Hi Everyone!
This week was pretty busy, I was only here in Rifle with Elder Castaneda for two days out of the week, we did exchanges all across the zone and helped out a lot of the missionaries. We logged a total of 729 miles for the week in our car, over 100 miles per day! It's been tiring for me and I'm glad today's P-day and I can take a break from it!
Our new Ward Mission Leader has been working really hard and it's already making a difference, we got members to our lessons 4 times this week and we had a lady come to church because of it! It's a lady named Charlotte, a sweet older lady who'd asked for her name to be removed from the church records years ago when she re-married, but now she's divorced from the man and has an open mind towards the church.
We found her tracting and asked her if we could "practice" our lessons on her so we could improve our teaching, so we set up an appointment and brought one of the ward missionaries with us! The lesson went great and she responded well to the questions and commitments, and told us she'd come to church on Sunday!
When we got there we didn't see her, so we were sitting in the back waiting for an investigator or less-active to walk in, but our ward mission leader came over and asked us if Charlotte had come yet. We said we hadn't seen her, and he looked around and pointed out an older lady sitting by herself and asked if it were her, and I recognized her so we went over and sat by her and had a really good sacrament meeting!
It's been really fun to be able to work in an English ward, I've had some thoughts about it recently that I'd like to share. In a recent leadership training meeting, our mission president told us that the new ward mission process with 5 names of less-active families coming from each auxiliary is what the Lord wants us to do and what the brethren are instructing us to do. He also commented that in the Spanish wards and branches here in the mission the units aren't strong enough or developed enough to really do this process right, and so those missionaries have a different assignment.
With our change in ward mission leaders, I've been starting to see the beauty of the ward mission process and I'm quickly finding out that in big English wards the only way to do missionary work is to have it be a member-led program. We're starting to see a huge increase in our success as the ward really steps up to help us, and thinking about it I believe it's true that the Spanish wards aren't quite ready for this yet. I'm understanding more that the job of our Spanish elders is still to go out and knock doors and find those people to teach that are ready, and work with the friends of the members, recent converts and less actives to find success. For me it's a little bit of a revelation, because I realize now some of the frustration I had working in Spanish was just because I didn't understand our purpose as clearly, and why here in English the same techniques don't work as in Spanish. It's really quite different, but I'm so grateful that this ward is really stepping up because it shows me how it's supposed to be done!
A lesson I'm learning recently is that when we try our best to do God's will there's always opposition, and there's always blessings as well. These last few weeks have been really trying physically and mentally with all the trainings, travel and exchanges, but at the same time I've been so blessed spiritually and feel very close to the Lord. I see His hand in my life all the time, and many small coincidences on a daily basis help me to know that He's there and is watching out for me. It's always worth it to push through and get the blessings, God makes sure to push us and stretch us when we do His will but after our faith and our patience is tried we get the miracles. I love my mission, and I love serving the Lord and his children! There's no greater work, and no greater happiness than when those you serve and love progress in the Gospel!
I hope everything is going well for you all, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Awesome New Ward Mission Leader
Hi Everyone!
This week has been exciting, we got a new Ward Mission Leader on Sunday, and he's awesome! He called us after church and wanted to meet with us ASAP along with the assistant WML that got called, so we met for a couple hours and gave him a brief on what's been happening and where the Brethren would like us to go, and he was all for it and shared a lot of his personal goals and philosophies and is really excited about it! He's a really funny guy, still younger, got off his mission about 10 years ago and is really on fire about missionary work!
He has a bunch of plans to get the members more missionary minded over a couple years time, and is helping us get the 15 names process going in the ward. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the new way the church is doing missionary work, but basically the High Priests, Elders and Relief Society each come up with 5 names of less-actives or part member families that the missionaries can teach, and then a member goes and invites the person to hear the missionary lessons (the Preach My Gospel ones).
It's pretty simple but for some reason most of the wards in our mission really struggle to get these names, and here in Rifle in the past our ward mission leader would almost just take names from our teaching pool and create a 15 names list to give to the ward, so nothing really got done that way. But, by the end of sunday, after out meeting, our new Ward Mission Leader got each axillary to commit to come up with 5 brand new names that we can get invited and start teaching!
Working with less-active families has been a really big push from the Brethren recently, they like us working with them because when you can get members reactivated, you get a lot of referals because of all their non-member acquaintances, and a lot of times you're twice as effective and can help so many more people!
Honestly the best times on my mission have been when I'm working with less-actives and they progress and bring their friends into the gospel, and I really have a testimony of that kind of work! I'm excited for our Ward mission leader getting involved with us teaching more families like this, because for a while here I've been feeling like things are pretty stagnant and I need something to really sink my teeth into. I want to work hard but it's been hard to know how or where to focus my efforts, but I think with this change and following the brethren (usually they're pretty inspired), the ward will finally catch the spirit and we'll have as much work as we can handle!
Our investigator Steven is struggling a bit, he's on baptismal date for July 9th but he's having a rough go of it with his wife Mindy, they didn't come to church this week and we don't know exactly what could happen. He's talked about going back to Missouri and starting over again, but we're hoping he's able to work things out.
I'm learning a lot right now about being patient in trials and afflictions, I've been sick for almost a week and it's lingering, but I have a lot of responsabilities with the zone and leading my area as well, and I can't slow down or rest to fully recover yet. This whole week is packed and I've been feeling really inadequete and overwhelmed, and in that state of mind it's really easy to get discouraged or to snap at people. True patience though is getting through stuff like this without getting angry and frustrated, not merely enduring and not blowing up and causing negative feelings all around you.
The Lord is good, and I've been leaning on Him a lot and trusting that He'll make me equal to the task, and it's been a good reminder for me that it's the Lord and not me that really is doing the miricals in missionary work. No matter how much experience or time I have, I really need Him just as much as the day I stepped foot in the MTC, fresh and green and terrified of the incredible responsabilities of being the Lord's messenger. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, it's shaped my life and I love the Lord for it!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
This week has been exciting, we got a new Ward Mission Leader on Sunday, and he's awesome! He called us after church and wanted to meet with us ASAP along with the assistant WML that got called, so we met for a couple hours and gave him a brief on what's been happening and where the Brethren would like us to go, and he was all for it and shared a lot of his personal goals and philosophies and is really excited about it! He's a really funny guy, still younger, got off his mission about 10 years ago and is really on fire about missionary work!
He has a bunch of plans to get the members more missionary minded over a couple years time, and is helping us get the 15 names process going in the ward. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the new way the church is doing missionary work, but basically the High Priests, Elders and Relief Society each come up with 5 names of less-actives or part member families that the missionaries can teach, and then a member goes and invites the person to hear the missionary lessons (the Preach My Gospel ones).
It's pretty simple but for some reason most of the wards in our mission really struggle to get these names, and here in Rifle in the past our ward mission leader would almost just take names from our teaching pool and create a 15 names list to give to the ward, so nothing really got done that way. But, by the end of sunday, after out meeting, our new Ward Mission Leader got each axillary to commit to come up with 5 brand new names that we can get invited and start teaching!
Working with less-active families has been a really big push from the Brethren recently, they like us working with them because when you can get members reactivated, you get a lot of referals because of all their non-member acquaintances, and a lot of times you're twice as effective and can help so many more people!
Honestly the best times on my mission have been when I'm working with less-actives and they progress and bring their friends into the gospel, and I really have a testimony of that kind of work! I'm excited for our Ward mission leader getting involved with us teaching more families like this, because for a while here I've been feeling like things are pretty stagnant and I need something to really sink my teeth into. I want to work hard but it's been hard to know how or where to focus my efforts, but I think with this change and following the brethren (usually they're pretty inspired), the ward will finally catch the spirit and we'll have as much work as we can handle!
Our investigator Steven is struggling a bit, he's on baptismal date for July 9th but he's having a rough go of it with his wife Mindy, they didn't come to church this week and we don't know exactly what could happen. He's talked about going back to Missouri and starting over again, but we're hoping he's able to work things out.
I'm learning a lot right now about being patient in trials and afflictions, I've been sick for almost a week and it's lingering, but I have a lot of responsabilities with the zone and leading my area as well, and I can't slow down or rest to fully recover yet. This whole week is packed and I've been feeling really inadequete and overwhelmed, and in that state of mind it's really easy to get discouraged or to snap at people. True patience though is getting through stuff like this without getting angry and frustrated, not merely enduring and not blowing up and causing negative feelings all around you.
The Lord is good, and I've been leaning on Him a lot and trusting that He'll make me equal to the task, and it's been a good reminder for me that it's the Lord and not me that really is doing the miricals in missionary work. No matter how much experience or time I have, I really need Him just as much as the day I stepped foot in the MTC, fresh and green and terrified of the incredible responsabilities of being the Lord's messenger. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, it's shaped my life and I love the Lord for it!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Playing with the wolf's kids!?!
Hi Everyone!
This week we had some exciting things happen, I'm now officially with Elder Castaneda (pronounced cahst-ahn-yeda) and we're back to full zone leader capabilities. We've had a couple meetings and trainings and have set some goals and focuses for the zone that we're excited about, I've been wanting to implement a leadership style and culture like this since I got to Carbondale over a year ago and I'm really excited to get things started! We're going to be really focusing on the quality of our lessons, because a lot of us are just teaching people that will let us in the door but never really do anything, and those people are hard to get members to lessons with because they don't keep appointments. We've been talking a lot about member-present lessons and the power it gives to us and the ward when we combine and teach people, it'll really forward the work here!
Sunday we had Steve at church again, and this time he brought Mindy his wife and their little 2 year old daughter Arizona! They stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed it, they're progressing well and we'll be going over tonight to set Steve on a baptizmal date. We don't think Mindy's quite ready yet, but the Spirit's been working with both of them and there's a lot of good things happening for the family! We decided to take a member with us tonight, Brother Wolf, who offered to be their fellowshipper and who Arizona chose as well, in Sacrament meeting she was over playing with the Wolf's kids who had coloring books and cheerios! :) Steve and Mindy will have to change their lifestyles quite a bit to accept the gospel, but Steve is really on fire about it all and they know where they want to go!
Unfortunately I got a little gyped on time today, the library's only giving me half an hour, so I have to be brief, but things are going great here in Rifle and in the zone! I love being a missionary and I'm excited to finish strong and see everyone again! I love you all, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
This week we had some exciting things happen, I'm now officially with Elder Castaneda (pronounced cahst-ahn-yeda) and we're back to full zone leader capabilities. We've had a couple meetings and trainings and have set some goals and focuses for the zone that we're excited about, I've been wanting to implement a leadership style and culture like this since I got to Carbondale over a year ago and I'm really excited to get things started! We're going to be really focusing on the quality of our lessons, because a lot of us are just teaching people that will let us in the door but never really do anything, and those people are hard to get members to lessons with because they don't keep appointments. We've been talking a lot about member-present lessons and the power it gives to us and the ward when we combine and teach people, it'll really forward the work here!
Sunday we had Steve at church again, and this time he brought Mindy his wife and their little 2 year old daughter Arizona! They stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed it, they're progressing well and we'll be going over tonight to set Steve on a baptizmal date. We don't think Mindy's quite ready yet, but the Spirit's been working with both of them and there's a lot of good things happening for the family! We decided to take a member with us tonight, Brother Wolf, who offered to be their fellowshipper and who Arizona chose as well, in Sacrament meeting she was over playing with the Wolf's kids who had coloring books and cheerios! :) Steve and Mindy will have to change their lifestyles quite a bit to accept the gospel, but Steve is really on fire about it all and they know where they want to go!
Unfortunately I got a little gyped on time today, the library's only giving me half an hour, so I have to be brief, but things are going great here in Rifle and in the zone! I love being a missionary and I'm excited to finish strong and see everyone again! I love you all, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Lot's of work, not much time to write
Hi Everyone!
The big news this week is that Elder Tu'avao is leaving, I'll be getting a new Spanish Zone Leader companion, and most of the zone is getting switched around. There will be big changes and more responsibility as I train the new zone leader (it's his first time being one) and lead the area. I'm excited though, with new challenges come different blessings and lessons, and there's always more to learn here in the mission field!
This week our investigator Steve came to church for the first time, him and his wife Mindy have been going through all kinds of stuff recently and it was really good to see Steve with the kind of self-motivation it takes to fully investigate the gospel, coming to church and fully participating and enjoying it! It was cool, I taught the Gospel Principals class because the person scheduled to teach it fell through last minute, and the topic happened to be the Word of Wisdom, which is Steve's biggest hold up since he is currently in violation of every singe thing mentioned in the word of wisdom, but we happened to have a really small class and every member there had major issues with that commandment before their baptism or reactivation! It was really cool, as we discussed the principles we had members who had been there bearing testimony at almost every principle, and Steve loved it and participated! We'll set a baptismal date with him our next appointment, he says he wants to do it and just needs time to overcome his addictions.
I hope you all have a great week, I'm a little short on time today but I'm so grateful to be a missionary and be out here serving the Lord, there's really nothing better in the world and I'm so privileged to be a part of this work! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
The big news this week is that Elder Tu'avao is leaving, I'll be getting a new Spanish Zone Leader companion, and most of the zone is getting switched around. There will be big changes and more responsibility as I train the new zone leader (it's his first time being one) and lead the area. I'm excited though, with new challenges come different blessings and lessons, and there's always more to learn here in the mission field!
This week our investigator Steve came to church for the first time, him and his wife Mindy have been going through all kinds of stuff recently and it was really good to see Steve with the kind of self-motivation it takes to fully investigate the gospel, coming to church and fully participating and enjoying it! It was cool, I taught the Gospel Principals class because the person scheduled to teach it fell through last minute, and the topic happened to be the Word of Wisdom, which is Steve's biggest hold up since he is currently in violation of every singe thing mentioned in the word of wisdom, but we happened to have a really small class and every member there had major issues with that commandment before their baptism or reactivation! It was really cool, as we discussed the principles we had members who had been there bearing testimony at almost every principle, and Steve loved it and participated! We'll set a baptismal date with him our next appointment, he says he wants to do it and just needs time to overcome his addictions.
I hope you all have a great week, I'm a little short on time today but I'm so grateful to be a missionary and be out here serving the Lord, there's really nothing better in the world and I'm so privileged to be a part of this work! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
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