Date
September 19, 2016
Area
Boulder Colorado
Companion
Elder Layton
As always I am at a loss for where to begin.. Mission time is weird.. It goes so quick and so slow all at the same time.. I can never keep track of things.
I guess I will start by talking about my highlight of the week, which effected everything else. I think I mentioned we had Zone Meeting this past week and I had to give a training on our purpose as missionaries. I was scheduled to go last, which is just fine with me. We hadn't had a ton of time to prepare during the past week, because we had a lot on our plate. I was looking over my notes the morning of during my studies and suddenly I felt the wonderful feeling of pure inspiration flow through me (I really like that feeling!), and I started to look up a few different things and my training took on a whole new light from what I had prepared. When it came time for me to give the training, I got a little emotional right in the beginning, and I didn't understand why I did. It turned out to be perfect. Up until that point, the meeting had been rather irreverent, due to a few missionaries who we have in our zone. They are good missionaries and great guys, but they are constantly messing around and joking and not taking things very seriously. As soon as I got a little emotional, the meeting had a whole different feeling. All of the missionaries sobered up, and it was the best training I had the privileged of leading. I say leading, because it really was all of us learning together. I will give a brief summary of what I talked about.
What is our REASON for coming on a mission?
-this is our motive for coming and is decided by US.
What is our PURPOSE while on a mission?
-We are here to invite others to come unto Christ and help them to do so, this is set forth by the LEADERS OF THE CHURCH.
What is the OUTCOME of our time here?
-I shared my personal opinion that God doesn't need us. We are far from the best teachers, and we are no secret weapon. God wants the outcome of our time in the mission field to be a new man or a new woman. He wants CHANGE. But we can only do this when we forget our reasons for coming out, we forget what we want to get out of our time here, and we give EVERYTHING WE HAVE! It is the paradox that only after we forget ourselves, will the real desired outcome be there of a changed heart within us. One of the missionaries asked me how can we do that? How can we give everything to The Lord. I told him it is tough to know exactly how we are doing, but the secret is in change. In the moment the Spirit prompted me to say "If we listen to the same music at month 22 as we did at month 2, we haven't changed. If we tell the same jokes at month 12 as month 6, we haven't figured it out yet. If we study and if we teach in the same way at 18 months as we do at 8 months, we still have more work to do." I firmly believe that this is the secret, not just to missionary work, but to life. We must always be seeking and praying and asking what can we improve upon. So naturally, that has been on my mind ALL week long. Something that Elder Christofferson trained the priesthood leaders on while he was here is the difference between activity and accomplishment. He had a man take 10 steps in place and then 10 steps walking forward. Too often it is easy for us to take steps in place and feel satisfied because we are busy. I have learned that I need to make sure all of my steps are going forward and getting me somewhere. That is a big thing Elder Layton and I will be working on this next week is making sure we are not staying busy and feeling good about that.
This is long, so I will just give a quick update on other things that have happened. We dropped someone that had a baptismal date because he wasn't at all committed to making change so we passed him off to another set of Elders, but we also put another investigator on baptismal date for next month. He has a sincere desire to know the truth and is willing to make any changes, but there are a lot of changes that he would need to make, so we are working closely with him, but he is AWESOME!
Lastly.. the funny story of the week!
Saturday night we were stopping by an investigator and we saw several college kids who were playing football in the courtyard, drinking various beverages... So we stopped and played football with them for 15 minutes and they loved us lol. The last throw I jumped really high and stretched really far and ripped my pants like crazy!! It was hilarious! We are going back later this week to talk with them some more!
The work is continuing to go forward. I had a really cool experience of talking with Elder Heiner. I told him I was sorry I wasn’t always the easiest to get along with, and I appreciated my time with him. He told me how getting a new companion was the best thing that ever happened to him.. because he finally realized all the things we had learned together that he hadn't realized in the situation. He shared that he felt like he was training his new companion on several of the things he and I had learned together, which is exactly how I felt after my first transfer with Elder Layton. The moral is this. Sometimes we get too caught up in the moment, and we are too hard on ourselves that we don’t realize all that we are learning. Take a step back every once in awhile and pat ourselves on the back for all that we have learned. We are normally doing better than we think we are!
I love all of you and appreciate hearing from you when you write. I pray for you and your families, as I know people are praying for me and the other missionaries around the world.
Elder Richards
I guess I will start by talking about my highlight of the week, which effected everything else. I think I mentioned we had Zone Meeting this past week and I had to give a training on our purpose as missionaries. I was scheduled to go last, which is just fine with me. We hadn't had a ton of time to prepare during the past week, because we had a lot on our plate. I was looking over my notes the morning of during my studies and suddenly I felt the wonderful feeling of pure inspiration flow through me (I really like that feeling!), and I started to look up a few different things and my training took on a whole new light from what I had prepared. When it came time for me to give the training, I got a little emotional right in the beginning, and I didn't understand why I did. It turned out to be perfect. Up until that point, the meeting had been rather irreverent, due to a few missionaries who we have in our zone. They are good missionaries and great guys, but they are constantly messing around and joking and not taking things very seriously. As soon as I got a little emotional, the meeting had a whole different feeling. All of the missionaries sobered up, and it was the best training I had the privileged of leading. I say leading, because it really was all of us learning together. I will give a brief summary of what I talked about.
What is our REASON for coming on a mission?
-this is our motive for coming and is decided by US.
What is our PURPOSE while on a mission?
-We are here to invite others to come unto Christ and help them to do so, this is set forth by the LEADERS OF THE CHURCH.
What is the OUTCOME of our time here?
-I shared my personal opinion that God doesn't need us. We are far from the best teachers, and we are no secret weapon. God wants the outcome of our time in the mission field to be a new man or a new woman. He wants CHANGE. But we can only do this when we forget our reasons for coming out, we forget what we want to get out of our time here, and we give EVERYTHING WE HAVE! It is the paradox that only after we forget ourselves, will the real desired outcome be there of a changed heart within us. One of the missionaries asked me how can we do that? How can we give everything to The Lord. I told him it is tough to know exactly how we are doing, but the secret is in change. In the moment the Spirit prompted me to say "If we listen to the same music at month 22 as we did at month 2, we haven't changed. If we tell the same jokes at month 12 as month 6, we haven't figured it out yet. If we study and if we teach in the same way at 18 months as we do at 8 months, we still have more work to do." I firmly believe that this is the secret, not just to missionary work, but to life. We must always be seeking and praying and asking what can we improve upon. So naturally, that has been on my mind ALL week long. Something that Elder Christofferson trained the priesthood leaders on while he was here is the difference between activity and accomplishment. He had a man take 10 steps in place and then 10 steps walking forward. Too often it is easy for us to take steps in place and feel satisfied because we are busy. I have learned that I need to make sure all of my steps are going forward and getting me somewhere. That is a big thing Elder Layton and I will be working on this next week is making sure we are not staying busy and feeling good about that.
This is long, so I will just give a quick update on other things that have happened. We dropped someone that had a baptismal date because he wasn't at all committed to making change so we passed him off to another set of Elders, but we also put another investigator on baptismal date for next month. He has a sincere desire to know the truth and is willing to make any changes, but there are a lot of changes that he would need to make, so we are working closely with him, but he is AWESOME!
Lastly.. the funny story of the week!
Saturday night we were stopping by an investigator and we saw several college kids who were playing football in the courtyard, drinking various beverages... So we stopped and played football with them for 15 minutes and they loved us lol. The last throw I jumped really high and stretched really far and ripped my pants like crazy!! It was hilarious! We are going back later this week to talk with them some more!
The work is continuing to go forward. I had a really cool experience of talking with Elder Heiner. I told him I was sorry I wasn’t always the easiest to get along with, and I appreciated my time with him. He told me how getting a new companion was the best thing that ever happened to him.. because he finally realized all the things we had learned together that he hadn't realized in the situation. He shared that he felt like he was training his new companion on several of the things he and I had learned together, which is exactly how I felt after my first transfer with Elder Layton. The moral is this. Sometimes we get too caught up in the moment, and we are too hard on ourselves that we don’t realize all that we are learning. Take a step back every once in awhile and pat ourselves on the back for all that we have learned. We are normally doing better than we think we are!
I love all of you and appreciate hearing from you when you write. I pray for you and your families, as I know people are praying for me and the other missionaries around the world.
Elder Richards
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