This last week started off as calm
as a late-autumn afternoon, our PDay was spent playing basketball in Jerusalen
with the members of the Zona San Cristobal.
In doing so I established
something.
I am rubbish at playing basketball.
I would just wander around the
court, waiting for the ball to get close to me and then I would just get yelled
at:
"Monson! Go and get on your
man!"
"Monson! Go and get the
ball!"
"What the heck are you
doing?!?!"
Needless to say, for me, playing
sports isn't the biggest "morale-booster" in the arsenal of
motivational techniques. The good thing was that it relaxed me pretty well, and
when we got back to Panorama, Elder Simoni and I were ready to go out and work
our hardest. The only downside was that we really had nothing to go on, all of
the appointments that we had made just fell through.
So...monday wasn't that great.
On tuesday morning there was a
leadership training meeting for all of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders in
San Cristobal, Mariscal and Nimajuyu. It was actually a really good meeting,
and I learned a lot of things about how to guide my district on to victory!
The next day I held my very first
district meeting. It was crazy. We talked about Captain Moroni and the title of
liberty, and everyone in the district made their own banner (in the shape of a
tie) which showed our personal motives for being a missionary and what things
we are going to do to be able to fulfill with our calling as missionaries. At
the end we made brownies, so that made things a whole lot better too!
After the meeting I went with Elder
Kundie, my ZL, on divisions in Peronia. We had made the goal to set up 4
baptismal dates with 4 different investigators that afternoon, so we went out
and started challenging everyone to baptism. One by one, people rejected, and
rejected us...
"I'm not convinced"
"I'm not sure"
"I'm not home!"
(In retrospect that third excuse
really made like...zero sense...)
At the end of the day we can say
that we definitely made an effort to set up a baptism date...but we just didn't
see any results. So, defeated and tired as garbage, we went back to the house
and made Macaroni and Cheese, (I bought it at the store, for two dollars a
box....everything imported is over-priced). It was a nice blast of nostalgia as
we sat and talked about things in Utah and things in the Mission, overall I
really enjoyed the divisions and learned a lot from Elder Kundie, he's a great
missionary.
The next day I was back working in
Panorama...and we had an excellent day. Hour by hour, we were able to see
miracles...the most prominent of which was when we went up to a neighborhood in
the mountains. It's one of the wealthier parts of my area and we had gone there
to dig up some old investigators. As we were walking, we heard a woman call out
to us, "Elders! I need your help!" It was a mother, helping her 24
year-old paralyzed son out of the car and into his wheelchair. We helped lift
him out and into his house, and when we did we invited them to listen to our
message. They agreed. We felt prompted to talk about the Plan of Salvation, and
upon explaining more on the subject, the son commented that his father had
recently passed away and since then his relationship with God had been damaged.
His name was Jose and he said that
he would be more than happy if we came back another day to talk to him.
That experience really strengthened
my testimony that the Lord prepares the way so that his chosen children can
come to know of the Gospel, even for our new friend!
The next day I went up to San
Cristobal again on divisions with Elder Linford. The area has only gotten
harder and harder since I left, and even though the missionaries there are
trying their very hardest they are seeing very few fruits of their labors.
But it was fun to be able to work
with my old comp again.
It was a great week as a whole, I
saw a lot of miracles and my testimony was strengthened. A lot of good things
are going on in my area...
So we'll see how things go from here!
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