I feel like I've learned a couple of things about where exhaustion comes from. This may seem like a list of complaints for the week... and maybe it is... but I enjoyed them all kind of.
Monday: P-day. At least on paper. We were in meetings most of the day to figure out the zone splits and apartment openings. More fun than Vegas. Later in the night I went with the Snohomish zone leaders to do a little thrashing of my nostalgia. Exchanges, playa. I want a better name for exchanges than exchanges.
Tuesday: Snohomish exchange... (or whatever name is better sounding than exchanges that I can't think of.) I felt nice to be back in my old area again. It was like taking a whiff of a familiar smell that you can't quite put your finger on. Except this time I could put my finger on it, because Snohomish smells like.... Sulfur. I haven't been back to work on an exchange since I've left. The zone leaders there are both pretty young and motivated. They are four packing with one visa waiter who is going to Brazil. We started off the day with a lesson with one of their potential investigators. The spirit was strong and she accepted the invitation to be baptized at the end.
We made a goal to talk with as many people as we could throughout the day. It's hard to be able to know how to make those contacts a non awkward situation. Because... it's an awkward situation. We ended up finding a lot of people who are prepared to accept Christ's gospel. When we had five minutes left before they were going to take me back to the office they stopped by a less active's house who I knew to say hi. I had a feeling that we shouldn't stop by but that we should try to see one more potential instead. So I asked if that would be ok and they were cool with it... I felt like a tool doing it but like... the spirit, man. Listen to the spirit. So we went to visit the potential but they weren't home. On the way out of the apartment complex there was a lady on the phone who waved and so we went over to talk to her. She was pretty nice and would talk to us about anything. She was on the phone with her mom and after we talked for a bit she said that we should come and teach her and her family at any time and her mom, who lives a couple hours away, asked if missionaries could come visit her too. They asked for a prayer and then we left. We had a whole day of people like that. Two of them are YSA's that me and my comp will start teaching.
Wednesday: The grind. We were in the office preparing for meetings that were the next day and then had teaching appointments to fill the time that we didn't have. We drove to the airport to drop off and Elder which took up a good three hours. The good thing is that Elder Draper gets in these "Adventure moods" where he just kind of wants to be chased by zombie's or something. So we both kind of got in that mood and it was way stormy and it perfect. There is a bathroom on the lower level of the airport by the baggage claim that is probably my all time favorite bathroom. So we made sure we hit that up. It's the little things that keep us going. While we were walking out to our truck there was a good jazz song playing and we it felt like we just robbed the place or something. Walking out with swag. It was nuts. I think we're just out of it. President came back from his interviews around 10pm and we stayed working on transfers till 2:00am then Elder Draper and I had to prep for our training the next day of MLC. I fell asleep around 4:30-5:00am. Woke up at 6:30 to do it again.
Thursday: Woke up early to set up for the all day MLC meeting. We instructed on "Teach when you find, find when you teach."-PMG I think it went pretty ok. Elder Draper and I were both pretty tired so we're not exactly sure how it went. The zone leaders in Everett texted us later that day and said, "Hey we tried what you trained us on today and met a guy on the street who became a new investigator and wants his family to be taught too." That's always good to hear. Preach My Gospel really knows what it's talking about. We just talked to the zone leaders about what it takes to get a new investigator. What it takes to have a lesson. Then what makes it difficult to have that happen while we're contacting people on the street. So we made a list of all the situations that make it hard to teach someone a lesson while contacting. Like they're walking away from you. In a large group of people etc. We discussed ideas of how we could still teach them and testify. We had them role play their hardest situations and we came up with good ways to help together. It was good. I didn't feel as tired as I did loopy. We didn't have to stay up that night as late to prep for the two meetings we had the next day. Love that. We just had a little prep for it and went to sleep a little after midnight.
Friday: Had two meetings. New missionary training and Trainer training. I took the zone leaders on a break out and went over their responsibilities and assignments and whatever else. Elder Draper took the district leaders. I think it went well they had good questions. For the trainers meeting later in the day we just went over their role and how to be effective in training (which I've never done so I just share experiences of being on the other end of training ha.) That night we went to pick up bikes and order some more in Snohomish for all the new sisters coming in tomorrow. Gray Friday.
Saturday: Conference. It was good to somewhat relax and be able to watch the men of God speaking to us. It was like Christmas. After one of the talks President Bonham texted me and said, "He was talking to you, Elder Merrill!" It was nice of him to think of me. I love that man. I wish I could have focused more on conference I felt pretty out of it. I still felt uplifted and had some good notes to take away. It seemed like this conference had a different feel than all the other ones I've seen. There was like this sense of urgency. Like... I don't know. It was very bold and pressing. I loved it. It just seemed different. I want to study it more to find out why it seemed that way to me.
Sunday: Conference... well kind of. We watched the first session at President's and ate some scones and joked around. We worked on transfers for a bit then missed the second half of conference while driving to the airport to drop off visa waiters. Then we split and drove all the way to the north of our mission in our own cars to pick up the missionaries that were going home the next day. We took them all to Presidents and then had dinner and testimony meeting. It was beautiful. These are like my best friend missionaries that are leaving. My heroes when I was first in the mission. My leaders. My brothers. It was a hard night. After the meeting we dropped them off at our apartment while we went back to the office to do numbers and look at transfers. We got back around around midnight and stayed up till after 2am talking with all our dear friends who we took to the airport early this morning.
Monday (today): Drove to the airport. Said good bye. Used my favorite bathroom again. Called out transfers to the mission. Tonight we'll be up pretty late prepping for tomorrow's transfers too. This is where men are made. The mission, folks. Changin' lives.
I feel like I'm almost ready to exhale for the first time in a long time... Maybe I'll miss being here in the office... I just don't know when. From my perspective right now all I want to do is get out and be a missionary again. Not that I haven't been... well... I dont' know. I've felt more like a business man the past four or five months. Which is ok but I'd rather save that for when I'm home. I'm going to the holy land to be a zone leader again... Belligham YSA. I'll cover the University ward where I found Katy a couple months ago. She's back in that ward and I can't wait. I think this is what they call a dream come true. The only bad part is that I feel really bad for Elder Draper. Poor guy. He's exhausted. President said he felt like I needed to be in Bellingham for the zone split. There's been a lot of problems up there. I don't really understand it all. He definitely has an unorthodox way of doing things with transfers... things that have never been done before. I trust him. Pray for my hero, Elder Draper: A.K.A Superman.
I think being here I've learned a lot of things. One: stress. It happens. I've dealt with it poorly and successfully. I think I like dealing with is successfully better. I feel like I could have done a lot more here to have fulfilled my assignment to it's highest potential. I also feel that way about being a zone leader and a district leader so I feel pretty grateful that I get to be a zone leader again to do it differently than I did before. I'm going to learn from my failures. I have plenty to choose from. I believe that it is ok to fail. I believe that it's ok because I've done a lot of it and sometimes learn some good things from it. I don't remember which talk it was but he talked something about that. President Uchtdorf? Probably... my brain is quite gone. Anyways, I love you and God. Always.
Elder Trent Jay Merrill
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