Hello all!
Wow, has it really been 6 months!!?? I've heard that this is the point at which a mission really begins to speed up-- that's unfortunate, because it's already gone by as if it were only one month! I guess when you're involved in a good work, time starts acting really funky.
First, I'm still VERY pleased with our new Gmail system.
Second, we've been working really hard on getting the ward to help us in Elder L Tom Perry's 20 lesson program, which was instituted throughout the Church. Missionaries across the world are instructed to get 20 lessons per week, minimum, which is a pretty high goal in most areas. We are instructed that if we cannot reach that goal by teaching investigators, part-member families, and less-actives, then we need to make up the difference (for us, about 16 lessons) in teaching the ward members. It's a tough endeavor, but we're making good progress and improving our teaching. We've been working on learning to create lessons that aren't the standard 4 Preach my Gospel lessons and involving and enthusing kids, especially. We've that if the kids are actively learning and growing from our lessons, that gets us on the parents' good side, and they love to have us over to teach their family, and hopefully eventually, their friends.
On a pensive note, I've been evaluating missionaries' motivation. Some come out because their entire family's served missions. Some come out because they want to grow spiritually. Some come out because their parents are paying for it, or for college or a truck. Some come out because they want to convert people. Some people come out just to get everyone off their backs about it. But some actually come out because of a sincere love for the work. Perhaps there may be few of them, but they do the work of 10 missionaries every week and the people all around us recognize the light in their eyes. They are missionaries 24/7-- not juts during proselyting hours or while tracting. Those are the ones that truly love the name on their badge, and are really on "the Lord's errand."
They are also the ones known as "sticks on the mud" or any of a myriad of other nicknames, but they're the ones whose examples of love service, charity, and sincerity inspire the rest of us. I'm trying to be more like them and follow in the steps of Jesus Christ in my own short work in His ministry, and I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve Him, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
--
Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission
Hello all!
Hallelujah! Houston, we have Gmail! The day has finally come when the Church migrated from its Novell system with 100MB of space, a bunch of errors, an ugly interface, slow response, and annoying navigation and no user-friendliness to the revolutionary Gmail-- the top-rated and easiest-to-use email client on the Earth, with a whopping 7419 MB of space (and counting =) )! As people can tell, I'm a missionary for the Church and Google! =)
Well, it's been an interesting week with the latest round of transfers! After Elder Finch left, and Elder Chapman came in, and then Elder Romeril came in (all in six weeks!), I am very glad to be getting everything normalized, and I hopefully will be with my new companion, Elder Baker, for the whole intended 6 weeks. It's kind of funny that I went though 3 companions this past transfer (two of which had to go home early for medical and other reasons). In mission slang, I would say I killed them off. It was really funny when I met my new companion, and he said, "So tell me a bit about yourself Elder Watkins." The look on his face was great when I told him, in the coldest tone I could muster, "I had 3 companions last transfer-- 2 went home and one was ET'd." Somehow I managed to keep a straight face, and he was very much alarmed at such history =) He was relieved later when he found out that none of my history has anything to do with disagreements between companions.
We're making OK progress with our investigators, and they are making sufficient strides to hopefully be baptized in a few weeks. Keep them in your prayers, please. We're hoping to get some more new investigators soon so we don't have 7 hours of tracting per day, but even if not, we'll survive.
Attached are pictures of a cool house (or in spanish, un hogarito we saw while tracting (knocking doors)-- I don't know if a midget lives there, or if it's just a very elaborate playhouse, but it's pretty cool, and we just had to get pictures.
At any rate, keep up the work on the home front, and God bless!
Hallelujah! Houston, we have Gmail! The day has finally come when the Church migrated from its Novell system with 100MB of space, a bunch of errors, an ugly interface, slow response, and annoying navigation and no user-friendliness to the revolutionary Gmail-- the top-rated and easiest-to-use email client on the Earth, with a whopping 7419 MB of space (and counting =) )! As people can tell, I'm a missionary for the Church and Google! =)
Well, it's been an interesting week with the latest round of transfers! After Elder Finch left, and Elder Chapman came in, and then Elder Romeril came in (all in six weeks!), I am very glad to be getting everything normalized, and I hopefully will be with my new companion, Elder Baker, for the whole intended 6 weeks. It's kind of funny that I went though 3 companions this past transfer (two of which had to go home early for medical and other reasons). In mission slang, I would say I killed them off. It was really funny when I met my new companion, and he said, "So tell me a bit about yourself Elder Watkins." The look on his face was great when I told him, in the coldest tone I could muster, "I had 3 companions last transfer-- 2 went home and one was ET'd." Somehow I managed to keep a straight face, and he was very much alarmed at such history =) He was relieved later when he found out that none of my history has anything to do with disagreements between companions.
We're making OK progress with our investigators, and they are making sufficient strides to hopefully be baptized in a few weeks. Keep them in your prayers, please. We're hoping to get some more new investigators soon so we don't have 7 hours of tracting per day, but even if not, we'll survive.
Attached are pictures of a cool house (or in spanish, un hogarito we saw while tracting (knocking doors)-- I don't know if a midget lives there, or if it's just a very elaborate playhouse, but it's pretty cool, and we just had to get pictures.
At any rate, keep up the work on the home front, and God bless!
- Show quoted text -
Sorry everything is so short today-- we only have a few minutes until our ride (The Zone Leaders) need to go.
First, the most important news, it has been confirmed that next time I email, I will be emailing from a Gmail application! Yay!
On a more focused note ☺, transfers are tomorrow, and I will be getting a new companion here in Willow Creek. My good, hard-woking Canadian companion, Elder Romeril has finally succumbed to his headaches and accepted President's suggestions (which has been made 5 times so far) to leave the mission on honorable medical release.
So that makes 3 companions in one transfer (6 weeks): Elder Finch, Elder Chapman, and Elder Romeril.
Our investigators are making wonderful progress (more than they themselves probably realize), and they're slowly but surely gaining a testimony of the Restored Gospel. Hopefully, they will accept the invitation to be baptized within the next several weeks.
That's all I have time for today-- the book is blue, and the Church is true. =)
Love you all, and have a good time!
--Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission
First, the most important news, it has been confirmed that next time I email, I will be emailing from a Gmail application! Yay!
On a more focused note ☺, transfers are tomorrow, and I will be getting a new companion here in Willow Creek. My good, hard-woking Canadian companion, Elder Romeril has finally succumbed to his headaches and accepted President's suggestions (which has been made 5 times so far) to leave the mission on honorable medical release.
So that makes 3 companions in one transfer (6 weeks): Elder Finch, Elder Chapman, and Elder Romeril.
Our investigators are making wonderful progress (more than they themselves probably realize), and they're slowly but surely gaining a testimony of the Restored Gospel. Hopefully, they will accept the invitation to be baptized within the next several weeks.
That's all I have time for today-- the book is blue, and the Church is true. =)
Love you all, and have a good time!
--Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission
Hi all:
Well, here we go again-- another week to report:
So I am now paired with Elder Romeril, a former Zone Leader from Calgary, Canada. He's a hard worker, and very obedient to mission rules. It's fantastic to see how persistent he is in talking to people. He manages to get a quality gospel conversation with even the most stubborn of contacts, and always seems to have a smile. The only downside to him is that he's a big headache... literally. The poor kid has been suffering with a serious headache he contracted in September of last year, and none of the numerous doctors have been able to pinpoint the cause. So, when it gets really bad, we end up spending a good portion of our time inside with him moaning under a blanket. Sometimes, he forces himself out to work notwithstanding. Please keep him in your prayers.
We're still working with the same investigators that we were working with last week, but some of them are hitting a wall. By far the most necessary and frustrating difficulty as a missionary (and thus envelopes an entire chapter in the Preach My Gospel manual) is getting people to make and keep committments. People usually don't take this message seriously. Many investigators just enjoy hanging out with "those nice Mormon boys," and they listen to the lessons, but they don't ever seriously consider the implications of what we are teaching.
We are sharing the message that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father, who from the beginning of time has shown His love for all people by speaking to men and revealing His plan, His Gospel. He has called Prophets in ancient days-- all pointing towards the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Shortly after Christ's death, the people once again rejected His Gospel, and His Church was lost from the Earth, but God has spoken again through the mouth of a living Prophet, testifying of Jesus Christ. We claim that our Church is the very Church of Jesus Christ restored again to the Earth, and that God speaks to men today through a prophet.
If what we are teaching is true, it is by far the most important message to come to the Earth since Christ declared that He was the Savior of the world. And yet people usually don't get it. Revelation, Priesthood, Restoration, the Church of Jesus Christ again upon the Earth, and all we get is a "Oh, well, isn't that nice?"
I hope that we can help people to see that. Maybe they may not think it's true, but at least we can help them see the importance of such a message.
I, however, know that what we share is true, that God has indeed spoken again, and reached out ot His children in love, and that all will eventually have the opportunity to either accept or reject this glorious message. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
--Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission
Well, here we go again-- another week to report:
So I am now paired with Elder Romeril, a former Zone Leader from Calgary, Canada. He's a hard worker, and very obedient to mission rules. It's fantastic to see how persistent he is in talking to people. He manages to get a quality gospel conversation with even the most stubborn of contacts, and always seems to have a smile. The only downside to him is that he's a big headache... literally. The poor kid has been suffering with a serious headache he contracted in September of last year, and none of the numerous doctors have been able to pinpoint the cause. So, when it gets really bad, we end up spending a good portion of our time inside with him moaning under a blanket. Sometimes, he forces himself out to work notwithstanding. Please keep him in your prayers.
We're still working with the same investigators that we were working with last week, but some of them are hitting a wall. By far the most necessary and frustrating difficulty as a missionary (and thus envelopes an entire chapter in the Preach My Gospel manual) is getting people to make and keep committments. People usually don't take this message seriously. Many investigators just enjoy hanging out with "those nice Mormon boys," and they listen to the lessons, but they don't ever seriously consider the implications of what we are teaching.
We are sharing the message that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father, who from the beginning of time has shown His love for all people by speaking to men and revealing His plan, His Gospel. He has called Prophets in ancient days-- all pointing towards the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Shortly after Christ's death, the people once again rejected His Gospel, and His Church was lost from the Earth, but God has spoken again through the mouth of a living Prophet, testifying of Jesus Christ. We claim that our Church is the very Church of Jesus Christ restored again to the Earth, and that God speaks to men today through a prophet.
If what we are teaching is true, it is by far the most important message to come to the Earth since Christ declared that He was the Savior of the world. And yet people usually don't get it. Revelation, Priesthood, Restoration, the Church of Jesus Christ again upon the Earth, and all we get is a "Oh, well, isn't that nice?"
I hope that we can help people to see that. Maybe they may not think it's true, but at least we can help them see the importance of such a message.
I, however, know that what we share is true, that God has indeed spoken again, and reached out ot His children in love, and that all will eventually have the opportunity to either accept or reject this glorious message. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
--Elder Watkins
Colorado Denver South Mission
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