Harvest Season
August 30th, 2010
Hello everyone! This is Elder Macpherson, live from the mission field of Sacramento California; here to tell you the tale of this last week!
My last day in the office was Tuesday. It was also our preparation day. I spent a lot of it making sure I had all the key items on my todo list “checked off.” I think I got it all settled. Haha. I left some things to the last day… of course. There were a few important things I needed to show Elder Feusner. I was also keeping a Journal on the computer, so I sent that in to be printed and bound into an actual book. I should get that in a few weeks! I couldn’t resist designing a funny cover; a picture of Elder Feusner and I… with some slight modifications. I’ll have to send a photo when I get a copy of it.
Tuesday night we went to the arriving missionary dinner – my last one! We had nine new missionaries in the group. One was from Cardston, Canada. Another one is 6’8″ — Elder Mortensen; now the tallest Elder in our mission! Apparently he does NOT play basketballl; hew grew up on a farm. We also recently had four Visa Waiters come to our mission, unexpectedly, who will remain here until their Visas are cleared and they can go on to the Mexico City East Mission. One of them, Elder Castillo, is from Pocatello Idaho and knows Elder Zimmerman (who, you will remember was my companion last year, but had to go home due to a back injury) — small world. Speaking of Elder Zimmerman, I heard he’s had two surgeries now. I hope and pray things go well for him.
Wednesday morning was the usual transfer chaos at the office, except this time I was leaving too. Elder Feusner was going to take me, but that didn’t work out so Elder Knusdsen drove with some other missionaries and got me himself.
I’m back in Cordova now! It feels great. We cover a YSA Ward and a Family Ward. I already know some members from having met them in this Stake last year. That’s a nice perk. Elder Knudsen is helping me a lot. It’s a lot of work being a Zone Leader. I guess that’s what Leadership is though; work! It’s interesting how much more our conversations our focused on other missionaries and how we can help them. It’s hard to be selfish now, there’s no time for it. It’s a hard job though, that’s why I need to depend on the Lord as much as possible.
We’re blessed to be teaching a lot of people right now, I can’t name them all. This last Sunday was great. We had two girls come to Church unexpectedly. Both are playing basketball for a University here. One of them, Sadie, is a member, and we have an appointment to teach her friend Senyce next Sunday. They’re really busy with conditioning, and homework, but I’m excited for the lesson. The weirdest part is that Sadie is Elder Buhler’s cousin (The Elder Buhler who just went home!) and I remember him talking about her coming out here to play basketball.
This is the “harvest season”! — the stake just did something called a forty day fast. Members of the stake were assigned to fast one day for each of the last forty days. The prayer is that we’ll find more people to teach. They’ve sown the seeds, now we’re going to harvest!
Anyway I need all your prayers. I know that alone I’m nothing. Any tips on good leadership are appreciated, I’ll do my best! :)
Love you all,
Elder Macpherson