So on New Year's Eve we did have enough miles left from the month to go to the Zone activity. We only had enough miles because we walked everywhere on Saturday until it was time to go to the activity. There was a ping pong tournament, of which I was the champion. I told everybody that it was only because I had served in a YSA Ward for 3 transfers. And then I also played this super fun card game called Bohnanza. It's a good game for 4 or 5 people. It's about planting beans, and then turning them in for money, so there's lots of trading going on and you're always involved throughout the game. It was super fun!
So we have church at 1:00 on Sundays now. Church at 1:00 is sort of awkward because you have an hour between studies and Ward Council, and then another hour between church and dinner, so you only have time for 1 appointment in either of those time slots. If it falls through, you don't really have time to visit anyone else because if you do find someone you will most likely miss Ward Council or your dinner appointment. So we're brainstorming ways to make those awkward hours more productive. We were able to meet with our new Ward Mission Leader briefly. He told us that he really wants to search out the less active members that have only become recently less active, or members that come only 50% of the time. He feels that if we could only get all of these people coming regularly and active enough to hold a calling, then the Ward would be a lot stronger. I think it's a great idea, and our teaching pool isn't too huge right now so it gives us people to contact. But I don't want it to conflict with our regular missionary proselyting. He is ramping up to become one of the most productive Ward Mission Leaders I've ever worked with. We'll see if he keeps this fire going and spreads it to the Ward, or if he meets with resistance and the flame is extinquished.
So our small teaching pool has dwindled. The two people that we thought were most solid both dropped us. The woman who had accepted baptism, returned our call last Wednesday to set up an appointment, and told us that she talked with her husband about it, and he said they are Pentecostal and she can't be a Mormon right now. So that bummed us out a lot. Then on Friday or Saturday we texted the other woman to see how she was doing because her health had been bothering her again. She said that she actually just would rather not be contacted again. So I think maybe her friend that got her into religion in the first place must have discouraged her from continuing to meet with the Mormon missionaries. But that's just how missionary work goes sometimes. So we are back in a finding phase again or basically still in the finding phase. With the holidays, we've struggled to find people to talk to or even just to schedule return appointments. But we do have 3 or 4 appointments set up for this week already so it's shaping up to be a decent week.
I gave some training at DDM this morning. It was on revelation through the Book of Mormon. So I had each of them think of a question they wanted answered about how to improve their missionary work. Then they got in pairs and read a chapter that I assigned them from the Book of Mormon to see if it could answer their questions. It went really well. I chose the chapters the night before, and I didn't know what any of their questions were until after the exercise. It seems the chapters that I had chosen turned out to answer their questions perfectly. So reading the Book of Mormon really does answer questions if you read with the right frame of mind.
Things are going well and so far 2017 is off to a good start. I am glad the holidays are over so they can stop getting in the way of things and making it hard for us to work some days. No more Zone activities during the week or things like that, and we'll be using less miles because we won't have to drive down to Menifee so many times each week. The holidays were a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but some normalcy will be really nice. Hope things are going well for you back home.
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby
So our small teaching pool has dwindled. The two people that we thought were most solid both dropped us. The woman who had accepted baptism, returned our call last Wednesday to set up an appointment, and told us that she talked with her husband about it, and he said they are Pentecostal and she can't be a Mormon right now. So that bummed us out a lot. Then on Friday or Saturday we texted the other woman to see how she was doing because her health had been bothering her again. She said that she actually just would rather not be contacted again. So I think maybe her friend that got her into religion in the first place must have discouraged her from continuing to meet with the Mormon missionaries. But that's just how missionary work goes sometimes. So we are back in a finding phase again or basically still in the finding phase. With the holidays, we've struggled to find people to talk to or even just to schedule return appointments. But we do have 3 or 4 appointments set up for this week already so it's shaping up to be a decent week.
I gave some training at DDM this morning. It was on revelation through the Book of Mormon. So I had each of them think of a question they wanted answered about how to improve their missionary work. Then they got in pairs and read a chapter that I assigned them from the Book of Mormon to see if it could answer their questions. It went really well. I chose the chapters the night before, and I didn't know what any of their questions were until after the exercise. It seems the chapters that I had chosen turned out to answer their questions perfectly. So reading the Book of Mormon really does answer questions if you read with the right frame of mind.
Things are going well and so far 2017 is off to a good start. I am glad the holidays are over so they can stop getting in the way of things and making it hard for us to work some days. No more Zone activities during the week or things like that, and we'll be using less miles because we won't have to drive down to Menifee so many times each week. The holidays were a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but some normalcy will be really nice. Hope things are going well for you back home.
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby