The main news from this last week was some changes to the missionary schedule and key indicators. Crazy changes! For the first time in decades the church made some changes in the missionary schedule. Schedules are now more flexible based on the area. The Mission President decides what the schedule is. For us we still wake up at 6:30 (or try to... haha) plan in the morning for the day, do personal study, and then head out. We can decide when to have language or comp study. Along with that they changed up the key indicators that we report. We used to report lessons and number of investigators but no more! Now we just count if someone is baptized, on baptismal date, in church, or a new investigator.
To sum it all up they are giving us missionaries much more trust with how we spend our time and letting us use our agency for good (or bad if you wanted to). I think that it means missionaries will come back much better prepared to transition to normal life and be more converted because they actively chose to do the work on their missions. Overall I love it. No more pressure or judgement if you didn't get a certain amount of lessons in a week.
In other news not much happened this week. In Rotterdam South it is pretty common to have great weeks then have nothing the next week. It comes much through the culture of the people we teach. Our investigators are all from the Island of Curacao and there they don't really have much sense of time or drive to do things outside their norm. So most appointments don't go through and people don't really keep commitments. Its frustrating sometimes but just how their culture works. We will have fun finding more this week! I really want to finish strong here!
Spiritual thought: this comes from the book "Power of the Everyday Missionary" a great book directed to members about how to do missionary work. In it Clayton Christensen explains that after his return form his mission and finishing of his degree he felt like he didn't have the spirit with him anymore, or at least in the amounts he had had it in the past. He moved to a new area as part of work and was given the opportunity to share his beliefs with others more than before. These opportunities brought the spirit back into his life.
He described it with this parable: In war, the soldiers that are hooked up with the best weapons are the ones that are on the front lines. In daily battle with the enemy. Where as those that are given administrative tasks are often given small weapons that are sufficient for their needs but wouldn't be enough for real combat.
The spirit works in the same way. Those that are daily sharing the gospel, who are on the front lines, are given more of the spirit than those that are in the administrative tasks of the church. Often because of our callings we can stop focusing on the war against sin and the adversary and focus solely on our little administrative task. Get out there and share the gospel! Be an example of course but that isn't enough. I can walk around the Streets of Rotterdam smiling and being a good example but no one is going to learn more about Christ until I talk to them! That's a little rant after a priesthood lesson about missionary work from this last Sunday. haha But its true! We need to raise the bar farther than just being an example!
Well that's my 2 cents for the week! :)
Love you guys!
Elder Talyon Anderson Perry
Belgium/Netherlands Mission