Haupei!
We had zone conference this week! It was awesome to finally meet President Faundez in person and to see all the other missionaries in the zone as well! We had some great training and spiritual experiences, and it helped me feel really excited to continue on the work in the future! We had a big training on food and health, making sure you are eating the right things so you don’t get sick. The entire time Elder Reynolds Myers and I were chuckling, as we knew the training was inspired by his sickness last week.
We learned so much this Zone Conference. When President Hansen was here he allowed working online but really emphasized that we go out to the streets. President Faundez wants us to work both, as we have both tools to work with. He used the analogy of the two lumberjacks who had a competition between who could cut down the most trees at the end of one day. One lumberjack had spent the entire day cutting down trees, not taking any breaks or rests. While one, after cutting several trees, would stop for a few minutes to sit and sharpen and his axe. At the end of the day, the latter lumberjack was able to cut down more trees, thanks to him taking time to sharpen and refine his axe. President Faundez emphasized that spending the entire day in the streets is like not sharpening our axe, and being inefficient with the souls that we can bring unto Christ. I am really excited to start working with both an online approach and a street approach!
Besides Zone Conference, we had good week with continual contacting and lessons with members and other investigators. I’ve noticed that this area is a bit harder to find new people to teach, with the ones we do find being a bit lacking in desire and enthusiasm. But, we continue work regardless, and it is really comforting to know that even though we aren’t seeing numerical success, we are growing and becoming better missionaries as we work each day. On Sunday evening the Elders in the office called us to notify me that next week I will be going up to Asuncion to fill out some visa paperwork. I will have to take a 6 hour bus on Sunday all the way to Asuncion, spend the night, and then take a bus back to Ciudad del Este for another 6 hours. It will be annoying because it will take a lot of time and my P-Day will be switched to Tuesday, but it will be really cool because I haven’t been to Asuncion since January and I get to see a bunch of missionaries that came in with my group that I haven’t seen in a long time. So, with that coming up along with district council and exchanges the coming week, there is a lot to look forward to!
During this week we had a companion study where we listened to a talk by Elder David A. Bednar, which he gave to missionaries at the MTC on Christmas Day. He talked about the need to develop attributes of Christ in our lives so we can have continual conversion to the gospel. In my mission I’ve run into people who are inactive in the church, and it makes me think back on the talk Elder Bednar gave. He speaks that real conversion isn’t just having a testimony, it’s continual conversion in our actions and values. It’s good and well to have a testimony, but we should all be seeking conversion. We should be seeking to be like Christ, where he looks outward every time the natural man wants to look inward. I hope you can all find time to evaluate yourselves spiritually and find ways to become continually converted towards Christ.
See you next Tuesday!
Elder Watson
