Elder Bednar

Welp. Here I am. There's a lot that's happened...and I'm finally coming up for air to tell you guys all about it.

First off, hey! Everything's all right. I'm pretty stressed sometimes. But that's because there's always a ton to do. I'm busy day in and day out, and I think that it'll help me in the long run to be a better worker. Actually...I'm writing this letter now because I just had to suck it up and allocate time. I had to write down in my planner "I AM WRITING EMAIL AND NOTHING ELSE"

To summarize, we had the following three things happen:

1) Transfers. Oh mah GAWSH, that stuff is whack. I think I worked more that week more than I had ever worked in my life. I'm not sure I'm gonna want to repeat it, but now I'm a little wiser, and it'll almost certainly go smoother than the first time around...especially since two Elders ended up missing their flight and causing a nightmareish disruption in our agenda. Buuuuuuuuuuuut all resolved now. :P

2) New companion(s)! Actually....I have TWO new companions. The trio went to a quartet. Crazy, huh? Did you ever imagine your son would get into a QUARTET? The formation's like this:

E. Douglas (Senior, ex-Financial Secretary)

E. Gubler (Mission Secretary)

E. Rios (New Financial Secretary in training)

E. Lima (who's just here for the ride)

...it's weird. Really, really weird. And cool, because now there's enough to split up if we need to. Much more useful here in the office. There's still only two secretaries, though, and it should go back down to two people next transfer.

3) I just spent the entire morning with Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I'm freaking happy. I learned some really cool stuff today. And I'll be more than happy to summarize it to you guys in a paper letter. I think it deserves that much attention, even at the risk of you guys not being able to read it. I learned mostly some techniques I'll be using as a family member, with respect to helping my beloved ones. I think the principles that were learned and reinforced today will have a huge hand in my life (and probably several other convenant-sealed lives) in the future. That's...kind of a weird perspective to have.

One thing I DO want to share, though, is an interesting comment about records-keeping. E. Bednar executed the meeting according to "small plates standards" - he made it so that the focus was not in keeping "large plates", but in a valuable record. His dialogue was roughly the following:

"First off, before we even start this meeting, we're going to change the pattern....You're used to sitting there, diligently taking notes and pretending to be attentive....Stop it. Don't do that. Don't teach your children to do that. It's silly. If you just write notes, you're writing large plates."

He reminds us of the first plates that were lost by Joseph Smith in his first work of translation that he effected, which are the large plates of which he speaks. "What did the large plates have? A secular history. It was far less important than the small plates, which had the spiritual things."

Returning to his explication, he instructs us: "You want small plates. Write your small plates. Because you won't lose them....Just produce your own small plates."

I think that I've been on a crusade to do the same thing. I have the blog, which is a form of small plates (though I modify things to make them suitable for a blog). My small plates are my periodic journal (the green one you guys sent!), which I write in fortnightly. It's a great system, when combined with what are literally my large plates (daily happenstance!) in the IntelliServ journals. It just takes time to maintain I haven't really had lately. But it looks like the work is in a waning stage...hopefully. But I hope to make these records meaningful for you guys and for everybody back home. If I ever survive to that point.

Also. It's super weird that I tell people I have a year now. WHERE THE DID THE TIME GO?!?!?!

As always, I leave my love with you guys and everybody who reads my blog.

-Erich