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Subject: Mayo Sin Numeros
Buenas tardes!!
So this week was super great! On thursday we had a multi-zone conference and there are a lot of big changes in the mission! President Shumway had a meeting with the area presidency this past week along with all the other mission presidents in central america and they talked about a lof of stuff that we're doing really well and stuff we can be doing better. And the biggest thing we need to imrove on as a mission is how we are teaching. President also showed us the results from this missionary survery we took a couple months ago and the survery shows that in the mission we can improve a lot in the way we teach. More specifically how we start teaching, if we are listening and adapting the teaching to meet thepeoples needs, if we ask them to share thier feelings and thoughts, if we ask other inspired questions and are teaching with the spirit and helping them to recognize it. Basically chapter 10 of Prech My Gospel. So in the month of May the big focus in the mission is on the quality of the teaching to help us do all those things better. So after each lesson we have we need to evaluate ourselves. Find where we did well and where we can improve.
This is the little card they gave us to use as we evaluate ourselves.
And I know this sounds weird but President also doesn't want us trying to reach our goals interfere with the teaching. Let me explain. A lot of times, and it's a sad truth, we are working more to meet our goals and less for the love we have for the people. Goals are important and we all know that but sometimes it interferes with the teaching and the conversion process because we are trying to get them baptized before the end of the month. So because of our focus in May President doesn't want it to interfere with improving our teaching abilities so this month of May will have NO NUMBERS. Mayo sin Numeros!
Now May without numbers doesn't mean we don't have goals. It means we don't talk about numbers in district council or in the calls at night but talk instead about how the quality of the teaching was. In the calls we ask about the experiences they had opening the heavens through prayer with the people and feasting upon/savoring the scriptures with them. The only time in the week where we do anything with the key indicator numbers is when we send them on Monday to salt lake through the missionary portal. 5 minutes from 10:00-10:05 on Monday and other than that we don't worry about our numbers at all but rather focus on the teaching. This obviously isn't a permanent change and I'm not sure how much we'll be using numbers in the future but in May we aren't worrying about them at all and just focused on improving our teaching skills!
So lots of big changes for this month but I think it'll be really good and we are already seeing a big difference in our teaching! Another change is what we counted as a new investigator. Before we had to set up another appointment to visit them, they had to offer a prayer, and we also had to invite them (and they had to accept) to be baptized on a specific date. It was always more of a goal for them to help them prepare for that date as a goal to get an answer but they almost never actually get baptized on that day. But now we have to Open the heavens with them through prayer, savor part of the scriptures of a principle of the gospel, set up the next visit, an extend appropriate invitations. But not necessarily baptism. We always talk about baptism and the important step it is so that they understand it but will invite them if the spirit indicates that we should. And we also invite them to be baptized on a specific date when the spirit indicates. Rather than what we usually did before which was invite them for in about a month (even though the date would probably fall) so that we could count them as a new. So it's a super great change! I'm happy about it and I know that as we teach better repentance we will really help more people become converted and show their conversion through baptism.
We found some super cool people this week too! One is this mom named Jessica and her family the other is this girl named Alejandra. They are both super solid and we feel like they'll progress a lot. We found both of them looking for someone else but then they said they'd like to hear our message and they are really receptive! I'll keep you updated about them!
Also stake conference was this week in Estaca Japala Barrio Jutiapa. The stake center in Jalapa is about an hour away from Jutiapa and so they did something cool that I've never seen before and split the stake conference. At 9 was the Jalapa Area and at 2 in the afernoon was the Jutiapa area of the stake. And the meeting was super full! An area seventy named Elder Pineda was presiding and he shared a super powerful message about repentance.
Also on Monday Elder Castillo got pretty sick with a high fever and a head ache and body pain and some stomach problems. We went to one visit but it got worse so we had to stay in the house the rest of the day, and almost all of Tuesday until he got better. He's doing a lot better now though. And yesterday the other missionaries helped us out a ton by bringing us lunch and the other Elders also helped us with divisions so we could go to an important appointment we had. Other than that it was really boring. We have also been trying to visit Mirla and Oscar but haven't been able to get a hold of them. We were expecting both of them in the stake conference but then last minute neither could come. But we think they'll really be able to progress, even if it's not as fast as we hope. That was another thing President shared in the multi-zone that the Area Presidency shared with them in that meeting. They compared the stories of conversion of Parley P. Pratt and Brigham Young. Parley P. Pratt found the Book of Mormon "coincidentally", read it and was converted in less then 24 hours. While Brigham Young studied the Book of Mormon and the church for 2 years before joining the church! TWO YEARS! Elder Uceda, the area president, says that in Central America there are a lot more Brighams than Parleys and that a lot of times we drop a Brigham after just 3 weeks because he hasn't progressed that much. And what would the world and the church be like if Brigham Young never got baptized?! Well for one thing we wouldn't have Brigham Young University! And we wouldn't have the University of Utah either! And the second prophet would have been someone else. So don't give up on someone if they don't progress in just 3 week! Try to evaluate your teaching because if we teach repentance better more people will be converted and be baptized! And better than that they will really be converted and stay firm and maybe even become the prophet! Also there will still be "Parleys"that progress super fast and are just golden from the start. Don't forget about them, but there are also Brighams that will take a little more time.
And here is a picture of the Jutiapa zone at the multi-zone conference!
Sorry this email was a little long but my mom puts them all on a blog and sometimes I don't write in my journal everyday so I try to include experiences here in the email and then it'll be put on the blog and I'll at least have a record on the blog of those experiences if I didn't get it in my journal so these emails are also kind of journal entries. So if you read all the way to the end thanks for bearing with me!
Les amo mucho!
_______________________________________________Joseph also sent me a really nice note for mother's day - just the kind of email that you hope to get that is so rewarding to read - so we'll end the post today with this email, we sure love him!
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Well mothers day here is on Friday, and there it is Sunday, and since we call every week we aren't going to be calling on Sunday.
Soooo I thought I'd wish you happy mother's day today!!
I didn't realize how great of a mom you were until I got out teaching families that live in broken homes. People that, for one reason or another, live in family circumstances that are just really hard. We're trying to help them with the Gospel, but it has also made so grateful for the gospel centered home I grew up in. Haha that's kind of weird to say "the home I grew up in" as if I finished growing up because it doesn't feel like I have even though I kind of have. I think if I'm lucky I'll be able to live at the house for a few months until school states at the Y before I'll be completely on my own. Or I'll be on my own the same day I get home. We'll see what happens I guess. But I really do appreciate all you guys have done to bring us up in a home where you and dad taught us what we should and shouldn't do and helped us learn so that we can choose for ourselves. Being a parent, I am starting to darme cuenta, is probably a lot harder than I used to think it was. And the fact that you do it with so many kids! As Iveth said in her whatsapp message you are incredible mom. People don't believe me that I have 11 siblings until I show them the photo. Then they count, ask if Daniel and Owen are twins, and ask where the 12th one is and I explain that he was just barely born so I haven't even met him yet. They are really super amazed and I am also super amazed. I don't know how you do it but you do. Kind of like the printing of the Book of Mormon.
So keep teaching the rest of the kids and using come follow me and helping them develop Christlike attributes and read the Book of Mormon every day and they'll all turn out great!
Thanks for all you've done and continue to do for me!! Remember that your number one fan is preaching the Gospel in the Promised Land!
LOVE YOU MOM!!
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