This past week was great! We were so swamped with lessons that we only squeezed in about 7 finding hours. That is bad because if our finding decreases, our success won't be sustainable; but it is good because it means we are teaching many, many lessons (almost 30 this week). We really work on our urgency, time management, efficiency, and planning this week so we can create lasting growth. This is a big jump from only about 10 lessons a week at the beginning of the transfer.
Speaking of the transfer, this one will be ending next week, so my next email will be on a Tuesday. I am not exaggerating when I say this transfer has gone by quicker than any other transfer in my mission. When your skills as a missionary improve, time seems to go by quicker sadly because you are more busy.
We had a great lesson with a woman last week referred to us by the missionaries in the city. In the first five minutes, as I was using how to begin teaching and sharing how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help her overcome the trials and challenges she faces in her life, she started to cry. She shared how she was going through struggles with her unfaithful husband in China, dealing with divorce, with one child who is with the father. The knowledge that she is a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father touched her and we all felt the spirit.
On Thursday I went on trade-offs with the other elders in my district. Trade-offs is where we leaders go with one of the other elders for training purposes, to see how they are doing and offer advice. The elder I went with struggles with finding, which we spent a few hours doing. At the bus stop I talked to a very nice (although almost certainly drunk) guy from one of the -stans in Central Asia, who is a Sikh. He taught me all I ever wanted to know about the Sikh religion and more, that was an interesting experience.
Speaking of run-ins with other religions, missionaries from the Jehovah's Witnesses were out in force Saturday morning. We ran into one (normally they proselyte in pairs or more like we do, but he was participating in a special campaign where they went solo to cover more ground) just after visiting a member. They are really good people. The man we talked to likely didn't know much about the Mormons, because he was surprised to find that we also believe the Father and the Son are separate beings, and that we believe in a physical resurrection. We gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and our number.
We did service for an investigator this week by helping here translate into English a letter she is writing as part of a law suit. I learned that law will definitely not be the right career path for me.
On Sunday there was a special primary program during sacrament meeting, which was sweet and unpolished as any decent Primary presentation should be. Children mumbled, bounced up and down, spoke rather forcefully (therefore unintelligibly) into the mic, were too shy and refused to speak there part, and everything in between. It was impossible to translate for many of them, but the words and actions of little children bring a sweet innocent Spirit whether they are understood or are not. :D
And there you go, that is about it for the week! I hope everyone has a good one, take care!
Elder J. Colton Ladd
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