "I made a big mistake." I fORGOT TO PUT ON MY SHOES BEfORE I LEfT!! I still don't really understand how it happened or how none of the other 5 Elders saw that I left the house in my flip flops but it happened and we were super far away and couldn't go back. It was one of those nightmare moments where you are sitting there right before a big presentation and realize that you are in your underwear or something but it was happening in real life! I didn't know what to do! I was freaking out because I knew that at the start of every zone conference all of the zone leaders get up and give a report of how the work went in the last month, so I was in trouble. Luckily my old companion Elder Prosman came in clutch and brought some shoes for me but it was super funny. I'll attach a picture.
My new companion is going to be an American! That means 3 out of the last 4 companions will have been white, that is super weird! He just got out of his training. I don't know him but I hear he is a good worker so that makes me happy!
Next question on the list! What leadership trait have you observed has the most impact in influencing others for good?
This is kind of a hard question to answer because there are many, basically all of the attributes of Christ. I might cheat and I am going to pick three, charity, obedience and service (not really an attribute but still.) I am pretty sure this has been the answer for some other questions but they are so key. Charity is just so important, realy Christ like love. If people don't feel that you genuinly have charity for them it just isn't the same. If you have to correct someone and they know that you love them and you always show love for them they will actually listen to you, if not I have seen mainly that they just get annoyed and nothing really changes. Obedience would be most for an example. If a unit of any sort is going to be obedient it has to start from the top. If the mission president isn't obedient all of the people that follow him wont be. If people see that someone, especially a leader, is obedient to everything they need to be obedient to and is happy about it they will normally try to be more obedient also. That definitely helpd me be more obedient when I see that my leaders are trying to do everything they can to be obedient. And obviously service. Leadership really is nothing but more opportunities to serve more people. I guess you could relate this back to charity because if you love those you serve you will want to serve them more but a leader who doesn't serve is just a boss ordering people around and no one really likes that.
How have you dealt with the change of mission presidents?
Wow I could talk for so long about this one. I think I have dealt farely well with it. But I know that is not the case for everyone. from my very first interview I got a pretty strong spiritual confirmation that he was the perfect and right man called of God to come and lead the mission. But because he was new he obviously had to have some time to figure things out. President Corbitt was an incredible mission president and I don't think I will ever meet anybody like him. It would not surprise me at all if he was called to be a general authority very soon. By the end of his time here he had raised the mission to a level it has never been before. When he left a lot of things changed. There are still a lot of missionaries that are very loyal to President Corbitt because of a few of the changes and haven't really accepted President Smith and the new man to lead the mission and that makes me really sad. I know once all of the missionaries are on board and try as hard as they can to follow the councils of their leaders this mission will be raised to the next level and in a very short time there will be more wards and stakes and I wouldn't be surprised if the mission, by the time President Smith goes home, is close to being divided into two missions. But the time when that will start I don't think will be until the group two groups after me goes home because then all of those people who don't want to accept the change wont be here.
I love this mission and I am super excited to get to work in El Cristal! I love y'all a ton!
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| A picture of my house here in Sabana Grande |
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| My shower in my house |
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| My favorite p-day activity, sleeping. The problem is it was really light in the room, lucky this little 50 cent eye cover came in clutch, but the other Elders took pictures of me. Also it was like 75 degrees this morning up here and I was freezing, pajama pants, jacket, two blankets. |
