This week has been a
pretty big week. We had exchanges with the Zone leaders, and I was so
glad that Elder Hale got to know them more. It was a good experience, and I
learned a lot about working with the ward council from Elder Sanchez. I feel
that as we have applied ourselves in our studies more, we have gained a lot of
knowledge and skills. The twelve weeks program really helps us see the cool
ideas that we can do, and the ways that we can improve. We are going to try to
work a lot with the members more. We have known that that would be the key to
success, but it has always been hard to do it. We are going to plan with the
amount of time we have per week in mind, and we are going to organize our
efforts even more.
We have set a few baptismal dates this week, and we had set up many opportunities for new investigators, but they all fell through. We feel that the people will more likely be there if we get the members really involved. If we can get the members to invite them instead of us, I think that it will be more likely that they will be there in the appointments. We are also going to ask that we get people assigned as ward missionaries so that we can really get the help that we need.
We have been able to see a few investigators this week that we haven't seen in while. On one specific occasion, Elder Hale and I were teaching an investigator who is the husband and dad of some less active members in our ward. We were teaching The Plan of Salvation, and as we taught, he had a question about what was after baptism. We felt that to be an opportunity to testify shortly of the main points of lesson 3 and eternal progression. The spirit was so strong. As Elder Hale testified of families, their faces lit up. His heart opened more, and he and his wife seemed excited for the opportunity that they could have to be an eternal family. Elder Hale has been progressing really well, and I feel much better about his progression every day. He's a great help, and he is getting much better at many things that were originally quite hard for him.
A lot of big milestones passed in the mission this week. Between Chellie coming back from her mission on Wednesday, dad having his birthday, and me having a change of heart that I have needed, there has been a lot of emotions. We had interviews with the president this week. I feel that the interviews helped me visualize my goals a lot. I went home and started making my "gray" rules black and white. I started talking to Elder Hale while studying in the first 12 weeks about how we can make more realistic plans and actually complete with them. I realized that I have not focused enough in the goals that we put. I have always had an "fill up the spaces and we'll do what we can attitude," but I realize now that that was not focused enough. Most importantly, and the thing that has been most helpful from our discussion was that I started to realize that I needed to open up and be myself. The “me” before the mission was absolutely diligent. Always happy. Always energetic. Always ready to do things and have fun. I was the kind of guy that if I wasn't occupied, I didn't feel good, and I wasn't feeling successful in my personal progression. I think that I was losing sight of parts of me. I think I began to forget who I was in a study of rules, lessons, and mission cultural that before this last 5 months was quite foreign to me. I am letting that person I forgot out. I have made a vision of one of the attributes of Christ. President told me to make "person definitions" of every attribute and see how I can apply their attributes to my personality. I have patterned my diligence attribute after Elder Conrad (One of our zone leaders). I drew a picture of him, wrote what makes him look so diligent, so happy, and so energetic. I then tried to draw myself. It didn't work out to well, but I felt the impression that maybe I didn't need to draw a diligent me. I could imagine me better than I could just "imagine" the attributes of my human definition of diligence. I began to write down experiences in my life in which I had already shown that attribute in the most pure form I could find. I have been possibly the most happy and most energetic and diligent that I have been on the mission these past few days .I feel that little by little, I will find the person that God will make me. President told me that when he thinks "Elder Dazey" he does not worry that I will be disobedient or that I won't work. He worries that I am not learning the lessons that the Lord is trying to teach me. President taught me of a quote from Joseph Smith in which he talks of the difficulties that he has seen. He says that he has seen difficulties all his life, and then says, "Deep water is what I am wont to swim in." President keeps telling me of the refiners fire that I will go through my whole mission, and how it will be hard, and I will learn till the end. I will continue listening to the spirit to know what lessons I need to learn as I swim in deep water.
We have set a few baptismal dates this week, and we had set up many opportunities for new investigators, but they all fell through. We feel that the people will more likely be there if we get the members really involved. If we can get the members to invite them instead of us, I think that it will be more likely that they will be there in the appointments. We are also going to ask that we get people assigned as ward missionaries so that we can really get the help that we need.
We have been able to see a few investigators this week that we haven't seen in while. On one specific occasion, Elder Hale and I were teaching an investigator who is the husband and dad of some less active members in our ward. We were teaching The Plan of Salvation, and as we taught, he had a question about what was after baptism. We felt that to be an opportunity to testify shortly of the main points of lesson 3 and eternal progression. The spirit was so strong. As Elder Hale testified of families, their faces lit up. His heart opened more, and he and his wife seemed excited for the opportunity that they could have to be an eternal family. Elder Hale has been progressing really well, and I feel much better about his progression every day. He's a great help, and he is getting much better at many things that were originally quite hard for him.
A lot of big milestones passed in the mission this week. Between Chellie coming back from her mission on Wednesday, dad having his birthday, and me having a change of heart that I have needed, there has been a lot of emotions. We had interviews with the president this week. I feel that the interviews helped me visualize my goals a lot. I went home and started making my "gray" rules black and white. I started talking to Elder Hale while studying in the first 12 weeks about how we can make more realistic plans and actually complete with them. I realized that I have not focused enough in the goals that we put. I have always had an "fill up the spaces and we'll do what we can attitude," but I realize now that that was not focused enough. Most importantly, and the thing that has been most helpful from our discussion was that I started to realize that I needed to open up and be myself. The “me” before the mission was absolutely diligent. Always happy. Always energetic. Always ready to do things and have fun. I was the kind of guy that if I wasn't occupied, I didn't feel good, and I wasn't feeling successful in my personal progression. I think that I was losing sight of parts of me. I think I began to forget who I was in a study of rules, lessons, and mission cultural that before this last 5 months was quite foreign to me. I am letting that person I forgot out. I have made a vision of one of the attributes of Christ. President told me to make "person definitions" of every attribute and see how I can apply their attributes to my personality. I have patterned my diligence attribute after Elder Conrad (One of our zone leaders). I drew a picture of him, wrote what makes him look so diligent, so happy, and so energetic. I then tried to draw myself. It didn't work out to well, but I felt the impression that maybe I didn't need to draw a diligent me. I could imagine me better than I could just "imagine" the attributes of my human definition of diligence. I began to write down experiences in my life in which I had already shown that attribute in the most pure form I could find. I have been possibly the most happy and most energetic and diligent that I have been on the mission these past few days .I feel that little by little, I will find the person that God will make me. President told me that when he thinks "Elder Dazey" he does not worry that I will be disobedient or that I won't work. He worries that I am not learning the lessons that the Lord is trying to teach me. President taught me of a quote from Joseph Smith in which he talks of the difficulties that he has seen. He says that he has seen difficulties all his life, and then says, "Deep water is what I am wont to swim in." President keeps telling me of the refiners fire that I will go through my whole mission, and how it will be hard, and I will learn till the end. I will continue listening to the spirit to know what lessons I need to learn as I swim in deep water.
Well I love you all! I hope that you
have a great week and that you all can continue in your own personal
progression! I pray for you all every day! Love you!
-Elder Dazey
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