Mosiah 4:27
July 20th, 2010
All is well in Sacramento.
Transfer calls have come and gone; I’m staying with Elder Feusner for my third transfer in the mission office. It’s hard to believe it’s already been that long. I certainly don’t have the posts to show it, I’ve been slacking! It’s just been so busy here, and sometimes pretty stressful too. They have me as an office elder and a district leader, and really… I think I need to learn some relaxation techniques before it all gets the best of me. *Elder Macpherson takes several deep breaths* — Okay that’s better. *phew*
But don’t you all worry about me now. I know everything will work out. That’s the beautiful thing about the gospel.
Well, have you heard? The Church is changing the way every mission in the world will work… starting right now. They did a study in San Diego for several months, following and filming a real district of missionaries, and they learned a lot of valuable things from it. Part of the changes will be fewer Zone Conferences and Interviews with the Mission President, and more smaller-group and specifically focused training instead. They’ve also released a revised curriculum for training/teaching, focusing on the key doctrines and principles from Preach My Gospel. This is going to help us to be better teachers. But like any big change, it’s going to take some getting used to. In the end I know it’s inspired, and It’s going to be fun! To get all the leaders in the mission up to speed President Jardine starts a four-day intensive training tomorrow, for every District Leader, Zone Leader, and Trainer in the mission — for about 7 hours each day, that’s equal to more than four Zone Conferences in a row! I’m going to be so tired at the end of this week. Oh boy…
On other news, I love the College Oak Ward. I’ve gotten to know a lot more of the people there, and they’re fantastic. My only desire now is to find more people to teach! The only ones we know now are just… not progressing, for various reasons. It’s been cool, because we’ve had several non-members attend these last few weeks, who are good friends of members in our ward, but sadly none of them live in our ward boundaries, so we can’t teach them, they call that “poaching” in missionary work, and it’s seriously frowned upon. They would have to get baptized in their home ward anyway.
One of the sisters who was in my district last transfer was Sister Georges, from Leon France. She was great, and it was fun to be able to practice my french here and there, although I’m really not that good. While she was here she was teaching a man named Tony, whose story is long and complicated, but in a nutshell; she had to teach him because he can speak only French and Arabic, he’s very faithful, but certain government and legal issues are preventing him from being baptized (he’s from a Muslim country), it’s really pretty crazy. Anyway, guess who is supposed to teach him now that Sister George has (just recently) been transferred? Yup, that’s me. And I’ll be honest, I’ve got no idea how I’m going to do this. There are a few French-speaking RMs in the area, the Mission President’s wife can speak it a little, and well… the gift of tongues anyone? I’ll let you all know where this goes beintot.
The last group of missionaries that came in was awesome! That’s one perk of being in the office, seeing them all arrive, newborns in the mission. But it was a very energetic group, the future leaders of this mission without a doubt. Two were from Canada, which was a big plus for our mission, woohoo!
Well, I couldn’t end this without mentioning how HOT it’s been here lately. It’s definitely July folks, and I can’t help but reminisce of last year, when I was burning up in the scalding heat of Laguna Creek. Boy am I glad we have a car for the summer! It’s been upper 90s to 100s this last week, not a cloud in the sky. To think I’ll leave this coming year, and come to the arctic tundra of February in Montreal, brrr! If that’s not a chilling thought…
Haha, till next time!
Love,
Elder Macpherson