Week 76 - "Turn right to go left..."

Hey, everyone.

This week has been... different. There's been a lot of relative chaos and some turns (literal and figurative) that took us places we hadn't intended to go. The quote's from Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen in the first Cars movie. Doc Hudson tries to teach him how to make a sharp turn around a dirt track by telling him to, "Turn right to go left." After watching Doc race around the track and finally understanding what it means, he learns to race on dirt and uses that to his advantage in the final race. It's also something my trainer used to say when talking about things that didn't seem to make sense or didn't seem to lead us to our desired destination, but that did.

So I guess the first piece of crazy news is that I've now been assigned as a zone leader. I'll be companions with Elder Schreiter, who I came out with. I remember wondering when I first met him if I would ever be his companion. I'm also being moved out of Cambridge and to OSU, which was a surprise. I asked my zone leaders when we were talking on the phone after I found out, "What am I supposed to do on OSU?" They were like, "The same thing you're doing now." I guess that's true. I just wonder if there's even a functional ward there right now. We're also getting two more missionaries in that area halfway through the transfer, two missionaries who are either completely fresh or have served in missions before but had to return home and are now on their way back out. That will be interesting, for sure. 

As a side note, I've always admired OSU missionaries, because I never thought I would be able to do what they do (street contact basically all day every day--those guys are fearless workhorses), and now I'll have quite the feather in my cap. People like me will be like, "Wow! You served on OSU?" I can just smile wryly and be like, "Yeah. It's no big deal." I'll just try to avoid telling them it was during COVID-19 self-isolation. I'm kidding, but seriously, it's going to be kind of a letdown when I have to explain it to people: "Technically, yes. Actually, no."

And I'll be a zone leader. Just when I felt comfortable about being a district leader on and off for the rest of my mission. I guess that's part of what I mean by "turn right to go left." Most missionaries want to be able to say they served in a certain position, and so did I, but I had resigned myself to the fact that zone leader and assistant was very unlikely from this point out, and I was just being asked to serve closer to the front lines, as it were. But now I'm assigned in this position. I guess if the Lord wanted me to do this he needed me not to want to do it or something. I'm not sure why or how that makes sense, but I guess it does. Maybe it's just important not to have a big head about it. When I got the email about leadership I was like, "What." Especially in the current circumstances, suddenly a call like that feels pretty intimidating, but I'm going to do the best I can to help.

In other topical news, we had training visits with both Mt. Vernon and Newark last week, and it was a blast, but it ended in a rather hectic fashion. I had some great conversations with both Elder Wiggins (Newark) and Elder Harper (Mt. Vernon). Have you ever had a moment where you talk to someone or you experience something and it feels like, somehow, it's a hinge point in your life or in your present experience, like suddenly things just open up and change, and there's this great significance, and you feel it? I experienced that when I was with Elder Wiggins. We were headed back to finish the exchange and had a big conversation about different modes of missionary work (the traditional mode, the one that we're not really able to do right now, and the new, web-driven mode), and we were basically both able to share something to help one another. I mean, I guess I can't say whether what I said helped Elder Wiggins, but what he said helped me. He helped me to understand that we necessarily have to go through some difficult experiences to get better at some things (I know--duh. I feel stupid for not recognizing that before in the way that I now do). To put it another way, he helped me understand (and these were not his words, but this is what I learned) that pain is not a barrier to or a replacement for or a consequence of a lack of success, but a stepping stone to it. We have to accept pain and push through it in order to get better at some things. We have to walk right up to it and take it, knowing that on the other side of pain is growth and improvement. And when I say pain, I don't mean discomfort--I mean real, difficult pain. Elder Wiggins has this great pump-up track that he would play every morning to work out that he shared with our whole district (I can include it here), and one of the things one of the people on the track (his name is Eric Thomas) says is "Stop running from your pain and embrace your pain. Your pain is going to be a part of your prize, a part of your product. I challenge you to push yourself." He talks in a different track about how people coming into adulthood rely on their parents on stuff, and when they experience a challenge say, "I'm going to go home. I feel bad," and he says, "Go through it! You ain't gon' die just 'cause you feelin' a little pain!" I began to understand how all that can apply to my life. I don't remember what I shared with Elder Wiggins, but it was something about using our talents to further the work and stuff, and it seemed significant. But what he taught me was that I have the potential to be what I want to be, I just have to face and embrace the pain that comes with it, knowing that my pain is just part of the process, and if I continue on, I'll get to where I want to be. That's another thing Eric Thomas says, "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year, but eventually it will subside." He also says a girl came to his office once crying, and he said, "Don't cry to give up--cry to keep going. Don't cry to quit! You already in pain, get a reward from it!" I think that's wise advice. Anyway, during the drive we were so engaged talking that we missed the turn, so we had to double back to return to our meeting point to finish the exchange. But it just felt like a really significant moment. I guess that's the only way I know how to explain it. It felt important. So that was a wrong turn (or a lack of a turn) that went right.

The day before I had been in Mt. Vernon with Elder Harper and had a great conversation with him. The man van (our car in Cambridge) apparently lost a bunch of oil, and Elder Guzman and Elder Heil had to sort of get rescued from the church by our elder's quorum president, and our vehicle coordinator didn't want them to drive the car, but unfortunately we needed to both exchange from our visit with Mt. Vernon and to our visit with Newark, so we had to work out a way to make it happen. Elder Harper and I came to the conclusion that if we drove to Newark (where we were originally planning to meet all together), we could join Elder Merrill and Elder Wiggins and drive with them to Cambridge, where Elder Harper and Elder Guzman could reunite, and where I and whomever I was going with (it ended up being Elder Wiggins) could get dropped off, and they could then pick up Elder Heil and Elder Guzman, and bring them back to Newark, from where Elder Harper and Elder Guzman could take off back to Mt. Vernon. So the caravan would go from Mt. Vernon to Newark, then to Cambridge, then back to Newark and end in Mt. Vernon. It would work, and Elder Harper and Elder Guzman would just barely make it back to Mt. Vernon around 10:30, which seemed fine, considering the circumstances. Well, Elder Harper and I left a little late from Mt. Vernon and arrived in Newark, where we found that both Newark elders weren't quite there yet (Elder Wiggins was on his way back from a training visit with Westerville. So we had a representative from Mt. Vernon, Newark, Cambridge and Westerville (Elder Harris) all chilling in the Newark apartment until Elder Wiggins and Elder Richardson got there to exchange back, which didn't happen until around 8:30. So we were like, "This is fine--we'll make it. We got this. Elder Harper and Elder Guzman may not make it back until later in the evening, but they've got this. It's fine." So we took off around 8:45 or 9, which meant they probably wouldn't make it back home until around midnight. And THEN on the drive there we were jamming out to some tunes and having a great time. Elder Harper and Elder Merrill were cracking all these jokes and playing off each other, and we were all just busting up, and then the elder who was driving, missed the turn or took the wrong turn or something, which took us down these crazy backroads and shady places, and it seemed like Google Maps was being a little funky--anyway, we ended up finally arriving in Cambridge around 10:30 p.m., and we were just like, "Forget it. We'll just all sleep here." So we had three companionships crash in that apartment, and everyone went where they were supposed to go the next morning. It was a fun time. 

In addition, we've been doing a fair amount of work, but it hasn't been immediately contributing to our numbers. For instance, I've been putting together some videos about Facebook and sharing them with the mission, and I shared them on a missionary Facebook page, and apparently people are really enjoying them and learning from them as far as how to leverage Facebook as a missionary, so that's been cool, but it doesn't make us find new people to teach, and it doesn't count as teaching lessons, so *shrug*. But we're learning. 

We've been watching a lot of the lessons on the Ed app, and there's a lot of helpful stuff there that tells you how to use technology to your advantage and effectively as a missionary. It's pretty awesome. So we're figuring it out. I'm not sure what I'll be doing on OSU--I wonder who we'll be trying to reach. The students are all back at home, I assume. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Either way, it all feels somewhat counterintuitive, but it also feels like we're doing what we should, so I hope to see the fruit from it in the future.

I'm not sure if I have much else to say. If you're on Facebook, I'd like you to join me on Tuesdays to talk about some talks on missionary work that I'm posting. We all need to improve at being missionaries, and you're not going to church, so... You might as well participate in a discussion online, right? I'm sharing talks that address important principles of missionary work for both members and missionaries and help us learn how to do missionary work. A great one by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland called "Witnesses Unto Me" was my first one, and my second was called "Now Is the Time" and was from Elder M. Russell Ballard. As I keep studying talks that I think can help others learn to do missionary work I'll continue to share them on Tuesdays. It would mean a lot if you would join me in the discussion in the comments. 

If you're reading this, check out my profile and find one of those posts and read the talk, then share something you learned.

 

I also had a great experience interviewing a couple for baptism that was later baptized. They're in the Zanesville Ward. The Spirit was very present.

I guess that's all I have to share this week. Also, here's a little image I made from one of the pictures I took in Chillicothe.

You all are great. Keep calm and carry on.

Elder Davis