30 July 2009 to 6 August 2009

Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 2:10 PM

Hmm... what to talk about this week. Well, I've never been as busy so far in my mission as I have been this past week. Since I'm the one who's been in the area longest, I'm basically Senior Comp (Elder Huffaker has no clue what to do so I have to basically plan everything). Since I've been in this area, I've seen some things that I said I would change if I stayed. So here I am.

In one of my stakes (I don't remember if I've said this, but I cover three. Yup... STAKES) there is very little mission work going on. When I say little, I mean that there's one potential investigator in the entire stake. The missionaries a few transfers back believed 'If you don't help me, I'm not going to help you.' So nothing went on and none of the Ward Mission Leaders cared to come to Correlation meetings except that one time of the month where they had to.

I choose to be different though. Instead of working mostly in the best stake that we have, I choose to work in the worst stake. I took what the other elders believed and flipped it around. 'I'm going to help you out so that you can help me out.' It's all trust issues here. If you don't trust the missionaries then why would you ever give them your family and friends and neighbors to work with?

Well, since the beginning of the transfer, we've been working with all of the auxiliary leaders to try and get mission work fired up in the stake (we haven't worked with all of them yet. Just in this stake alone there's 54 or so leaders so we're working our way systematically through the wards.) Because of all this focus on this stake, the members are seeing us more often. Because of our new resolve to contact the referrals that we get ASAP and then report back, more people are trusting us. Just yesterday during the Correlation Meeting, all but 2 of the WML's showed up and they said they'd show up next week as well. That's something this stake hasn't seen in MONTHS. I'm really excited about the possibilities of what's happening.

As for the other stakes, we only have time to contact those who we're actually teaching and referrals that we get. This kind of reminds me when Zion was established after Jesus came to the America's. There was no rich or poor among them. They were all equal. Well, when it comes to these three stakes, there should be none better than another. They should be all equal.

We've been teaching less and in-actives more than investigators and that's just fine with me. I'm not content to just focus on those unbaptized. I want to help save the souls of ALL my brothers and sisters. I don't know how everyone feels about me not trying to baptize thousands like Nephi and Lehi but I have been told that "I will help bring many back into the fold of God." (<- I'm paraphrasing.)

Let's see... what else to say...

I don't have any good stories to tell. The ones that I do have are all about missionary work or things that I shouldn't discuss. Sorry to let you all down.

Anyways, if you read this, drop me a quick line (unless you get this personally. I already know who you are).

If you have any questions that aren't "How many baptisms have you had," and "Where are you at?" then send them my way.

Anyways, later.

Elder Garcia