Hello everyone! What a great week to be a missionary! We are still teaching quite a bit, and had a good week even though it was transfer week and blazing hot these past couple of days. Since Elder Davies and I are going to be together again for another six weeks, we definitely have a grasp of the area and people. With summer here and school getting out tomorrow, we should be able to get some things done with our younger investigators!
I think the hardest thing to do is to try to find ways to uplift and inspire others without looking self-righteous or appearing to "check things off of our list" when we do them. We have had some interesting discussions in church about serving and fellowshipping others out of love, and not because you want to meet a quota. This is interesting to think about; because missionaries use goals to increase our productivity and effectiveness, there might be some who take it the wrong way and only work towards meeting those goals. I think it's important to always remember why we do things, because our actions will change based off of our reasoning behind them. Teaching people becomes enjoyable when you view it as sharing light with your fellow brothers and sisters here on earth, for example. Alma expresses this same sort of view in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 8:14. Even though he had just been rejected and spit upon by the people of Ammonihah, he sorrowed for the people because of their wicked ways, not because he himself was rejected or that he wasn't "successful". Reading about how much Alma cared about these people helps me to remember what my mindset should be when I work as a missionary.
I'm working on teaching with more purpose, and using my goals to increase my effectiveness while still maintaining my purpose. We have some baptismal dates set for July 11th, so hopefully we can help prepare them to make that a reality! Love you all, hope all is going well. Stay strong.
Elder Crandell
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