Mom,
I understand your not-so-restful Sabbath, ours was a bit crazy as well. It matched the week, really :)
I think a lot of your questions will be answered if I run through a bit of this week's schedule. Let me regale you with bits and pieces of my journal entries:
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Monday - I arrived in the East Grinstead area after sitting in the back of a car for a three hour trip around the mission, dropping luggage and missionaries off the whole way. That day was quite an exciting one. The first teach Elder Blair and I had we were able to set a baptismal date in. Maureen, the investigator that we met with, is a proper seeker and is planning to get baptized on the 11th of October. We taught her in her home, just around the corner from the church building. She has a sort of Joseph Smith story behind her. She just hasn't found a church or doctrine concerning Christ that has sat well with her. She was super excited to hear about the Book of Mormon and accepted a baptismal date conditional on her receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon. I've definitely found that as investigators are willing to set a date and show God they are aiming for something, that is when our Father in Heaven is able to trust them enough to reveal truth. We hit the high street hard the rest of that day.
Tuesday - Got to do some service for one of the couples in our ward who ended up feeding us a massive amount of food afterwards :) I also met the rest of our progressing investigators: Chris and Chris the Christian (we call him that for two reasons: one, we don't know his last name, and two, we're teaching two Chris's, ha). Chris the Christian has a baptismal date for the 27 of September, and is doing wonderfully. He's YSA age, loves the Bible, and is literally a pro football player (seriously, he just had a few scouts around to watch him play). Tuesday was my first experience with the work that we do in the mission office, which is a crazy amount. We handle all mail in the mission, locations and transportation of missionaries, travel money and expenses, weekly emails, accounting notes (mission key indicators), and the mission newsletter. That day, we were right in the middle of finishing travel plans for transfers. The office is abuzz for about a week before and after "doomsday" (that's what the staff call transfers day).
Wednesday - Transfers day. Oh my goodness gracious, I've never driven so much in my life. The mission car is a Vauxhall Meriva, but for transfers we need more space than a five-seater-English-car, so we drive an assault van. Our car's name is frog, and the mission van's name is Big Ben. It's quite an experience driving that in England :) We drove all day. Down to Newberry, over to the Plymouth Zone, far, far west, and even to the airport. It was quite the nostalgic experience, actually, because two of the trips were dropping off dying missionaries [those going home] and picking up new ones :) I loved picking up the new missionaries, they have such a special spirit about them. A lot of determination, strong spirits, infinite energy, and little bit of pride and blind ambition :) I feel like an old man whenever I talk about them.
Thursday - Started work on our newsletter, called The Harvester. It's a very high quality newsletter (remind me to send you a copy sometime) and I've been assigned as chief editor. I knew those writing skills would come in handy one day! :) Many of the articles are written by missionaries in the mission, so we get a variety of "cultural" grammar, ha. We hit the high street again, and knocked a few former's homes. I've really been praying for the opportunity to build our teaching pool, but it hasn't been in the Lord's time schedule quite yet. We'll find someone soon. Finished another batch of travel plans today for MLC tomorrow (Mission Leadership Council), and finished off the day late evening when we phoned the Zone Leaders to let them know the travel plans. Also, we did some serious heavy lifting as we loaded the mission van with every Zone's post [mail].
Friday - Mission Leadership Council. Oh my goodness, this was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. So many diligent and amazing missionaries, ones that I truly respect as leaders and as Christlike people, were gathered at that event. We all knelt in prayer together as we sought revelation concerning the mission training plan. It's always a spiritual experience when you gather such faithful servants of the Lord together. We studied and worked hard to prepare ourselves for that event. We drove the rest of the day, transporting the Sister Training Leaders and a few Zone Leaders back to their areas.
Saturday - Began our transfer planning. We've got some pretty big presentations and training coming up here for our Zone. District Leader Council and Zone Training are coming up and we need to find out the best way of relaying information and council from MLC to our missionaries. We've been really blessed with some very diligent and wonderful missionaries in our Zone; I cannot wait to see how they do. I have faith that this is going to be one of the best transfers of their missions. We had a DA with a member family called the Baldocks, who have spent 50 years serving the Lord in the London Temple. They are one of the most Spiritually in tune couples I've ever met. Also, they are hilarious :)
Sunday - We had the chance to hit the High Street today. I'm studying and working on increasing my boldness on the street so that I can be an example to the Zone of a finding missionary. Church was wonderful. The East Grinstead ward is very involved in the Work of Salvation. The ward is massive as well, well over 100 members. That's quite a large ward for England. The day finished at 18:00 when we began accounting with AP's and sorting out all of the information coming in from our district leaders. It is an interesting experience being on the other side of an accounting session, and the funny thing is, I feel even more accountable for my actions being the leader than I do being the missionary in the area. There is so much trust put in us, it's definitely a burden and a blessing.
----
Anyways, I hope that gives you a bit of insight on how I'm feeling about the week and new calling. It's been an experience, and I've grown up a lot this week, in knowledge of who I am, how a mission works, and who the Lord expects me to be.
This last week was the highest baptizing week in the mission since 2009. There are miracles happening here every day.
I love this work so much. I know with all of my heart that it is true. That knowledge has come through study, prayer, and receiving confirmations and revelations from the Holy Ghost. I know that revelation can be sought after and received on a daily basis. If you view it as achievable, then it will become so.
Cheers,
Elder Foster
I understand your not-so-restful Sabbath, ours was a bit crazy as well. It matched the week, really :)
I think a lot of your questions will be answered if I run through a bit of this week's schedule. Let me regale you with bits and pieces of my journal entries:
----
Monday - I arrived in the East Grinstead area after sitting in the back of a car for a three hour trip around the mission, dropping luggage and missionaries off the whole way. That day was quite an exciting one. The first teach Elder Blair and I had we were able to set a baptismal date in. Maureen, the investigator that we met with, is a proper seeker and is planning to get baptized on the 11th of October. We taught her in her home, just around the corner from the church building. She has a sort of Joseph Smith story behind her. She just hasn't found a church or doctrine concerning Christ that has sat well with her. She was super excited to hear about the Book of Mormon and accepted a baptismal date conditional on her receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon. I've definitely found that as investigators are willing to set a date and show God they are aiming for something, that is when our Father in Heaven is able to trust them enough to reveal truth. We hit the high street hard the rest of that day.
Tuesday - Got to do some service for one of the couples in our ward who ended up feeding us a massive amount of food afterwards :) I also met the rest of our progressing investigators: Chris and Chris the Christian (we call him that for two reasons: one, we don't know his last name, and two, we're teaching two Chris's, ha). Chris the Christian has a baptismal date for the 27 of September, and is doing wonderfully. He's YSA age, loves the Bible, and is literally a pro football player (seriously, he just had a few scouts around to watch him play). Tuesday was my first experience with the work that we do in the mission office, which is a crazy amount. We handle all mail in the mission, locations and transportation of missionaries, travel money and expenses, weekly emails, accounting notes (mission key indicators), and the mission newsletter. That day, we were right in the middle of finishing travel plans for transfers. The office is abuzz for about a week before and after "doomsday" (that's what the staff call transfers day).
Wednesday - Transfers day. Oh my goodness gracious, I've never driven so much in my life. The mission car is a Vauxhall Meriva, but for transfers we need more space than a five-seater-English-car, so we drive an assault van. Our car's name is frog, and the mission van's name is Big Ben. It's quite an experience driving that in England :) We drove all day. Down to Newberry, over to the Plymouth Zone, far, far west, and even to the airport. It was quite the nostalgic experience, actually, because two of the trips were dropping off dying missionaries [those going home] and picking up new ones :) I loved picking up the new missionaries, they have such a special spirit about them. A lot of determination, strong spirits, infinite energy, and little bit of pride and blind ambition :) I feel like an old man whenever I talk about them.
Thursday - Started work on our newsletter, called The Harvester. It's a very high quality newsletter (remind me to send you a copy sometime) and I've been assigned as chief editor. I knew those writing skills would come in handy one day! :) Many of the articles are written by missionaries in the mission, so we get a variety of "cultural" grammar, ha. We hit the high street again, and knocked a few former's homes. I've really been praying for the opportunity to build our teaching pool, but it hasn't been in the Lord's time schedule quite yet. We'll find someone soon. Finished another batch of travel plans today for MLC tomorrow (Mission Leadership Council), and finished off the day late evening when we phoned the Zone Leaders to let them know the travel plans. Also, we did some serious heavy lifting as we loaded the mission van with every Zone's post [mail].
Friday - Mission Leadership Council. Oh my goodness, this was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. So many diligent and amazing missionaries, ones that I truly respect as leaders and as Christlike people, were gathered at that event. We all knelt in prayer together as we sought revelation concerning the mission training plan. It's always a spiritual experience when you gather such faithful servants of the Lord together. We studied and worked hard to prepare ourselves for that event. We drove the rest of the day, transporting the Sister Training Leaders and a few Zone Leaders back to their areas.
Saturday - Began our transfer planning. We've got some pretty big presentations and training coming up here for our Zone. District Leader Council and Zone Training are coming up and we need to find out the best way of relaying information and council from MLC to our missionaries. We've been really blessed with some very diligent and wonderful missionaries in our Zone; I cannot wait to see how they do. I have faith that this is going to be one of the best transfers of their missions. We had a DA with a member family called the Baldocks, who have spent 50 years serving the Lord in the London Temple. They are one of the most Spiritually in tune couples I've ever met. Also, they are hilarious :)
Sunday - We had the chance to hit the High Street today. I'm studying and working on increasing my boldness on the street so that I can be an example to the Zone of a finding missionary. Church was wonderful. The East Grinstead ward is very involved in the Work of Salvation. The ward is massive as well, well over 100 members. That's quite a large ward for England. The day finished at 18:00 when we began accounting with AP's and sorting out all of the information coming in from our district leaders. It is an interesting experience being on the other side of an accounting session, and the funny thing is, I feel even more accountable for my actions being the leader than I do being the missionary in the area. There is so much trust put in us, it's definitely a burden and a blessing.
----
Anyways, I hope that gives you a bit of insight on how I'm feeling about the week and new calling. It's been an experience, and I've grown up a lot this week, in knowledge of who I am, how a mission works, and who the Lord expects me to be.
This last week was the highest baptizing week in the mission since 2009. There are miracles happening here every day.
I love this work so much. I know with all of my heart that it is true. That knowledge has come through study, prayer, and receiving confirmations and revelations from the Holy Ghost. I know that revelation can be sought after and received on a daily basis. If you view it as achievable, then it will become so.
Cheers,
Elder Foster