Ah, another week has flown by. My companion, Elder Erekson, was in the MTC at the same time as me, and has only been in the mission field 6 weeks longer than I have. He hits his "one year left" mark today, which means mine is just around the corner... What a terrifying thought! As President Bishop would say: "Time is fun when you're eating flies!"
I don't have too much interesting stuff to report, so unfortunately my letter will be relatively brief this week. But I would like to share my experience this week on effective planning.
The old standard in the mission was to have 30 lessons every week. While this is no longer a mission goal, it has still been a good indicator for our effectiveness as missionaries. Elder Erekson and I are practically whitewashing, and because of this lack of investigators, it has been pretty rough in our search for lessons. Since being together, we've had only about 6-7 lessons per week. The other day we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and Elder Erekson talked with Elder Teng about our predicament. In response, Elder Teng told him that for the exception of a couple weeks, he had gotten at least 30 lessons every single week of his mission, even when he was whitewashing. The key, he said, was to have thougtful, inspired plans. When this is done, miracles happen. Then Elder Erekson got to see this in action: In the space of two hours, they had a lesson with someone on the road, met with a less active member, and then on their way out of the house bumped into a recent convert who was dropping by to visit. Three lessons in two hours!!!
We decided to give this a good shot. On Saturday night, we hashed out a really thought out, detailed plan that focused on our goals for that day. Even more importantly, we prayed to be sure that this was the plan we were supposed to follow. Then on Sunday, the miracles happened. We had written in our plan that at 3:30 we would have a lesson with someone at the 7-Eleven next to the place where we email. As we rode up, sure enough, we saw a young fellow taking a break at one of the tables outside the 7-Eleven. AND he was willing to let us sit down with him. Shortly after, we had a lesson near our apartment, exactly where and when we had planned it. Many would call this luck, but I know better. There is no way that all of this could have been perfectly orchestrated by chance. God is placing others in our path, and sending us to where we need to be. True, not all our plans, even well thought out ones, will be perfectly executed. Many of mine have been dashed to pieces. But as we exercise faith and do our part to be prepared for the blessings, the Lord will provide ways for us to hit our goals. Super cool!
Hope you are all having a wonderful week, and I love hearing from you! Have a good one,
Love,
-Elder Jorgensen
“Our mission rocks. Check out this sticker on my scripture case.”
“Batman is "You Ban Fa!" (Our mission motto: "There is a way!"
“Our beautiful view from our apartment... Too bad we're moving this week. :(
“These cartoon characters look remarkably familiar...”
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