Hello all!
Unfortunately, I forgot my journal again, so this will probably be a short
email. The main thing that happened this week was [our introduction to] the Area Book Planner app.
Each area in a mission has an area book which contains records of everyone
taught over the years. That, along with our daily planner, is now on our iPad. It
has been hard learning how to use that app effectively this week, but we are
figuring it out one step at a time! We also have to input all of our records from
our area book into the app and that takes a lot of time.
Challenges of a new App.
Monday: P-Day. We had some lessons in the evening. At the YSA FHE, Elder
Anderson and I sword fought each other with noodles. He won, ha-ha.
Tuesday: A lot of service. We started with a member's Eagle Project in our
ward, then we were taking all vegetation out of a potential investigator's yard
(this is a project that is taking forever and is hard because there are no trees
in this person's yard.) We went to let people [students] practice taking blood, and we
helped prepare a deck to be painted. In the evening we went to game night where
I learned a new game called Chair Soccer. It is super fun! Then Elder Sorensen
(our zone leader) came with us for exchanges.
Guinea pig for phlebotomy students.
Missionaries at arm's length... ha-ha!
Wednesday: Exchanges with Elder Sorensen. We had district meeting, then the
senior couple in our district took us out to lunch at a great pizza place!
Nothing else really happened except for studies and visits. We visited a less
active member and it was really fun to teach her as a threesome!
Zone Leader, Elder Sorensen (McKell Poulton's brother) with Elder Morgan.
Fun note... Elder Sorensen finishes his mission on July 6, and will be returning home. McKell is a member of the church who lives in Herndon, VA, and her husband was one of Elder Morgan's church youth leaders in Virginia. She hoped they would meet before her brother went home. YEAH!
Thursday: More pulling up vegetation in the morning, then taught a lessons
to the people who got baptized last week. Other than that, it was just more
visiting people. We had one lesson that evening which also went well.
Friday: We had the baptism. I got to sing "Be Still, My Soul" at it. It was
a great baptism and the spirit was very strong. We also had weekly planning
which took up a majority of our day with this new app. Then at about 10:28, we
were about to go to bed, but then we got a call from the hospital and we were asked
to give a blessing. We had a late night that night and didn't get to bed until
11:30.
Saturday: Helped out with another Eagle project in the morning, then had a
lot of visits and a few less-active lessons the remainder of the day.
Sunday: LOTS of church meetings. Because of church meetings, we did some
finding in between church and dinner and visited a family. Otherwise, we had
studies and a lot of administrative type things to get done.
Spiritual thought:
God is going to teach us "line upon line, precept upon
precept" (2 Nephi 28:30); we will learn and grow slowly, so slow we may not
notice it. We have to keep pushing forward through that unnoticeable growth and
keep trying and experimenting on the things we are learning (Alma 32:27). As we
do that, we will know they are true, beneficial, and a blessing to us AFTER we
act on them (Ether 12:6).
That's all for this week! Transfers are next week, so you won't hear from
me again until Wednesday!
Love,
Here are the scriptures referenced above:
2 Nephi 28:30 (Book of Mormon)
For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, we have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.
Alma 32:27 (Book of Mormon)
But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
Ether 12:6 (Book of Mormon)
And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
LSD missionary vocabulary
Exchanges: When two missionary companionships trade partners for a day or for an evening. (Often, a zone leader and his companion will exchange with a trainer and the new missionary he is training. This gives a zone leader an opportunity to get to know the new elder and see how his training is going.)
