Happy August!! It's been another great week :)
1. The lights on Temple Square are back!! They're not on, but they're back! It takes the light people 3 months to set up all the lights and trees and Christmas decorations, so they start early. This morning we were walking around, and we saw people already starting to string lights on trees. That means Christmas is coming!! Wow, I feel like they just finished taking the lights off the trees.. but here we go again! It really has made me think about how precious time is and how little we really have of it. This Monday I'll hit my unofficial year mark.. at least that will be the day that I have 6 months left in the field. In so many ways I feel like I just got here, and to only have 6 months left feels so unreal. It's certainly made me think a lot more about how precious time is, and that the opportunity we have to serve the Lord and represent our Savior as His full time missionaries is really so fleeting.
2. Back to the MTC!!! We finished our Missionary Department Training this week as a mission, but now they're making it a little smaller with something called coaching! It's the first time they've been doing this, so it's still a new idea - but I love it so much. For the next two weeks, Sister Felix and I will Skype an MTC teacher for an hour about 4-5 times a week, and receive personal coaching for how we can improve our skills as online teachers of the gospel. It's so cool!! We've already done a bit of it, and it's so neat. We do live interactions with people visiting the website, as well as role plays with the teacher. It's already so helpful, and it's so nice to have some one on one training with specific help on how to improve. Something we've talked a lot about is having empathy and the importance of building a human connection with people over the internet - it's so hard. But I've found that as I try to really connect with and understand these people that come online as individuals rather than assuming I know them based off of other people I've met online and boxing them into groups I've seen before like "anti" or "looking for information" or "troll" or "willing to learn", I've seen a lot more success with understanding them and helping them come closer to Christ. Basically, I love coaching.
3. Something else I loved from the Missionary Department Training was that we talked about 3 different types of people that we typically see that visit Temple Square - we have a lot of people that are "Not Aware" "Curious" and "Engaged" For a long time, the missionary effort has been focused on the last category: the people that are engaged in finding out if what we teach is true, that are actively praying and reading and pondering. But Preach My Gospel doesn't focus much on those that are "Not Aware" or may just be "Curious". We laughed though because we talked about how sometimes it's awkward when we try to have super spiritual conversations with people, and Chris (the missionary department guy) just laughed and said, the thing is, you're probably talking to someone who isn't aware and applying principles for those in the engaged category and then wonder why it's awkward. I just think it's really great that with the new updates to Preach My Gospel and the new training's available for missionaries, there is a higher focus on really helping invite everyone to come unto Christ from wherever they currently are. I think it helps us do missionary work a lot more like Christ would, go to where people are and lift them higher. I love being a missionary.
Well, there's a little inside peak to the beginning of a new age of missionary work! It's exciting being so close to Headquarters with all the changes and updates going on, but more than anything right now I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ and help others feel of His love both online and on square.
Have a great week!!!
--Sister Black
No comments:
Post a Comment