September 28th, 2016

Zone training was in Poole which is a 4 hour train ride away. The train left at 4:57 and tokoragi decided to randomly take a shower at 4:20.... we missed the train. Because of that we ended up getting into Poole around midnight. Zone conference was so so so good!! One of my favourite things I took away from it was how to ask questions and how to dig deeper. Questions like: Tell me more. What did you like? How did you feel? What would it mean to you if....? Asking the level 2 questions really get people to open up and share how they feel which enables us to teach better but it's also just a very good life skill that I hope to master.

My comp is still struggling. He is so hard to get going and to motivate. He doesn't like taking instruction or improvements. It's difficult to be able to teach but it does come. I have to call president every week and give a report and this last time he told me to just keep loving him and be stern. The hard thing is though when I care too much about him and helping him change I get really frustrated so I find myself not caring and just letting things go. Then I feel bad and start caring again and I go through that cycle a few times every week. Also another thing that's been kind of meh is the missionary work in the ward has really been struggling. There are 6 missionaries in this ward and there has only been one baptism in the ward in the past years and he went less active after the second Sunday. We had a chat with the one of the counselors in the bishopric and also the ward mission leader and they had some really bad stories of the ward struggling with missionary work and them pushing investigators away. They both said separately that God won't let people be baptized into a ward that isn't ready. I don't know how true that is but it's definitely making us focus on helping the ward more than anything else. But the mission pressing doesn't want us to focus on the ward. So confusing.... I'm just trying to be the best I can be. 

We were teaching this guy named Jim who we found a while ago and we just never got to do because schedules didn't work out. He has mental illness. He is schizophrenic and has anxiety. We were in the lesson for 20 minutes and it was going well but then he started sweating and shaking and then said he was having anxiety and asked us to leave so we said a prayer and left. It was really sad to see him like that and how he had no control. I wish I could do more for him.

I'm doing good. Been doing a lot to try and help the missionaries in the district. The winter is definitely coming and the days are getting short and shorter. Last year it sucked when it got light at 9am and dark at 4pm. Not looking forward to that but I am so looking forward to the holiday season. All in all life is good though! 

Nightly shakes

Comp study/snuggle time

A random pic