Week 92 - "Homer, you're a tough kid, but you gotta know when to quit."

Hey, everyone!

It's been a pretty good week this week. We've done a lot on the social media side of things, though I feel a little like we've been neglecting our area. We've been trying to balance things, but it's been a little hectic, and it often feels like we're together but doing different work. For instance, I've been editing together a lot of videos (we're trying to educate our zone in fun and engaging ways so they won't ignore it, and also teach by example, how to make good content), and I've also been doing some other things that only one person can really do, and then Elder Washburn has been doing contacting and finding content and setting up posts and so forth. We should probably have a day where we coordinate more and make sure we know what each other is doing and so forth. It would be good to see if there's any way we can help each other or work smarter.

In other news, I've been sick the past couple of days. Nothing major, just sick to my stomach, so it's fortunate that we're in a church or the apartment most of the time. I've considerd it might be the pace at which I'm working or something, so that's the reason for the quote. It's from a football coach in October Sky. It's at the beginning of the movie, and he's talking to Homer Hickam (played by Jake Gylenhall) during football tryouts. Homer gets run over a couple times--football isn't really his thing.

So as far as stuff we've done this week, we've made and released two videos about coming up with ideas for content to create. We're essentially teaching the missionaries that content needs to cover a topic that is simple and straightforward, not too complicated, and they need to consider their audience when they're making the content (they need to realize that they're aiming for people who are not members of the church, people who don't necessarily know a lot about the gospel). In the second video, we talked about how our missionary purpose is involved in making content: content on our page is something like street contacting: You don't walk up to someone and start talking to them about enduring to the end or the gift of the Holy Ghost--you have to understand their doctrinal foundation first. Because "Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end," we can reasonably focus first on faith and repentance. We ended the video by talking about how using those two subjects may seem restrictive, but there's actually a lot there we can cover. In this next video we're going to talk about how it's not just faith we have to focus on, but faith in Jesus Christ. We'll point people to PMG Ch. 6 and the topical guide entry under "Jesus Christ" for ideas. After that we'll do a video on repentance and talk about how repentance involves forming a fresh view of God, ourselves, and the world. We don't have to use the word "repentance" to invite people to repent. We just have to teach them true principles that will bring them closer to God and help them improve their lives--especially simple, reachable principles (obviously you don't demand of a person that they become entirely different people overnight--you work with them slowly to help them become better. As they do, hopefully they will see the difference in their lives and decide that it's worth them trying to come closer to Christ. We'll encourage them to do things that develop their relationship with God. It's going to be sweet. We also want to talk at some point about how even though we're serving up doctrinal milk, that doesn't mean it has to be bland and without substance. Milk is nourishing. Milk topics don't mean mediocrity. We're later going to be producing some videos to talk about planning out projects and executing them. As I write about all this, I feel more confident that it's going to be helpful. I was second-guessing myself all last week about this and wondering if all this was actually going to be of use to anyone. I felt inspired to talk about these things, but I'm always developing my understanding of how I receive revelation, so every experience I have with the Spirit seems like a good moment to do some analysis and fine-tuning.

Honestly, that's largely what has happened this week. That has been our focus. That's basically what we've accomplished. We've also had two or three lessons, and some people are maybe progressing, but our focus has been on trying to help the missionaries to progress. We're going to try to get a better balance.

In other news, we had the Assistants over for a training visit. Originally they were there for the zone leaders, but they got approval from president to stay an extra day and do a training visit with us. So I got to have a day with Elder Sears. That was a godsend, because I expressed to him all these feelings about wasting my time and feeling like what I was doing was not what I was supposed to be doing, and yet understanding that I was doing what I felt I should be doing. He said he knows exactly what that feels like from being an assistant. He said it's hard to experience that, but admin work really is important and necessary, so he encouraged me and helped me to realize that I was doing exactly what I needed to be. It felt really good to get that assurance from him. I have a tendency to think I don't need anyone or to want not to need anyone, but sometimes stuff like that happens, and then I realize that I can't do things on my own. I get humbled. It's also nice to know that there are people you can depend on, though. Elder Sears is awesome.

All that was happening while we were at a service project. We went and served at that St. Vincent de Paul place again, and they gave us a bunch of free food when we left! It was awesome! I feel like we're really making a positive impact there. It feels good to help people get a good, solid meal. It smelled SUPER good when it was being made. Elder Washburn and I had gone the day before for a few hours, but then the assistants were going to be there the next day, and no one else was going to be able to help (and they need the help), so we went with the assistants to do service. It was awesome. Anyway, the day before, when Elder Washburn and I went, we had helped prepare some peppers to be stuffed, and they were stuffing them with the hamburger-rice-etc. mix they had made when we left, but that's what they served when we were there with the assistants, so we smelled it cooking, and MAN, it smelled good. They let us have some, and it wasn't quite as good as it smelled, but it was still pretty satisfying. We also took a trip to Warren with the Assistants later that day to go pick up some Cockeye Barbecue and take it back to our apartment (Elder Sears had never been), and that was pretty awesome, too. Although when I had finished, I felt like I needed to take a nap. We all had their brisket with two sides. In addition to the one-meat-two-sides option they have on the menu, they also have a three-meat-two-sides option, or something like that, and I'm not sure how anyone could eat that much food. Man. I was stuffed. After pros we played Dew Pong, which I guess is just beer pong minus the beer. I had to drink a lot of soda, but I made Elder Washburn drink a bunch, too. Elder Sears played it for the first time the week before, and he wanted us all to play it.

We also had a visit from the Ashtabula elders, where they went on a training visit with the zone leaders. Elder Anderson is hilarious, and he's really into photography and film and stuff, so I showed him my camera and told him some things about my experience buying them. He's been thinking of buying a Canon Rebel T8i.

Elder Washburn and I also did some filming for a video at the park. I'm REALLY, REALLY hoping it turns out well. Again, I'm second-guessing myself. It will probably be great. Hopefully we'll have that all edited and published by the end of this week.

Today we went up to Ashtabula. We're there now, actually. Apparently the Ashtabula elders said the only elders nearby don't really want to hang out with them on p-days, so they'd like to have some people come and visit, so Elder Day and Elder Grayson took Elder Washburn and I up there, and Elder Magleby and Elder Douglass (the Spanish elders) came up here today as well, because they're going to be visiting some Spanish members in the area tomorrow. The WarBula district had a district activity today where they went to the beach in Ashtabula on Lake Erie and played frisbee and stuff, so we got to go to that. It was pretty cool. I got some good pictures (attached).

I can't really think of anything else. This week's talk is going to be "The Candle of the Lord," by Boyd K. Packer. It's super, super good. He talks about some basic principles for missionary work that are solid. Hopefully you like it.

Well, that's all for today. I hope you have a great week, and we'll see you next time.

Elder Davis

Seagulls in 'Bula