Happy Mother's Day!
I know you all are reading this like a week after Mother's Day, but I don't care. I got to have an awesome video call with my mom on Mother's Day! I was super thankful for that even though we talk every P-Day haha. This week was definitely much better than last week (mostly because we actually had food). I felt like we were also progressing really well with people we're teaching. We had Buddy and Rose at church the other day and Buddy said he wanted to come every week! We're going to put them on date to be baptized real soon (honestly we should have done that earlier haha). When they were at church, the whole ward fellowshipped them so much! Everyone introduced themselves and told them they that they were so excited to see them there. It was so cool! It made Buddy and Rose feel right at home.
Elijah is another kid that we're teaching and he is progressing well too! He will probably be baptized before the end of the transfer as well. His grandmother is a member but hasn't been in a while and they ran into us a while back. Elijah was interested in playing basketball so we'd play basketball and then do a lesson. He was so eager to pray about the book of Mormon, it was awesome! He was also excited to learn about the Priesthood and that he could use it. He was like "wait, I can have God's power?" And we're like "heck yeah dude".
This area is crazy! We find people to teach super easy. We meet so many people that sometimes we forgot to contact some people. There are so many names to remember. It's still super fun learning from people and talking with everyone. Just the other day this random dude from Germany invited us inside to have hot dogs. We literally just had dinner but we're like "haha sure okay!" I'm super gullible now like for all I know he could've drugged those hot dogs.
I got to demo a house on Saturday! This guy wants his whole mansion taken down so he gave us all a sledgehammer and said go to work. So we all just started ripping drywall out and knocking out studs and tearing down everything. At first I thought I didn't need a mask but eventually I started straight up dyeing, so I got a mask to block the dust from getting in my lungs. There was this one point when we were in the basement and some elder just hit the roof and couple times and everything started collapsing and I thought I was going to die. But it was only drywall so we're okay. Also there was a lot of rat droppings in the ceiling so we got a steady fall of rat poop on us while we worked. Afterwards he got us all In-N-Out so that was cool.
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| Our district after the demo |
I got a tie dye shirt this week from someone in the ward. I was pretty hyped at first until I found out it was a V-neck. I hate V-necks. Basically what happened is we had a ward fund raiser and I told someone to buy me one of the tie dye shirts and I would pay them back. So I got it but the one I wanted was finessed by this dude who didn't even bid. I got scammed so the only one left was the dumb V-neck one. The one I wanted was literally so cool, it was a huge XXL and I wanted it so bad. The one I got was not a bad shirt but the neck is dumb. Whatever I guess.
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| The V-neck shirt I got |
Training Elder Caldwell has been interesting for sure. This is not a flex or anything but when I came out on the mission and I could already just teach fairly well. I don't know, it just came naturally I guess. But for Elder Caldwell, his teaching needs a little bit of work. Our companion studies right now are just focused on the lessons. I want him to feel like a confident teacher and help him get points across easily to our friends. He's honestly improved a lot so that's been cool watching him grow that way. I think there are 5 great tips to remember to be an effective teacher.
1. Eye contact and body language (if you look like you don't want to be here or you're uncomfortable, chances are, the people you're teaching are as well)
2. Memorize lessons points and power statements (it makes it more professional so you're not randomly hitting topics and doing whatever)
3. Ask questions (check for understanding or use questions to help them apply this to their lives)
4. Less is more (some people aren't going to grasp things just as fast, gage your quantity of content and vocabulary to the listener, for example, kids won't understand what the actual heck you're talking about if you bring up dispensation, apostasy, Priesthood, the fall, spiritual death, and the atonement all in the same sentence. Just chill with the vocab and take time to explain what it thoroughly or don't bring it up at all)
5. Use the spirit (this is self-explanatory, always start with a prayer)
Anyways, just thought I'd vent all that. This goes if you're teaching in other circumstances as well. Being able to help Elder Caldwell and be his friend has also been awesome. He is such a joy to be around and his smile is contagious. He is never afraid to talk to people. As I'm writing this, he just turned to me and said "you want to learn how to fart on command?" Now he is just ripping them loose. What a guy.
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| Photo of my new zone |
Anyways, I love being here and I am so thankful that you all read my emails. I love to write and its pretty cool that there are people who care enough to listen. So thanks! Also Happy Mother's day to all the mothers in the world and I love you mom! You're the best!
Sincerely,
Elder Pack 
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| My plate of cream of mushroom noodles I made |
