Received Monday, February 17, 2014

QUESTIONS:

how is your weather?

very wintery. Snow and cold. the cold honestly hasn't been too miserable, but htere is just snow on top of snow. sometime I somehow convinced myself winter season was almost over, which now makes it feel dragging out. Its really not too bad, the snow brings service and things, but we were red dotted a number of times (no driving/cancel appointments) many times in the last couple weeks. Also i may be getting slightly paranoid that it will just keep snowing forever and ever and eventually we'll all just drown in it. and freeze to death. After a while it's getting harder to figure out where to put the stuff!

do you wear a knit cap or hat on your head when you go out?

not this month I probably have twice, so sometimes, but not often

is Boston in your current area? Hmm, is Boston in your zone?

no and no. We are in the Cambridge north zone, there is also a Cambridge south zone which is closer to Boston and there are Boston East and Boston West zones which actually encompass the city. The missionaries are much less spread out here closer to Boston where there are lots more people.

did you ever get a valentine's card from me?

yes, it had a yummy hershey bar and a little poem type ditty

Did you ever get a chocolate kiss from me for Christmas?/ did you eat it?

yes, and of course. it was scrumptious

I am guessing you do not do quite as much regular missionary work as when you were not a zone leader. Correct?
How do you like all that? 

yea, not quite as much. At our recent MLC (mission leadership council. Once a month all the ZL's and STL's and the president/AP's have a meeting) president talked about how for ZL's you should spend about 60% of your time working your area and about 40% of time helping with the zone (but the balance depends on the specific zone and area.) That was a bit of a call to repentance for us who have been spending probably about 80% of our focus just on our area. It's all fine, some things feel like a hassel (organizing rides for people, paperwork, and some things) but there are a lot of really good things too. It's what i've been assigned to do, like being transferred to an area, or getting a calling or any assignment, I think it's usually part of the job to learn to like it so you can do your best.

we have our MLC once a month and later that week we do our Zone meeting (with the STL's). Each week we get all the numbers from the district leaders and report them. Also we talk to all the district leaders about there districts, who's doing great, who's struggling, why, what will you do to help, who doesn't see the big picture, hows DM, etc. Also we talk to the STL's about how the sisters are doing. We need to help all the DL's more understand what they can do and the impact they can have (epsecially with helping there people focus on the priorities, monthly goals, and especially the people tghat have baptisimal dates. President thinks we are losing way to many of the people who have baptisimal dates and there's a lot missionaries can do to help that.). We've had trainings on this stuff lots of times and specific leadership training on it too, but of course all the new people (new missionaries and new leaders) haven't, so it's a continual process. A lot of times President talks to us (leadership, especially ZL's) as if we're perfect and have everything down (which I think he does on purpose), and I know I don't, there's lots I'm not good at, but I do understand the theory behind a lot of the stuff even if I'm not great at doing it yet.

is that an ok rundown?

Also we do the baptisimal interview for the district leaders' investigators.

Do you like being a zone leader, do you like all those responsibilities?

this is a bit of a repeat question, but I can expound. I've never really been a big fan of having additional responsibility. I think there are additional trials in some ways and many additional blessings. I think there are additional ways to "mess up" and sometimes on a bigger scale, so you can't live your life or make decisions based on your fears or doubts. President likes to say you don't live based on what you don't know, but on what you do know. I've never really thought about it that way as far as leadership, but I think it applies. Its cool to get the extra trainings from President. He'll often go off on short tangents on things only slightly related but useful life skills/knowledge (about families or anything gospel related). One neat thing is you get to be a little more apart of everyone elses success and it helps you to really feel part of the group and enjoy the collective success and happiness.

 Do you have much interaction with the STLs?

yea. We try to talk before/after they do there exchanges and whenever else we feel we need to. Also we plan zone meeting together. 

What is the area of your mission called?

Lynnfield area/Lynnfield ward, either works.

           

How do you pronounce Reading? like how you read, or the color red?

red (the color) ing (the ing sound)

What are your feelings about us, your family, coming out to get you and look around, at the end of your mission?

that would be fine if you want. I probably wouldn't want to wait too too long before going home, but I think whatever is fine

How are your cold (sick) symptoms?

pretty much done I think

How do you like doing exchanges? Really, what is/are the purpose of those?

they can be fun. So district leaders do exchanges with everyone in there district (not sisters, the STL's do that) and the ZL's do them with at least the DL's and maybe more. I think we'll do them with everyone this transfer. So we get a lot of trainings and things from the mission about finding, working with members, learning from PMG, about how to plan about everything. Some people are god at learning these things ion a classroom and internalizing it and applying to to their area. Some people are not. It is helpful for really everyone to see these things in action to really learn them. That is the reason for exchanges to demonstrate/learn together how to actually apply the things we're learning.

with everything I think I made leadership roles sound like a bit bigger deal than they actually are, but that is a lot of the stuff we do/are supposed to do.

Was that a good leadership responsibility rundown?

We went to the temple today! it was good. It was a fine week. Lots of snowed out evenings, like I mentioned. we had one fun exchange this week with some elders that I think was helpful, especially since we had like an hour conversation at the end to try to help them establish a big picture game-plan which will help. Especially to see how they can fill a finding pool (and write all of it down). Not sure if they really translates into anything in non-missionary speak but thats what we did.

other stuff from this week, hmm. We have a sort-of investigator we shovel snow for and when we weren't able to have a real lesson, we did a spiritual thought with Elder Jones playing his guitar. Tonight we have a dinner and an FHE with our WML's family and an investigator is coming too. We might not teach him too much longer though if things don't take a good turn. He says he likes to learn and is basically a good guy, but said he has no intention of changing religions or coming to church. Also tomorrow we are in charge of mutual for the older boys, we haven't decided entirely what we're going to do for that yet. We hope to have a less active member come in and tell his conversion story as part of it.

About Hingham, I used to serve near there in my first area, in the same zone. Also (I hope I'm not mixing the city up) in my 2nd area, Canton, a lot of (wealthy) people worked there for insurance companies, i guess it's like the insurance company of the world.

That may be everything untill next week.

I love you!