Mariah, week 29, Zaphorozhye

Short e-mail 2* to short time:

This week's e-mail is going to be short because... 1.) I don't have very much time left, and 2.) nothing super-duper spectacular happened this week.

But anyway. Onto the show... 

The most revelatory thing that happened to me this week was during District Meeting (or the weekly meeting that I attend to with other missionaries in my area to sort of coordinate our work efforts and work together). Elder Fuller, one of our zone leaders, basically flat out told us that it is useless trying to hold on to the investigators that we have that are progressing very, very, very slowly; that there's no use planning for them; that it would just be better for us to let them go, completely erase our ICU board at home and start anew... which is what we did. As soon as District Meeting was over, we got doners to-go and headed home to erase our ICU board.

And with that new start, the very next day, we found two brand new investigators who we've met with twice already, and who Sister Nielsen and I both think are golden! The Lord really does work in miracles.

This week also featured exchanges with the Sister Training Leader of our area. I was the lucky duck who got to spend a day with the lovely Sister Burgoyne. I learned a lot from the time that I spent with her, and Sister Nielsen learned a lot from the time that she spent with Sister Peterson, Sister Burgoyne's companion. I love going out on exchanges with other sisters. It gives me a chance to learn how other sister missionaries work and I learn all sorts of new contacting tactics and techniques.

And without further ado, may I introduce:

Sister Peterson's Six Steps to Success (According to Sister Burgoyne)

1. Always be out the door on time
2. Make 30 calls daily
3. Make notes of all those calls
4. Call every member that you possibly can until you find one to come with you on lessons
5. Update the Area Book completely every night
6. Speak in unity with your companion

Current missionaries, future missionaries, member missionaries -- feel free to use these steps. No, I strongly advise you to use these. From what I know about Sister Burgoyne and Sister Peterson's area, I can guarantee that if you follow these steps to the T, you will see success in all aspects of your missionary work -- be it contacting, finding, teaching... I can foresee in the future that once other people start to know about these steps, it will become standard for every missionary companionship. Maybe it'll even make it into a future edition of Preach My Gospel.

Sister Nielsen and I have been doing our best to follow these steps for 2 days now, and we know that time will only tell until we see the fruits of our labors.

And that's pretty much it, folks. It snowed again last night. Not too bad, but everything was white when we woke up this morning. (Sister Nielsen was especially excited -- she loves snow.) 

Tune in next week for another installment of "The Missionary Adventures of Sister McCrea". Hope that this e-mail makes sense because my thoughts don't always make sense...

xoxo

Сестра Макрей