Week 83 - "Ganas. All we need is ganas."

Hey, everyone.

The quote this week is from Mr. Escalante (I don't know the actor's name) in Stand and Deliver. I chose it primarily because I learned something about my new companion that I did not realize when I saw him on the transfer board: He's a Spanish-speaking missionary! He was originally assigned to do Spanish work, but he's been transferred here to The Ohio State University. So now we do language studies every day (or we will do it every day when things actually settle down--it's been crazy, but I'll talk more about that in a bit). So now all I need is a desire to learn Spanish! Or something.

So this short week has been really good but really crazy. So let's start with transfers. We had two new sets of missionaries coming in. Elder Carter and Elder Abney were being assigned to Spanish work, and then Elder Ciminski was going with Elder Hoffman to another apartment. So transfer day there was hardly any time to do anything--they were reopening two apartments, so they didn't have any food, so we needed to take them to the grocery store. So we went from transfers in Powell to the Riverside apartment--actually, let me back up a second. So we got to transfers, and then we were trying to figure out how we would get back, because we brought a minivan to transfers, and it wasn't going to get eight elders AND five elders' worth of luggage and bikes back to their apartments--we had promised to get Riverside back to their apartment, and then we had three OSU companionships. But The Beast(TM) also had a trailer on it, and even though I'm certified to drive a transit van, I have no experience driving a trailer. Elder Ciminski did, though, so we took him over to the office to get him Beast-certified (and that ended up being super useful this week, by the way, but we'll get there) so that he could drive The Beast and trailer to get people from place to place. So then we went through transfers, and that was crazy and hectic, and then we left with the trailer to get people places. OK, so now we're where we were when I started. So first we went to Riverside and dropped them off, and then we went to the OSU Spanish missionaries' apartment to drop them off. Then we went back to our apartment to stick Elder Hoffman's stuff there while we took the trailer back to the church in Powell. So we went and dropped that off, and then we went BACK to the OSU Spanish elders' apartment to pick them up and take them and the OSU 2 elders to Walmart. So we went and did that and then returned to the OSU Spanish elders' apartment to drop them off with their groceries and then back to our apartment, where we brought in a few of the OSU 2 elders' groceries and did a quick lesson with someone with them. Then they took The Beast to take their luggage and go get situated in their apartment (which is basically next door) and put their food away while Elder Timothy and I had a meeting. In between Elder Timothy was just sort of getting settled in.

The next couple days have sort of just been a blur. I'm looking back through my area book... We had an awesome lesson with Nohemi where we talked about an assignment we had given her (we asked her to read Joseph Smith-History up to verse 24, and she actually read up to verse 65!), and we talked about that. She said that it was interesting that both the religious and the non-religious fought against Joseph. She basically agreed with him that it was so strange that people would be so vehemently opposed to him and what he said and did. We asked her to watch Elder Holland's talk, "Safety for the Soul," and the next time we met with her, she said she really enjoyed it and that he was a really good speaker. She said that the time where he said, "never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless" and so forth," really struck her. So that was super awesome. She also said she's experienced some opposition when she even mentions that she's meeting with us, and she's like, "You haven't read the book." She basically recognizes that people who haven't had any personal experiences can't say anything about it that has any authority considering they don't know what we're really about. She's valuing her own experience over the misinformation others try to share with her. So that's awesome. She's awesome.

Over the course of the next three days, we had a bunch of meetings where we discussed missionary work with different leadership and so forth, like coordination meetings with the different ward mission leaders, getting to know the bishop of the 2nd ward, and talking about social media use with the social media specialists. That was smattered with visits to the institute building with the other OSU elders (we try to give them a chance to get out of their apartments, espcially since the OSU 3 elders' Wifi is pretty garbage, and to get a change of scenery--they don't really have a car with which to get to the building), other lessons, contacting, and so forth. But it's all kind of a blur. We also made a video announcing our focus for the transfer, so we'll be showing that to missionaries hopefully later today.

Oh, also, some sisters in New Jersey contacted us about a referral who lives in Columbus that they wanted us to start teaching, so that's cool. We're looking forward to that. We'll be meeting with him and them tomorrow.

I'm not sure what else I have to share, other than that I'm really excited for this transfer with Elder Timothy. He seems super awesome, and he knows a lot about the kinds of things that will contribute to us making good things to share on Facebook with people and hopefully bring people to know more about the church and The Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. A few things about Elder Timothy: He loves music and sound--he has a huge JBL speaker he calls "The Watermelon" that he plays music on, and my mom sent me a mic, and he actually know what all the little specs on the side of the box mean. He says out of all the companions I've had, he will be the one that cleans the most (he was a manager at a fast food place and was super diligent about keeping things clean). He sang in choir in high school, and like I said, he's a Spanish missionary. He's just a good, solid guy. He seems like he was basically born to be a leader and born to do missionary work. It seems like it's what he's cut out for. It's awesome.

I guess I'll share my missionary talk post for this week:

What can I do to help? What can I do to lift others? You may have asked yourself that question. That's what this talk is about. My favorite lines: "We have the hands to lift others from complacency and inactivity. We have the hearts to serve faithfully in our priesthood callings and thereby inspire others to walk on higher ground and to avoid the swamps of sin which threaten to engulf so many." We have the hands. We have the hearts. We have what we need to do what God wants us to do. We have enough.

We sometimes think we are not capable of doing the work of salvation. That is only partially true. We are not capable of making a difference in others' lives alone. But we must "remember that this work is not yours and mine alone. It is the Lord’s work, and when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help." Jesus Christ, He who can do all things and can help us do all things (1 Nephi 17:50), enables us to accomplish His work when we ask for His help to do it.

We might also think that the things you and I can do are ultimately of little to no consequence. I have felt that as a missionary. I know many of my fellow missionaries have felt the same. But my favorite one-liner from this talk is in striking contrast to that thought:

"No assignment is menial in the work of the Lord, for each has eternal consequences."

Everything you do when you're working in the service of your God is important.

Take 60 seconds now and ponder and/or pray: What will you do to serve your fellow beings and thus serve God today? Let me know in an email!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/to-learn-to-do-to-be?lang=eng

Well, I love you all. I hope you have a great day, and please let me know how you're doing missionary work in this day and age. I'd love to hear about it.

Elder Davis

A picture Elder Ciminski and us took when he first got with us.