This week has been one of the most eventful weeks this transfer, and that is saying A LOT. The most exciting part about this week was most definitely the visit that we had from a general authority on Wednesday. Elder Evans from the Seventy came and had a mission conference with us. I can't remember if I told you last week that that was going to happen this week, so I'm going to tell you everything about it anyways. From 9-12 we had the mission conference with all city missionaries, so basically excluding 7 companionships in the mission. In this mission conference he spoke to us all about ways to find new investigators. The way he presented it was really good too. He made it seem very exciting. He said there is one way to find that President Monson says will work ANYWHERE in the world. And it's been proven. That one way to find is to ask for referrals from absolutely everyone. It's something that we should be doing anyways, but he just helped us see just how effective it can be. Investigators EXPECT you to ask them who they know that you can teach. We haven't quite tested that theory yet, but I believe it's true. If a general authority says it will work, then it will work. He was very inspired to speak about finding too. He spoke for nearly an hour and a half on just developing the faith to find. We've found that in our zone alone, it is very low right now. Elder Hodgkiss and I this week found 4 new investigators, and the other 7 companionships in the zone collectively had 4 new investigators. So hopefully they'll all be inspired for the coming week to get out there and find those referrals.
So after the mission conference we had a mission lunch prepared by the local relief society (gotta love that relief society), and went back in for a leadership training meeting with Elder Evans. Really that meeting was more of just a question and answer session, but the bulk of the time was spent on one question that I think everybody wanted to have answered. And that is "How do we keep the training that we've received, (not just in this meeting, but at any meeting), how do we not let it fade away but keep the things that we've learned and continually apply them. He likened it to a game of Whack-a-mole. When you hit one problem down, another pops up. And you get a lot of situations in life that are like that. The one bad thing about the whole day was that I was feeling quite sick. I would have loved to be sleeping, but I couldn't miss a general authority. My notes were a bit sloppy, but I tried to take as good of notes as I could. I felt sick for about 3 days this week, but continued to work through all of them. We're just so busy in our area, there's not time to rest. The most rest I got was on the first day of being sick, I came home at like 8 and went to sleep. It ended up being OK in the end. I'm sure that if I had felt any worse than what I did thought I would've gotten more rest. It's actually be getting cold at nights now and even raining a bit, which is probably how I got sick, working in the rain. It got down to 4 degrees Celsius the other night, or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, BURRR. But now that I got it out of my system, I should be all goods.
The stop smoking program with Geoff (not Jeff) went amazingly well this week. We committed him to every single step and he was keen as to do them all. We visited him yesterday before church and he says that the cravings had completely gone away. He even said that he was beginning to like the taste of that unsweetened grapefruit juice. We were so excited to find out that he's stuck with it this week. Today at 4 we're doing end of the program celebration. Hopefully he keeps of the good habits after the program. He says that he feels the prayers were the biggest help to him. He was really thankful for the program and he even said he was considering coming to church yesterday. He didn't come, but hopefully he'll be able to come next week!
Last week when we were leaving the library we contacted this girl who was about our age and she looked really upset. The contact went really well and she agreed to have us over for a teaching appointment. Her name is Alicia. When we got to her house on Sunday, a 6'8" African guy answered the door so we thought she might have given us a fake address. Turns out that the African guy was her partner. So that was cool. We felt kind of bad for her because he told us all he does with his free time is drink. The lesson we had with her was excellent though. We basically taught her the basics. That God loves her, that He is there, and that He has a plan for her. We didn't get into the plan, but we just wanted to get her interested first. Chris Terepai was at the lesson with us as well. Another testimony builder that having a member come with you to the first lesson isn't all that bad at all. She seemed really interested in wanting to be able to find a religion for her and her son. I've never actually contacted people around the library, but now we're way excited about Alicia, it will probably become a regular thing.
Well that's about it for this week. We have a lesson with Geoff again in 3 1/2 hours, so p-day is running short again. I love you all. Keep up all the amazing work that you do. The best way to stay healthy according to the 89 year old in our ward: SERVE OTHERS. (That has no relation to my story about getting sick by the way)
Much love,
elder Tanner
List of things to do on the Sabbath
- spend time with family
- family history
- have a feed
- read the scriptures
- visit the sick
- do your home/visiting teaching
- watch church videos/Mormon messages
- go for a walk
- WRITE TO A MISSIONARY!!!!!!
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