Its that time of the year again…
Barber’s Back
Thanks to some gracious donors (shoutout Mom and Aaron) I have returned to my ocupation of barber. Unfortunately when I decided to start my carear again, I used all my precious free time cutting hair. My new house mate (not my companion) cuts hair too, and we practically had a hair cutting party. As he cut my comps hair and I cut his comps.
Santa’s Not Real
The coolest thing I’ve done on Christmas was visit an orphanage. I did that today. Our LTs (sister training leaders (I think)) organized a “secret Santa” type thing for the kids there. We each received one name and age and had to buy presents for the kid we received. That was awesome, but… As we concluded, the bishop from the church in the city of the orphanage gave a speech. In this speech, he started out normal talking about Jesus and his birth. But somehow, he ended up telling all the little kids at the orphanage “Santa’s not real” and he continued on a rant. He then pushed the mic in one of the missionaries faces and said “I want you to explain to (points to a kid) why Santa’s not Real. Of course, I’m horrified that these kids are getting even more traumatized than they already are (probably) and their dreams of Saint Nick were getting absolutely shattered. But to make it worse, this guy points at one of the little kids, sitting in the lap of one of the caretakers, and then says to the lady holding the little girl, “explain to her how Santa’s not real”. Of course no one was willing to go down that route with him, and everyone just looked at him. Other than that, it was a really awesome experience.
Weed Farm?
The spot in the favela (slums) that we work a lot in recently got an upgrade… a nice big makeshift canopy. Why? To give shade to the drug dealers. These caras (guys) sit there and sell/smoke all the drugs from weed to crack. Nothing too crazy. One day, before attaining this knowledge, we happened to be looking for a spot to sit down for a second out of the sun and send a couple texts. And what better spot than a brand new canopy right in the bird’s eye view of everything? That exactly what we thought. As we sat there, we saw our friend waving frantically from down below. We waved back nonchalantly. A little while later after we came back down, he told us about the spot and that the police were constantly there around 6 times a day busting them. We must be blessed because we’ve never seen them get busted and we walk past there every day. One chill night, we were walking by and beheld what could only be their little weed plants (or random strategically placed plants–we’ll never know), but of course we had to take some pics. (In hindsight I think it’s not weed but for the sake of the story it is).
If you thought that was the secret weed farm you are mistaken. The real secret weed farm was actually a secret weed farm. As we were leaving this neighborhood far in the country, we looked on the map and realized the other neighborhood we wanted to visit was only across a large stretch of “jungle”. To get through, we hopped a large concrete fence that was containing a neighborhood. Behind the wall, was a very steep hill and at the bottom was a bunch of neatly organized weed plants (these were actual weed plants.) Of course, we had to keep going and we walked past the guy taking care of the plants and hopped a fence to the real jungle. Crazy. *Video in the Google photos.
Diligence
It feels kind of weird to come from the weed story to the spiritual highlight but let’s do it. One thing I’ve been realizing after shadowing a couple of other missionaries, is that I was working hard but not receiving the success people were having.
The main thing I learned was that it’s more the method than the amount of exerted force. For our district council (meet up with the squad) I was assigned to give a training on diligence. With thoughtful prayer I created the photo below. I followed the pattern that my companion had followed and received great success from a couple days earlier.
Our previous goals for people found each week to teach would range from 15-20, and would happen over the course of the week. Unfortunately, this goal wasn’t being hit. We were only finding 12-ish people per week, and we were working extremely hard at it. It was finally decided that we needed to change something.
After we prayed, we set a 15 minute timer. During this 15 minutes, we decided to think of three ways each we could improve our way of finding. At the end of the timer, we counseled together and using our resources, we put together our ideas. The next day we implemented these ideas and tweaked them gradually to perfection. That very same day, we hit our goal for people found for the week!
This pattern of using diligence changed my perspective on what it means to work hard. It’s not about using all of your strength, it’s about aligning your efforts to fulfill your defined purpose, refining your method to achieve success. Another thing I’ve learned about this process is to always petition the Lord, but when He says work, get to work.
This process is also represented in the story of the brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon. I recommend studying this passage if you would like a better description on how it works. I know that relying on the Savior and refining or aligning our purpose with his purpose for us will always bring forth your desired fruits.
I encourage you guys to give this a try with anything in yours lives and test it out for yourselves.
(Chapter 2-4)https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/2?lang=eng&id=title_number1#title_number1
Merry Christmas! Love y’all and don’t forget the why behind this season.
Notable Events
– Painted a house
– Sang carols at an old folk’s home (one guy was cussing)
– Explored the jungle a little- Got a new companion
– I’ve gotten some more funny/crazy stories but I’m done writing
Google photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/cnvNHFLuWEPTfcKj7