Well, I have some freaking awesome news for y'all, but you'll just have to wait until later to hear what it is. For now, my week...
So, basically this week was slow again, but I guess that's to be understood with just me in the 12th ward and I can't even focus a majority of my time there. Ben and Beth are still progressing rapidly. I'm actually a little worried because we are already half way through the lessons and still have more than a month to go!! I'm thinking that we'll teach a little random "church" topics after we finish to give them a head start as members. Things like Church History and how to use the footnotes in the scriptures and maybe delve deeper into topics such as prayer. If anyone has ideas for what I could teach, I'm open for suggestions.
Funny thing about Ben and Beth, they made me feel faithless the other day. I was talking to them and was letting them know that I wanted to help in any way I can with an addiction they have. Then they basically said, "we know that if we try our best and pray, God will make sure that we are clean and ready for our baptism on January 1st". They have so much faith it's crazy! It made me feel a little bad because I was worrying about their addiction and was not showing as much faith as they are. But I've changed my ways and have joined them in their faith.
Aside from that, one of the items of big news is that Elder Gregory A.Schwitzer of the Seventy came and talked to us. He shook all of our hands first off. Then President and Sister Nicholas gave us some training, then the Assistants gave us some training. Following that we did role plays as a zone. It was cool because the zone leaders made up the scenarios for each companionship so that it was tailored to their needs. Since I'm living with the Zone Leaders, I got to help and put in my input. They even used two of my toughest investigators. I think that everyone got something out of it, so that's good. Then Sister Schwitzer gave us some training followed by an hour of Elder Schwitzer training us. They both gave us some awesome things to think about. Elder Schwitzer told us something that President Packer tells the General Authorities when he trains them. He told us to put down our pens and paper and to only write what we learned from the spirit towards the end. Many missionaries (my self included) look so concerned that they couldn't use their pens!! It was quite funny, but I guess that we are all note taking addicts :) It was nice to see a bunch of people from past transfers and theMTC.
Now, for the exciting news about myself. I was talking to President and he told me that I will follow up train someone this next transfer. Basically, whensomeone's trainer goes home or is transferred before the training is complete, a followup trainer is called. President sounded surprised that I didn't know though, so I guess the assistants forgot to call me. Plus, President said things that make me think I will be transferred somewhere on Wednesday. I guess that we will see.
Okay, okay, I guess I owe you guys some awesome news... but first, due to some requests to hear about the culture of Canada, here are some more answers to your questions:
Most Canadians say "eh" at least a little. It's not at the end of every sentence, but is more like a question of understanding. Example, "It's a little warm in here, eh?" or "So you learned a lot in class, eh?". In addition to that, in Southern Alberta many substitute "eh" for "hey".
Many Canadians are all about Christmas!! Since they don't have Thanksgiving in November, they don't have an "official" start of the Christmas Season. Most have Christmas lights up the week after Halloween. With all the lights and snow and freezing weather, I'm already getting super excited for Christmas!!
Lastly, in Canada the letter "z" has a different name. In the States it's pronounced "zee", but in Canada it's pronounced "zed". it's kinda weird, but I'm getting used to it. So in this mission a nickname for zone leaders is "Zeds", so if I say that, that is who I'm talking about.
Okay, this time it's for real, the big exciting news!!! Please hold your gasps and applause until the end because each sentence gets more and more exciting. Here we go:
We get iPad mini's. Earlier than expected (around next General Conference). Every missionary gets his/her own. They may have 3G (maybe). To ensure that we take good care of them, we get to (drum roll please....) TAKE THEM HOME WITH US!!!! That's right, for only $100 dollars we get to come home with our very own iPad Mini. The best part is that I can just take out $7 a month from my allowance for the rest of my mission and pay that way, so it's no extra cost!!! Needless to say, all of us missionaries are super excited and are already "shopping" for cases and accessories. I really want a wireless keyboard so that I can type up talks and notes and stuff. It'll be really cool. It will have all of the Gospel Library, Mormon Messages, and other stuff. Plus it will have our planner and the ward mission leader and auxiliaries will have access to it so that they can put in appointments or they can see what we are doing when. Plus it will have our Area Book and therefore our teaching records and progress reports. And it will even have a GPS with all of the Progressing, Other, New, Potential, and Former Investigators and Less Actives marked with pins. So if an appointment cancels, we can go to the nearest one of those so that we don't get lost or whatever. It truly is an exciting time and will definitely hasten the work.
I love you all and will be thinking about you this American Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Be sure to do missionary work in whatever way you can. Be good and make good choices :)
Love,
Elder Wake
No comments:
Post a Comment