No Less Nerdy

Hi Everyone!
 
I'll have to be short today, the library is packed with people so I only have a few minutes, I might not get a chance to respond individually to Taylor, Emily, and Heather, but I'll talk to y'all on Saturday!

Speaking of that, I'll do my very best to make my call in the morning sometime, we're still working to get a family finalized to help us with the call but have several options. They've asked us to try to keep the call to 40 minutes, so I'm thinking that we can do about 10 minutes of a group chat, have some questions ready for me and I'll answer them, and then I'll take about 4 minutes individually with each of the family. :) I don't think they adjusted the time limit for Mormon families....
 
This week has been fairly interesting, I'm finally feeling comfortable with the ward, the confusing streets, and the investigators that I can lead here, but with that comes the challenge of making joint decisions with my companion who is now used to being in charge.

If there's one thing I've learned on my mission about relationships, it's that you have to treat the other person's idea's with just as much value as your own, otherwise there'll be conflict and hurt feelings. It's a really tough one to put in practice, but fortunately the Lord is giving me a 2 year seminar with daily practice to get the hang of the idea.

I'm grateful though for the opportunity to serve with so many different people with so many backgrounds, interests, and even cultures, because it's broadened my perspective and I've developed a lot in my interpersonal relationship skills (and apparently haven't gotten any less nerdy looking at the way I phrased that!) The mission is a wonderful opportunity to learn.
 
We're working with Isauro, an older gentleman who is having some trouble quitting smoking, we're going to try some drastic approaches tomorrow and I don't have time to explain much, but I'll try to report on it next week and see if it works.
 
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers, this truly is the Lord's work and even in the tough times the Lord is always close and really supports His Missionaries. Have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis