Another wonderful week has come and gone in the Great THSM. Aaron and I continued interviews this week. To be more effective, I joined the missionaries in their respective district councils, participating in the discussion and roles plays. I also shared my message of how to use the Doctrine of Christ to see how each day they are successful missionaries as they align their efforts with it. Tuesday, I attended three district councils and also schedule two companionship studies with sisters in that area. On Thursday, I attended four district councils and then met with two sisters that are new to being Sister Training Leaders (STL). We talked about their responsibilities has STLs and what they would like that to feel and be like. I also shared with them ways to work through what questions to ask to help the sisters they are over to be accountable for themselves verse just reporting and feeling like “big sister” is checking on them. They were grateful for the guidance. We also took the opportunity to go through all of Preach My Gospel to see what we could learn about “finding” those that are prepared to hear the gospel. We were even able to discover “finding” principles in Chapter 7 which is about studying you mission language. A great process.
We had our four Temple Square sisters return to Salt Lake on Wednesday morning. Gratefully we picked up two new sisters that afternoon. One from the Philippines and the other from Georgia. I can already tell they will be good sisters. We had one of our sweet sisters return home that day as well because she decided she needed to support her family and mom who was recently diagnosed with a gioblastoma. A challenging situation for her to be in with family circumstances that enhanced the difficulty of her choice to return. We love all our missionaries!
Aaron started the process of developing a mission prep app this week that would help our missionaries improve their teaching skills. There is a young returned missionary who’s a whiz at coding and app development. He has taken the ideas Aaron has given him and already put them into a prototype. The app would take each of the 42 principles and break them down in sections into doctrine, scriptures, videos, notes, a testing center, and teaching center. The teaching center prompts the missionaries to teach the principle simply, personally, and with testimony throughout. They then record the principle in a minute or less and once they finish, it has them go back and review their teaching. When they’re satisfied, they can save it. post it to Facebook, or send it via messenger. Aaron sees this as being beneficial because it gives him (or mission president) the opportunity to have the missionaries teach any principle, forward it to him, and then he can provide feedback. He has it “gamified” it so it helps them see their progress and reminds them to go back and study more after a few weeks go by. I really think this will help our missionaries in-field, but also any kids preparing to serve.
Zac had a golf tournament on Monday and shot an 86. Not low enough to place individually and his team didn't place either. One of their players was disqualified for cheating. Zac and others on the team have been aware that this player has changed his score at practice however when they would point it out the boy would deny it. Well today he was caught, there was no denying it and it affected the team. Hard lesson but Zac still enjoyed the tournament and was optimistic about future tournaments.
Jessie had her first tennis tournament on Saturday. She had fun and occasionally hit the ball over the net. There wasn’t much energy on the court today with the temps nearing 90 degrees. The rest of the day she spent time with friends. The day before she had a girl from class come over for the first time on India descent. Aaron and I took the girls to see A Wrinkle in Time. Afterwards, the girls talked about details that were left out and that the book was much better than the movie. Their conversation was quite intellectual in nature. Later, Aaron and I were talking about how Jessie has blossomed academically and socially because of all the diversity here. It will be something that we will definitely miss for the kids.
Bode had a group project in geography this week so he utilized his time after school meeting with classmates to get it done. He also spent time with friends this weekend. I think this move back will be more difficult for him than I might have anticipated. I will need to be mindful of this as we move back to Utah. I think he adjusted the easiest coming here which I attribute to his easygoing personality. I hope that will be still be the case.
I enjoy the time I get to chat with Allie throughout the week. I’m glad she turns to me when she feels overwhelmed, under the weather or wants to share good news. We had all that this week and I was able to help, reassure and be happy for her. That has been a blessing to have that connection become stronger.
Aaron chatted with the U of U this week and they’re going to come back to him with a few options to consider in the weeks ahead. He has also talked with the company in St. George about a month ago and they expressed a great interest in him working there. Until we have a better idea of what all his options are no decisions on job, home, or anything else at this point can be made. Taking it all in stride and being patient.
All is good here in the Great THSM, we couldn’t be more blessed.