Week 56- I need a nap

As is potentially apparent, I have been fairly tired this week. Just wishing we could go out and knock doors and visit in person really bad this week. However, other than that it was a good week.

Tuesday, we had a pretty packed day and had a couple good lessons, Wednesday was also packed because of service and district council. District council this week was on the importance of studying. I thought it went alright, but there is always room for improvement. I learned a couple new study ideas that may make studying easier when it’s harder to focus. So I would call it a success for me.

After district council, Elder Glazier needed to go to the doctor down in Everett so we dropped him off, and Elder Castillo, Tolman and I got Ray’s fries, burgers and shakes… Well I got a shake, Elder Castillo and I shared a thing of fries, and Elder Tolman got a combo with a burger, fries and drink. It was pretty good. We also took some time to do some calling to ask President Auna for permission to teach Elder Castillos family members, and we also got permission to get the COVID vaccine. Because we work at the food bank, we are eligible to get it, which will be nice. Unfortunately, besides protection, there is no immediate payoff. Despite it, we still won’t be able to visit families in person or take off the mask… But hey it’s a step in the right direction.

Let’s see, Thursday I had an exchange with Elder Tolman. It was pretty fun. We had four lessons if I remember correctly. It was pretty good. We spent our dinner and walk time together and just went out and walked in Jennings Park and talked about all that had changed in the mission, what we could do better to be happier and more productive. I loved it. Moments like that when I just get to know what people actually think and are struggling with and working with them is why I love being a district leader.

Thursday night, Elder Fiske the vehicle Coordinator came and we removed the Tiwi (the little box that tells us if we are speeding or driving too aggressively) because Friday morning, we went down to Everett to get our cracked glass fixed. We weren’t allowed to stay in the building, so we just took an hour and a half walk around Everett which was relaxing as well and good for our mental health. It was cool though. We literally were like 100 ft away from our big loop when they called and said it was done. Then, unfortunately, Elder Fiske met up with us again, and we had to put Tiwi back on. Boo.

Saturday we had to finish our picture post, video post and devotionals for the page. They’ve changed how they run the page. So we have content managers (I’m over the devotional so I assign everything and then put it together), but there is very little talk between us so we got assigned to do story Thursday and send in a video and photo post and the normal devotional all this week. So that was frustrating, but we got it all done. Saturday, we had Elder Elison (other Spanish Elder) and Elder Laird came and helped us shoot a part of the video. Then we spent the rest of the day editing it. Oh I guess we had ZLC and the ArMargeddon that night too which was a lot of fun, and we are still winning between the districts. I will say that it has been a success for the zone to get more unity (we do a zone zoom call after) and stuff so that’s good. People this week really slacked on the devotional parts so dispite announcing who does what every Sunday in the chat (it’s also in a Google doc at the beginning of the month [but I am the only one to have filled it out way before hand]) and then multiple reminders through out the week. So unfortunately, the devotional was not done until 12:30 in the middle of church. So, I finished editing on my phone, but it took 30 minutes to export and then I had to upload it to drive and then they posted it. It was stressful. And on top of that, we had moderating Sunday and no one else, dispite the daily notification that it is there by Elder Mejía, had done it for about 250 people (about 2 weeks) . (We message all the new likes on the page) Well after messaging about 100 people, Facebook jailed me for doing so (because we message from our accounts and not as the page) and as of 4:27 today I can message new people on Facebook. Then Elder Castillo also got jailed. So Elder Zalesny and Elder Boren the two page Admins finished up and they’re going to get on people tonight in a meeting for not moderating. Then last night we accounted and I cut my hair.

Overall pretty good week looking back at it. Just hard at some points to feel motivated to get up and do something after a break time. Today has been good. We played spikeball as a district. Kinda. So we have 2 spikeball nets in the district and the church owns a pretty big field behind the church. So 2 companionships played in one corner and 2 in the diagonal corner. Then we would switch between us, thus not breaking COVID laws by only having 4 people and from only 2 households playing together. I think it really helped with district unity. I am praying this week I can be better about finding motivation. Elder Castillo and I have talked about it and we’re both gonna work on not getting so distracted haha.

Questions
How are things going with your new companion? – Good he cooks some, I cook some, like Wednesday we made burgers together for lunch. It was pretty fun and good. He also is just a fun person. Though we both get distracted easily as mention above so we’re working on it.
How are you working to serve him?- I make him breakfast or I bought (well mom and day technically) us Chick-fil-A this week.
What do you admire about him as a missionary? – He’s a good teacher and is very knowledgeable and he is fluent in Spanish. We’re going to try to speak more Spanish together this week
Are you pooling your funds for food and eating together like you and Elder Ray did? – Yup
What have you learned this week about virtual missionary work? – It’s not easy. So many distractions on Facebook, so easy to get frustrated with it, but there is a lot of satisfaction in getting to talk with someone even if it’s not about religion. Plus it allows us to have more lessons in a shorter amount of time, because well no travel, although we all prefer in person
Is a missionary council functioning in the branch with EQ and RS participation? – Well we join branch council every Sunday, but we rarely are asked more than “What can we do for you?” and sometimes not even that. Then after chruch we have a meeting with President Soto where we talk about how many members we visited and friends that they could help with, that’s where the real work is done. Finally we have a missionary coordination meeting with just the branch mission leader which is just the same thing as the meeting with President Soto
What did you share in your district meeting and what is planned for the next one? – See above, this week is going to be on unity. As a companionship and a district, we also have zone Conference tomorrow which should be fun