Greetings from the other side of the mission hill! I now have one year and four days on my mission, but it only feels like ten times that long. What did you guys do to celebrate Hump Day? Because I just worked.
We had zone conference this week. It was our first one with my new mission president because we had a general authority speak last transfer. Conference was awesome. My new president has such a strong conviction of the gospel, and he talked a lot about how he wants us to forget about the past and devote the rest of our missions, however much time that may be, to the Lord. President said he wants us to be 100% missionaries. He hit the pulpit a lot and gave such a powerful pep talk that I just wanted to go out and proclaim the gospel to every living creature in the whole wide world. Or play some football. I don't know.
He instated a new mission-wide rule, too: every missionary now has to have a copy of the Book of Mormon in his or her hand at all times. I have mine right next to the computer monitor right now. I haven't noticed much of a difference yet with this change, though I do feel like I have greater authority when I make contacts with people. I guess the idea is to use the Book of Mormon more frequently and sooner in our teaching, or it's just to get people to ask us what book is we're always carrying around. I don't know.
This week was pretty nuts for my companion and I. Zone conference gave us a renewed motivation to do our best, so that's what we did. We taught a ton of lessons and worked continuously with the investigators we already have. After a visit where Manoel spoke to us nonstop for two and a half hours, he informed us that he will be traveling to Curitiba and probably won't be coming back until next year. So...that one kind of fell apart. There's this other senhor who we've been teaching who said he'll be moving to another part of the city that is outside of our area, so that one kind of fell apart. We have some investigators who are really progressing, though. We're trying to teach a friend of the girl we baptized, but we haven't managed to talk to her mom yet. We're going there tonight, so we'll see if anything happens.
I've been studying about what my mission president calls "the formula of success," which is obedience, diligence, and humility. I'd recommend reading about each of those attributes in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel and then studying the scripture references that are listed for each one. I'm trying to apply what I learned from my studies during my daily work, and so far it's working pretty well. I don't think the formula of success applies only to missionaries, so maybe you guys would like to study it a little, too. Sei lá.
Anyway, not too much going on over here. I guess after a year of doing the same thing over and over and over again, the things that were once new and exciting just turn into the routine. We're working a lot and helping people learn about the gospel. I'm trying to focus on thinking positively about myself and others because negative self-talk is something that I struggle with. And I don't know why I'm telling you guys this. That was stupid.
I love you! The Church is true!
luv
elder bwoogins
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