Honesty

December 2, 2015

         Today was a fun p-day.  We had a zone activity at the President’s house.  While there, we all played volleyball and at ate a ton of pizza.  Even though we were all sick from eating way too much greasy food, we all had a blast playing together as a zone.  I really like this zone that I am currently serving in because it is united and we are all good friends.  The only problem with the activity was that the president’s house is super far away and on the way back, the bus took forever to come and pick us up.  We go home later than planned, but it ended up working out okay.

Miracle #480: Every single missionary in the zone made it to the activity today.

         The funny part of the day was how many things went wrong.  #1. An ATM machine ate my one and only personal debit card.  #2 P-day ended late due to public transportation issues. #3 My tire got driven through by a nail. #4 my pants ripped right after I fixed my tire.  #5 We got back to the house late after a frantic 8 mile ride in under 30 minutes.  My legs were burning so badly because it is really hard to keep up with on my mountain bike with my companions speedy road bike.

December 3, 2015

         Well today was pretty good.  This morning we had companionship inventory. We came out with everything that is bothering us and it was good for us.  Today was supposedly completely booked, but practically every real plan fell through.  We ended up contacting most of the day.  My companion basically does the exact same contact every time which makes the job very dull. I have learned to change things up a bit and have some fun when contacting.

Miracle #481: When we had an appointment fall through, we went to go contact.  We picked a spot and knocked on the first door and a very nice woman answered and talked with us for quite a while.

         The funny part of the day was when my comp tried to invite an investigator to baptism, but he was so unclear in his invitation that she had no idea what he was asking her.  We got a few good chuckles about that afterwards.  Also when we did our division reports, I was really blunt about my observations and when the zone leaders called me tonight to talk to me about it, they said, “Well that was one of the most honest reports we have ever gotten.”  There really isn’t much more to report for the day.  I’a doing a little bit better in my personal goals and I hope that I can keep improving.  Tomorrow we have 4 hours of contacts planned so that will be fun.

December 4, 2015

         So today was exhausting.  We started out doing a service where we scraped off a super think layer of paint from bricks with wood chisels.  I worked hard and got super sweaty and sore.  In the afternoon, we did many hours of contacts. The whole time I was running on fumes and could barely think straight.  It was a dang good thing that the last 3 hours of the day were planned lessons.

Miracle #482: Not a single one of our lessons fell through today,  and, even though I was wiped out, I didn’t fall asleep in any of them.

         One of our companionships called us today because they are really struggling to get along.  They wanted to do an emergency division tomorrow and we suggested that they prayerfully try to solve the issue with a companionship inventory.  If that doesn’t help them, then we will do the division with them tomorrow. 

         The funny part of the day was trying to eat healthy and then being so hungry at the end of the day that I ate a giant plate of cookies a member gave us.

December 5, 2015

         Today was pretty good.  We had legit lesson in the morning with the Quinteros family, and for the first time, we actually planned the lesson well.  I’ve tied to plan lessons with Elder M., but it doesn’t work well.  Anyway, the lesson went super well and the spirit was there in a way that it is normally not.  Planning well brings the spirit!  After that we ate lunch and started fixing bike tubes.  Recently we have had a lot of fiascos with popping our tires.  I ended up putting on 5 patches.  After that, we did a few visits which turned out to be really good, and then we did a division for the afternoon to help a companionship in our district make it to a baptism and a super important lesson.

Miracle #483: In the lesson we set a baptismal date for the elders, for 3 days before they finish their mission.

         The funny par of the day was meeting up after the baptism. One of the elders is super disobedient and takes advantage of people if they let him, so directly against the rules, he stayed late after the baptism to say goodbye to the people of his old ward.  (The baptism was held in his old sector.)  My companions was with him, and he knew the rules, but just kindof went along with him and didn’t really worry about getting home on time.  He also didn’t even make and effort to speed up the process or take an faster bus, or call to let us know what was going on.  As I waited and waited in the other elder’s house, I got really hungry so I ate the elder’s food.  When he got home he was really ticked off at me.  I said, “Well I waited until after curfew, but I was hungry and normally I would be home to eat my own food, but I was here, waiting for you instead.”  We ended up getting home a full hour after curfew.  I just want to put that day behind me.

December 6, 2015

         Today was great! We had lots of investigators at church so we were happy with that part of the day.  Once again, I struggled to stay awake.  I can’t figure out how to stay awake.  After church, we went home and had a companionship heart to heart that helped us get along for the rest of the day.  We aren’t the best of friends, but we get along well enough.  We had a super lame choir practice this afternoon, but then we visited a bunch of people afterwards.

Miracle # 484: We had practically all of the kinds of lessons that a missionary can teach today. 1. New investigator 1. Future investigator, 3. Contact lessons, 1. progressing family lesson, 1. division.

         The fun part of the day was getting firm with an elder in our district about some issues for this upcoming p-day.  He wanted to do divisions so that he could say goodbye to some people.  He planned it all out without telling his companion so his companion got upset and refused to go with him.  I called the elder and told him that we could do divisions with him if he would be obedient to the mission rules for the next week. 

December 7, 2015

         Today was pretty dang fun.  This morning we had a service project with the other District leaders in our zone where we basically just moved dirt for a few hours.  After the service, we did divisions. It was way fun because even though we contacted pretty much all day long, we talked a ton.  I haven’t talked to someone like that for a long time so it was a great change of pace for me.  We even had a few pretty good lessons.

Miracle #485: I didn’t have any problems in lunch today with a super grumpy lady in our ward who usually is hard to get along with.

         The funny part of the day was in said lunch.  We though the husband was in the house but in another room, but in the end of the lunch she told us that he wasn’t home.  Yikes, this meant that we unintentionally broke the rules.  I looked at Elder J. and just said really quickly, “Well thanks for the lunch hermana, but we have to be on our way.”  The other funny part of the day was having absolutely no success whatsoever while contacting.  We tried contacting the house that appeared to have people in them, in other words the windows or doors were open.  Either everyone chose to ignore us (very probable) or were leaving themselves open to being robbed. The people who did answer us didn’t want a thing to do with us, so we just wished them a Merry Christmas and went on our way. 

December 8, 2015

         Today was rough.  I just cannot talk to my companion.  We did have 2 really great lessons today that started the day off well.  In the first lesson I felt super invigorated and just testified hardcore.  The lady that we are teaching is really great, but is living with her boyfriend  so that poses a bit of a problem.  The spirit was super strong and it was weird for me to feel the authority of the message that I was delivering. (Weird because it doesn’t happen all that often for me.) Anyway after that really good lesson, we contacted forever and didn’t find anyone.

Miracle #486: We were biking past a house and I was prompted to contact it.  The people tuned out to be super receptive.  I realize that this miracle is repetitive, but it is still a miracle to me every time it happens.

         The funny part of the day might have been a smiling dog that we saw.  It really wasn’t a very funny day at all.  I was just trying so hard to set a good example for my companion all day long without being mean about it.