Gonna Take Work

This week was crazy! I didn't sleep in my own bed for literally more than a week and my average bed time was 2 AM, with a wake up time of 6 AM, and packed filled with some of the most stress filled days of training missionaries--who I feel are way more capable than I am. But, it made for a fun week. Remember that time Dad made me drive through Manhattan, illegally, in a rented vehicle and I drove against traffic multiple times? That is like a good description of my week. hahaha  Elder R says this assignment is just like being at college, with late nights, lots of responsibility, etc. The only difference is "there's no chicks to make out with"--his words, not mine. But I do think I have seen more than one difference.

Zone Conference/Training

It was good going back out to the far zones and seeing zone 8 of Coronel Oviedo again. I felt more at home. The conference was really focused on 2 really cool topics. One was the importance of self repentance. The need to understand the doctrine of Christ by living it, before we can teach it (a lot of that came from material from that worldwide broadcast). And the other part was training the mission in how we SHOULD plan our days and how to be more efficient and successful. It is interesting, because the things I've been studying almost my whole mission are the things we are now putting into trainings. I do think the mission will help me be a lot more focused and driven through planning and being self-sufficient when I get home. You really do learn some important stuff on the mission.

We were able to work in our area a little bit this week and saw some cool miracles. We had the baptism of C this week. An 18 year old young man who has been working with the missionaries for a while now, and who felt ready for baptism at this time in his life. We were very happy for C AND Elder S, a new missionary who has been working so diligently with him.   

 

 

As far as your question about how the new hour changes effect us, personally it hasn't effected me at all. I haven't seen any change personally, but I think we are the only people it hasn't effected in the mission, just because of how irregular our hours are. What we have seen is that it makes a lot more sense, and helps those missionaries who are diligent.  But those missionaries who are less diligent, it can become a challenge and an excuse to not give their best effort all the time. But like Presidente has said many times, it's to help us learn self-sufficiency. If we don't learn this stuff now, it'll be a lot harder to do so after the mission. 

I think the hardest part had been having to focus more on the administrative stuff more than enjoy the spiritual. Instead of learning a ton from the spirit in a zone conference from sitting and listening, I learned a lot of different things in a very different way than I usually do.  But it's good. I think it makes it more realistic to what we deal with in the real world. We aren't always submerged in spiritual things. Many times we go about life doing the basic and normal things we need to, but what I have learned is the gospel isn't about sitting and reading the scriptures all the time or always being on a spiritual high. The scripture stories are stories of what people DID, how they LIVED the gospel. The gospel is something we live, something we put into practice. And while we do that the spirit will teach us, as we live it, as we love Him, as we listen. 

Hope you are all listening, because I promise you, He is talking.
 

Elder Parker John Yocum