Hope you all had a Happy Mommy Day! I know I love mine! We had an amazing steak dinner and waited for parents to call. It was so much fun to get the call from home yesterday. I love my family so much. I love them lots and lots, I wish I could give them all a big hug soon. I heard they are going to Maui, lucky! I wish I could lay out on a beach and read the scriptures in the sand. I feel like everything I like to do is against the rules like swimming, dancing, snowboarding, listening to music with a beat, flying in the plane with dad, babysitting, playing with my dog etc.
We had transfers and I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Pope, she is from Orem Utah, actually all the elders in my district are from Utah, pretty funny, huh? Sister Pope finishes her mission in July so she will stay in Galveston until then. I will be here for this transfer, and if I am here for the next one then I will be here through August. I don't know if I want to be here through the summer, seeing that lots of people come in from out of town and most of the people I talk to would be referrals for other missionaries.
I never knew how hard it would be to get people to church. In order to get people baptized they have to come to church a certain number of times. Which makes sense, seeing it is a commandment to renew the baptismal covenants we enter into by going to church every week. So they have to attend so they will get into that habit. It is very hard though- night before we call investigators to confirm they will be coming, call members and have them pick them up, and then Sunday morning it's like a mad frantic, calling investigators to make sure they will be coming and are up arranging rides, wake up calls, and if not up cancel the ride or send it anyways or ourselves knock on the door so that they can come to church and make the date they have set as a goal. If they don't come to church they won't make their baptismal date. And of course we have a number goal to how many people will attend church, which we fell short of this week, again.
I love being a missionary but I don't like updating records, managing time, figuring out who to see, what time , coordinate a day to have minimal travel time, when members can help us, depending on others, etc. I like sharing the gospel but that's it. I have no other joy. I hate goals and recording numbers that reflect my efforts because most are a reflection of people's freedom of choice like getting baptized, the standard is one a month, or lessons, like 20, or new investigators or how many lessons and how many new people say yes, or someone progressing. People have to choose to keep commitments, the list goes on and on.
Our area not only covers Galveston but Texas City, La Marke, and Hitchcock, which is overwhelming trying to schedule time to go off the Island and contact referrals and set up appts, because if they cancel we have to have good backup plans and we don't have GPS, and already got a lost a few times for our one trip out there. There is a difference between Virginia and Virginia St. And they are not exactly close to each other.
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