So for those of you
that have been keeping way to close attention to my blog or happened to have
Mexican relatives or just look for an excuse to party you might have noticed
that Mexican Independence Day was this past week (September 16th).
And since we are in a zone with only 3 sets of non-Spanish-speaking
missionaries, we decided to follow suit with the rest of Mexico and have our
own little missionary not-really-party kind of a party on P-Day [Preparation
Day]. Our wonderful zone leaders divvied up assignments and we all came
together at a member’s home with an expansive yard that was willing to host
our festivities. We did normal preparation day activities such as soccer
and frisbee and kickball (they have a small baseball diamond in their backyard)
but the crowning event was the carne asada we threw together. We went to the
local Mexican tienda [store], got some meat and cooked it ourselves, somehow
managing to not give everyone food poisoning, since most of us had hardly
cooked anything beyond Ramen. The APs (Assistants to the President) even graced
us with their presence and partook of our wonderful deliciousness. It was
a P-Day to remember.
The next day (Tuesday)
was also one of those days that happens very few times in a missionary's life
but that will change everything. Normally this transfer we were supposed to -have
a 2-hour specialized training from the APs and the mission President with interviews
throughout the day with him to discuss how things are going, etc. Well, not this
time around. Instead of the normal 2-hour training, we got 7 hours. And instead
of interviews this transfer, they got postponed to next transfer. But for a
solid 2 hours our President gave an amazing training about changing mission
culture. Somehow he managed to give a training session for 2 hours solid
without even looking at notes. It will be exciting to see the changes that come
as a result of it.
But what about the
other 5 hours you ask? Well, one of them was lunch. Always important. But! The
other four were the APs introducing a new, revamped version of weekly planning.
Every Friday in the past we would sit down and discuss the people we were
meeting with for 2 hours and try and see what we can do to help them out and
such. Well, now that 2 hours has been ramped up to anywhere between 4 to 6
hours. A member of the 70 [Quorum of the Seventy] gave the training to the
neighboring Spokane mission and they saw such huge success from it that our
mission President took it too. I'm not terribly excited about leaving the house
until dinner, but the new planning seems like it will be super effective.
And in other news, I
was on exchanges with one of the zone leaders and so we went to the baptism of
a man out in Basin City since the District Leader pertaining to that area
didn't speak Spanish hence with the ZL did it but anyways, we were in Basin
City for the baptism of a man who only spoke Spanish so naturally all his
friends from the branch spoke Spanish too. One of these had stayed a little
longer when we were talking after with the guy who got baptized (all in
Spanish) when the convert got a call and stepped away. For some reason though,
the three of us (who are all extremely white) continued talking in Spanish. It
wasn't until the drive home that I realized how weird that was. Three white
guys talking in Spanish. Who knew?
And this week's Quote
of the Week comes from the aforementioned training from our Mission President
this past Tuesday. That’s about all the background necessary.
"Shut up and let
the Spirit have a turn."
Short and simple and
to the point. Gotta love it.
Stay awesome everyone!
Elder Kupferer
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