Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The yoke is light!

 

I'm hoping that this week we'll finally find somebody that'll stick with us. Right now, our area is centered away from the most populous parts of the ward - E. Acevedo and I work closer to the church, and far fewer members live there. However, a division is coming, and the part that's got the vast majority of people will become its own stake. For now, we're helping people to prepare through reactivation efforts - The DL and I went through a huge list of the recent-converts and are gonna be paying plenty of visits to them during this week. Cross your fingers for baptism!

 

 

This last week I've learned a little bit about being serious when you're leading. Can't please everybody, and not everything needs a joke - but it helps when you time things right. Training is the biggest leadership project I've ever had - more hours than a few dozen Eagle Projects! I'm really loving it, and I hope that with a few of the challenges I'll be designing for E. Acevedo he'll be achieving his maximum on his mission. He deserves it.

 

 

I just about died laughing the other day (in restrospect) because of a contact that actually followed us after knocking on her daughter's house. She followed us into somebody else's house, telling us about how we didn't need to tract at her daughter's house because she had a rosary above her bed and she herself belonged to "God's Assembly" and that Jesus and her had things all cool. She kept getting louder until she was at a very solid volume, nearly shouting herself hoarse while we were trying to converse with her neighbors. It was pretty silly, and I had to seriously resist the temptation to laugh in her face.

 

 

Anyway, the work is easy and the yoke is light! I'm just...doing more mission-ing, I guess. Sweat = work = lessons = commitments = fulfilled commitments = baptism. LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO.

 

 

Don't forget I love y'all! I'm afraid that when I call you guys during Christmas I'm going to have a Brazilian accent - I'm forgetting little bits of English here and there and it's starting to worry me. I'm responding to people automatically in Portuguese now. It's almost scary. But I like it! Just gotta expect it when the time comes, right?

 

 

I love y'all. Can't say it too many times. :) Say hi to everybody in the ward for me! And tell them to SEND ME EMAIL/LETTERS

-Erich

Erich and Elder Acevedo

Mom says:

Erich is training.  He’s being patient, I’d say.  Here’s how it’s going so far.

Erich says:

**siiiiigh** This whole week has been spent figuring out how to get my companion to talk more. He's not an extremely social guy in the same respect I am - he likes to joke and jock around, and I'm slowly figuring out how to make the mission as exciting as he deserves. He and the new Bolivian DL here, like to play pranks a lot - I usually end up receiving them, since I usually take them in good humor.

It's kind of interesting to note that in this mission, we are disappointed if we don't baptize in a single transfer - but I know that it's much more difficult to keep people firm here - people move quite often, to the point where it often becomes a point of conversation to discuss the various places in Maceió the investigator has lived. It's kind of weird. I don't think I'd like moving around willynilly - but then again, if I live in the US, I generally don't want to have to mess with real estate unless I have to, huh?

Changing the subject, we had fetching ZONE CONFEREEEEENCE. I love meetings so much now. I just feel so awesome whenever I have the opportunity to see my leaders and fellow missionaries...we've just got this brotherhood feeling going. I love it. I can see why a lot of people miss the mission - I won't be able to hug random people and talk openly with them after my mission just because they're computer engineers! I love our being unified in purpose - it makes things so much more...fulfilling? I hope I have more dudefriends like this when I get home. Technically I DID have a few. Just gotta keep my relationships alive with 'em!

This last week we scheduled a bunch of activities that I targeted towards the youth. As E. Acevedo is Mexican, he's in the perfect position to alternating teaching languages with me. We've got classes for English and Spanish now! I think the youth really like it - I just am wondering how I could possibly make it better. It's hard to know what to do without feedback...I've been reading some teaching manuals from the Church to help me with my technique. We've also been trying to get an activity started that's, roughly translated, called the MMTC - "Member Missionary Training Center"! We're helping the members feel more practiced with inviting somebody to receive the missionaries and/or go to church. I'm liking it a lot, but I need to plan out a little better what exactly I'm going to teach. Next time will be better!

Last thing I want to mention is "por que" vs. "para que", a concept by President which I really though was neat. "por que" literally means "why" or "because" - but "para que" means "so that, to the end that". When we ask ourselves about our surroundings and our situation, it's better to ask "para que" instead of "por que" - because it's much more important to know how they serve our purpose and what needs to be changed to serve it, rather than understanding the reasons something is the way it is. Forward is the direction we must look, not backward!

Anyway. Time's a-tickin'. Gotta run, but I love y'all!. Take care!

-Erich

This week I've been attacked on all sides by American culture. It's kind of been making me trunky (with longings of home), but generally it's not a problem when I'm immersed in the work. We visited a less-active guy here who popped in a DVD of Whitney Houston before I could object - and I had to tell him to stop. It's weird, because it's the exact type of stuff that Dad listens to (and...yeah, I liked it. Unfortunately.). Whitney Houston died relatively recently, didn't she? I can't remember. Never paid attention to stuff like that.

There's also other things like teaching English slang, and English-only hymns to fellow missionaries and the youth here. A Bolivian Elder here was playing Ring Out, Wild Bells, and I reaaaally wanted to run to the church to play it and just sulk for a little while. I've decided I like the role of being that one guy you can depend on to play the piano - tomorrow I'll be assisting with a special musical number for the Zone Conference. Woo! I think I might send a copy of the music home - perhaps expect a letter soon?

This week has had a lot of "mole" (MOHL-ee) investigators get left behind. "Mole" is an adjective in Portuguese that literally means "soft" or "flaccid", and can be used to mean "lazy" - it's used by all of the missionaries here to indicate somebody that has a lack of interest and/or is not completing commitments despite your best efforts. I always feel sad when somebody decides to reject our message just because they "don't feel like it"...but the missionary's an interesting creature. We always feel so happy when somebody actually says "Hey, I read what you gave me - I thought it was interesting, I felt different!" Perhaps it's just because missionary life is very simple, but I always feel so very cool when somebody investigating actually does what we ask of them - new investigators are, unfortunately, a passing commodity that is easy to get. Just knock doors here, and within 20-30 minutes somebody will let you in.

I feel like I'm learning a lot about being a teacher, and not a lecturer - I'm not simply repeating doctrine now, like I did when I arrived in the mission field, but we are truly just guiding a discussion towards the commitments that will help somebody feel the Spirit. E. Acevedo's getting over the barrier of practice too, though I think I need to let him talk more and let him develop. It's weird to realize that my missionary faculties have changed that much in the last 8-ish months. I'm getting close to a year already?! Bwuaah! Where's all this time I had going?

Well, I think I've sufficiently emptied my head for this week. I'm always maintaining a list of stuff I want to communicate to you guys - somehow I manage to blend it into something relatively coherent when I start to type. How was your learning experience as missionaries, Mom and Dad? I never noticed how you guys used missionary skills in the home - during FHE, for instance, when you were teaching us about a specific concept or commandment, I'm noticing your lessons had many of the same qualities as the ones I'm giving now, and that I see in other companionships. Can you imagine being a convert, and trying to teach your kids all this without having the best understanding yourself? **shudders**

Anyway. I'm off! I love you guys tanto. ;)

Teu filho amoroso -Erich

Mosiah 4:27...I've used that scripture quite a bit now. I wonder just how far-reaching the influence I have here as a missionary of God is...but I know my job isn't to worry about that so much as what I can do now to make sure that it's the best it can be. Mission life is getting easier in the routine respects. I literally teach lessons in my sleep (ask any of my companions I've had), and being the talkative American is a role I like filling. I whip out my planner, show people the picture I put on it of a father and his son viewing a portrait of Jesus Christ, and explain how that all correlates with their life and why exactly the missionaries are interrupting it. I explain in clear terms to people (most of the time) what it is exactly they need to do to have the single lasting happiness that will survive death. I do it all in Portuguese, in a country I never set foot in before the mission, in a language I didn't really speak before the mission. I say things I'm not sure I would have the courage to say in English to people I knew before. And yet, amid the thrills and despairs of missionary work, I'm feeling an inner peace .  It's pretty cool.
                                                                                                                                                                                   Part of that peace is in finally knowing that I will have baptized at least once with my companion here on the mission. He can't say I was a complete slacker, huh? We baptized a family member (who's ancient!) of a member with a really strong testimony. He's already hurdled dozens of missionaries at his family, and he was so happy when he finally baptized his uncle this last Sunday, he never stopped smiling the entire day. He's told us he expects it'll take another 4 sets of missionaries to fix the next most likely person...and he's got at least 4 living people to baptize to go. It's all one eternal round, huh? I've been thinking about that "eternal round" thing a lot lately. There's a Chinese proverb that says "The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.", which I think is extremely insightful analogy for our progress in this life and after. How much of myself am I polishing here, I wonder? How much do I have left to go before I get to be one of those spiritual giants here that are my heroes? It seems long and winding, but hey, it's eternity.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                   
At this point in my mission, I'm a lot more preoccupied about principles and what sorts of things that we should do instead of what we should do. E. Acevedo, very good missionary material, is discovering how to lead and is developing the initiative to just do the things he feels are right. Being a trainer is becoming less stressful. Writing in the diary is taking way longer. And there's simply no way I can fit all the details I want to now into a single email.                                                                               Bah. It's good to have the opportunity to just type out my thoughts here to the mission that a celestial standard, though I may never completely people I love. I've realized over the course of my understand its meaning, is something I want now in my life.
                                                                                                                                                                                    
Does it sound weird to hear that from your goofball nerd who liked to bury his nose in Linux and programming instead of FHE? Then again, perhaps not - there's so many weird things that have happened on my mission that aren't coincidence, and I'd bet you guys, my goodly parents, have already seen many things that are wonderful and seemingly too good to be true both in and out of the field. The longer I think about it, the more I just want to study, write, and do these same things I've been doing for the last months. I think President Gonzaga phrased it best when he diagnosed this condition I'm describing: "You're no longer just a computer but another missionary.                                                                                                                                                                                                           
"Gaaaaah. There's so much stuff I've been thinking about lately, it's all blurring together. I've already written a lot, and the clock here's getting mad at me - so I guess I'll terminate for this week. But remember that I love you all! Don't forget to peddle letters for me on the blog, and always remember that I'm thinking every day about what I'll say to you guys on P-Day!                  
                
Love, Erich

A Atualização Final de Mim

erichgubler.blogspot.com

Well, people, I've made my decision. I'm gonna have to give control of the blog over to my Mum, as I originally planned - and let myself have the time to communicate with the family and other more reasonable usages of time that I need. It needed to be done, not just so that the blog will actually get updated, but for my mission. However, don't you forget I'll be trying to contact every single one of you after the mish ends! Feel free to shoot me a message when you get the chance!

-E. Erich Gubler

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