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Dear Family,--------------------
Hey everybody I don't have a whole lot of time but we did have a pretty good week. We had Zone Conference this week, that was really good, there's a family that we're teaching that were all at church and they are doing pretty well. They are going to be baptized in the next couple of weeks. We've still been doing a lot of finding, but we've been having a lot of success with part member families here and just this week we sat down and talked about it and really revamped the way we work with members and I think we're going to see a lot of success from it. Nothing else is really new this week though... Sorry I didn't give you more detail. I love you!
Love,
Elder Goodale
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| Springfield District Elder Fernelius, Elder Goodale, Elder Lichuk, Elder Shaw, Elder Noyce, Elder Smith, Elder Shirley, Elder Clinger, Sister Taylor, Sister Cluff |
To answer some of your other questions, we don't do nearly as much as you did with Zone Conferences. For one, one of the big agenda items at our monthly Zone Leader Councils is planning the next few Zone Conferences. So we all have a part in that and we get plenty of advanced notice. Second, the mission president and the assistants do most of the instructing. We usually do about an hour’s worth, though this last one we didn't even instruct at all. I conducted the meeting, and we had to make all the assignments (as far as like prayers, who would lead us in D&C 4 at the beginning, stuff like that) but other than that we don't have that much to do with that. We work the same hours as everybody else. :) That's something big the missionary department is trying to do worldwide, lessening the responsibilities of leaders so that they are more like other missionaries, I guess you could say. Mainly they've been really changing the role of an assistant to the mission president. They don't do nearly as much traveling now, they only go on a couple of exchanges a week (they used to be on exchanges every day, with lots and lots of different missionaries, now it's just once a transfer with each set of Zone Leaders) and they have their own proselyting area that they spend a significant amount of time in.--------------------
Also, when I first came out we had to call in like what you described, every night everyone called in to their district leaders, who reported in to the zone leaders once everyone had called them, and so forth. But about 6 months ago President Merkley received some instruction from the missionary department that said "destroy nightly phone calls." So he did. We don't do that anymore. Now they just call us on Sunday nights to report all of their key indicators.
In all my previous areas, we were the only missionaries in the city. Actually in each of my previous areas (before Joplin) we were the only ones in the county, and sometimes we would cover 2-3 counties. Our area was always just the ward boundaries. I've also never covered more than one ward (though some missionaries here do). In Springfield itself there are 5 family wards and then the University ward. The north half of the city is part of the Springfield stake, and also goes all the way out to Marshfield, Bolivar, Stockton, and Aurora Wards (you can look at a map for those, and remember those ward boundaries went way further than those towns themselves; for instance the Stockton Ward goes all the way up to Roscoe, MO). Then the south stake takes in the south side of Springfield (3rd, 4th and 5th wards) then down to Ozark, Ava, Branson and a Spanish Branch there, and actually all the way down to Mountain Home, Berryville, and Harrison, which are all in Arkansas. So the stakes are still pretty big. There are a decent amount of members here, it's not bad. They are a lot more heavily concentrated in the south half of Springfield. There are a little more Assembly of God here than in surrounding areas, there are a lot of them, but it's still mostly Baptist, just like all of this area.
I had also asked him if now that he was in a big city, he was riding a bike now, or if he still had a car. His reply below; I don't know too many 21-year-old men whom would refer to a minivan as "sweet." :-)
We are actually in a sweet minivan, one of just 2 in the mission. We have a 2010 Dodge Caravan. We have one, and then the Zone Leaders down in Springdale, Arkansas have one. The reason those two sets of zone leaders get them is for carpooling to Tulsa for Zone Leader Council every month.--------------------
And finally, Michelle had asked some questions about what they're doing every day, and his reply is below:
Sorry I didn't email much earlier. We basically do the same thing every day...
Things have been a little slow, just trying to find solid people to teach. We've had a lot of success with Part-member families, we're just trying to get some of them moving, and we've seen some amazing miracles doing service. Last Friday (the 6th) we stopped by this part members house who we had never met before. The husband, who was the non member, was ICE cold. He wouldn't even talk to us, and was very rude when he did. We finally were able to get him to go get his wife, and she told us that he's very against the church. We asked what service we could do and she jokingly said "well I need my yard mowed..." and before she could stop us or say anything else we grabbed the lawn mower and went to work. I mowed the front yard and Elder Clinger mowed the back, and while he was mowing I helped her put together a new table and chair set on the back patio. Her husband has some health issues related to a really bad car wreck, and so he can't do any of this stuff. As we did it, it made such a huge difference! It was like night and day! All of a sudden he was really respectful and appreciative, and we told him we would be back the next week to mow it again. So the next Friday we went by and he was outside and as we pulled up he came up and told us they were leaving and very sincerely said we'd be welcome to come back tomorrow. It had been very dry (it's been super hot, like up to 105 with very high humidity, creating a heat index sometimes as high as around 115-120) and so the grass hadn't grown any, so instead Saturday we helped pull weeds and do other stuff around the house, and while we did she cooked us dinner! Her husband was completely different. He started being really really friendly, talking our ears off, showing us some of his hobbies... it was awesome. The second service miracle was the next day (Saturday) we went and mowed the lawn of a less active families house. They hadn't been to church in forever, but the next day they came to church and they were there yesterday too, so two weeks in a row. Just from service. We've been trying to get some more organized service going, tomorrow morning we are going for 3 hours to volunteer at the Ozark Food Harvest. I'm very excited for that.
The package I sent home I just threw together as I was leaving Joplin, just the letters I received while I was there then a few things I didn't really want to pack and figured I would be fine without for my last 3 months. By the way, on Thursday the mission office called to confirm all my home info and where I'll be flying home to so that they could book my flight home. Scary! I love you. Have a great week.
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