The Hardest Part about being a Missionary

This week was more of the same for me, working hard all day every day.

The hardest part about being a missionary is being a missionary leader.  I work with a lot of missionaries and it seems like they just don’t have a desire to work hard, or they work hard but they aren’t working in an effective manner so their numbers are low.

 These numbers or "key indicators" that we work with are baptisms, confirmations, investigators in sacrament meeting, lessons taught with a member present, other lessons taught, "progressing" investigators (they are reading the Book of Mormon and praying and trying to keep the commandments), references received  (from members), references contacted, new investigators, lessons taught to less actives and recent converts, and contacts on the street.

The goal of a good missionary is to work hard to increase these numbers every week, because as you do so you will help more and more people accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

The problem is when missionaries start to get satisfied with low numbers. Let’s say that I’ve taught 4  lessons today (4 lessons is like the minimum for a day´s work), I can 1) say that I’ve done enough for the day and not really try hard to talk to people on the street or even go to a member house to eat a snack for the rest of the evening. Or I can 2) still try my hardest and teach another 4 before the night runs out.

The missionaries that do the first a lot of times get stuck in the rut of only teaching a low number of lessons every day, so they start lowering their goals and instead of teaching a minimum of 4 lessons a day their goal BECOMES 4 lessons per day. Then they start teaching even less. . . .and then start slacking off  with the free time that they have because they aren’t exerting themselves during the day.

But then there are other types of missionaries that have good intentions but they don’t really know how to use their time wisely. They start teaching instigators in a wide, spread-out area so they spend half their time during the day walking.  They arrive in house tired at the end of the day working hard and obeying the rules, but they don’t baptize often because they aren’t teaching very many people.  (I was like this at the beginning of the mission.)

Our job as leaders is to help people improve the quality of teaching and planning (through training meetings and doing splits to teach by example) and to motivate and inspire the missionaries in the zone to work their hardest.

The hardest thing to do I think is to inspire people to work.  I’m not a very crazy and outgoing guy. I’m good at teaching  principles and solving problems, but when it comes to getting up in front of 20 other missionaries and trying to motivate them to work harder I’m like a fish out of water. I’ve been getting better with practice but it’s still awkward.

O well, I hope by the end of the mission I get a hang of it.

But that’s what I’ve had on my mind today, love you all

I bought new insoles this week, Dr. Scholls all the way. I’m gonna buy more this week too I think

até mais!!!

-Elder Leete

Nobody Beat Me Up

August 6, 2012

This week was another crazy week; I’m starting to get worn out. . . .

This week I did splits for 5 days in a row with different missionaries and different areas to help those who haven’t baptized in a while. on Tuesday i was in G(a small city about 40 minutes away), Wednesday in P (another ward in the city), Thursday in the ward in the center of the city, Friday back in P to work with the other  missionary there, and then Saturday I spent a total of 6 hours on a bus going back and forth to do a  baptismal interview in the city of O. Crazy.

To top all that off Saturday night I got bit like 5 times by a mosquito, but there is one certain species that I’m like allergic two so when it bites my I swell up really bad.  Sunday I spent the whole day with my right eye swollen shut. Oh the wonders of Brasil. The most annoying part is that the people here love the missionaries so much that I had to explain to everyone in the ward that I was fine and didn’t need any more Meds and nobody beat me up.

Anyway, I’m excited for this week to get a good week of work done in my own area, we have been teaching a woman that was going to get baptized this week but a pastor started visiting her and telling her a bunch of lies about the Book of Mórmon. So we gotta clean that up this week.

I’m glad that you all are melting in the heat over there; you can feel how I felt at Christmastime hahaha.

The mission is great, I’m learning so much about how to deal with all kinds of people and all kinds of situations, and above all about simply that the Church is true, there is no other explanation. I’ve seen too many people receive answers to prayers, it´s just not possible that it´s not true.

Love you all!
Stay healthy and happy!

-Elder Leete

Just Miracles!

Batismo!!!

We brought two 14 year olds to church last week, and as we taught them this week with their families everyone accepted! Everyone was really excited to get baptized this Sunday!

When we showed up to walk with them to church Sunday morning everybody was super tired and sick, it seems like Satan swept in and gave everybody a nasty cold. We woke everyone up and encouraged them to go to church even though they were tired and a little sick. As official representatives of the Savior we promised them that if they went they would feel better.

We stayed at their house for like half an hour until finally all the kids piled into a member´s car that lives nearby and went to church. We promised the mom that we would come back in an hour to pick her up (she wanted to rest a a little bit more). When everyone got to church they began to feel the spirit and everyone felt better, but still were unsure about baptism.

We called in another missionary to do the baptismal interviews for everyone and the interview is always a really spiritual experience, so everyone got re-excited and the whole family got baptized! Mom,  son, and daughter (there´s three more daughters but they have less than 8 years).

They had two cousins too that wanted to get baptized but their parents wouldn’t let them, but with yesterday´s experience I think it will happen this next Sunday. And with a little more teaching with the spirit I’m sure their parents will get baptized too!

só milagres!
Just miracles!

Great week for us, but the zone hasn’t been having very much success so me and Elder A will do a bunch of splits this week to try to work in a bunch of different areas and help all of our missionaries baptize someone by the end of the transfer. It’s a lot of work, and I’m sure I’ll end up spending a ton of money on the bus, but it will be worth it if we can help all these missionaries have the baptizing experience also.

Love you all lots!
Don´t have too much fun on your summer break!

-Elder Leete

Baptism is Easy, Retention is Hard

This week was crazy! (I’m starting to discover that every week is crazy on the mission) me and Elder A did a split with another companionship that works on the other side of the city on Friday, and while I was in the other area they talked with a woman on the street, entered to teach a lesson to discover that the house had live 5 less active people living there with 2 actives that are attending another neighboring ward because their friends go there. Anyway, turns out that they have a nine-year-old Brother that hadn´t been baptized yet! He already knew everything (growing up in the church and all) so he went straight to the waters of repentance on Sunday. On Saturday we did another split with the elders of the neighboring ward where they attend, so I ended up not even teaching him, but he lives in our area so it technically counts as a baptism for me.

Anyway, at the same time we found out that 2 of their cousins that live in the other ward haven’t been baptized either, so the other missionaries ran over there, taught them everything and they were baptized too. We did all three baptisms in the same service. Was really cool, the less active members in the family are all really excited to come back to church, in the two families makes like 10 people.

Crazy stuff, we just got to work extra hard with the ward leaders so that these families get home and visiting teachers and actually get visited so that they stay active this time, I’m finding here on the mission that baptism is easy, retention is hard. And retention is completely dependent on the willingness of the ward to integrate and visit those who get baptized.

Love you all, 

-Elder Leete 

Filling the Hole in Your Chest

Hello family!

I´m doing great here in M, yesterday we found a really cool  family, it’s really just a couple, they were taught ten years ago by the elders and were almost were baptized but some personal problems came up in their lives so they stopped going to church, but they know it’s true and always wanted to be members, they even talked to us about how they wanted to build a house with a big old back yard so that they can have church activities and invite people over for family home evenings.

I’ve been discovering in these last months about how really every person has the same hole in their chest, the same emptiness that only the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gift of the Holy Ghost fills.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost really serves two purposes, to comfort and perfect.

The Holy Ghost is a comforter because he 1) testifies of the truth of things to comfort us to know we are on the right path and 2) makes us feel the love of God, whether it be when we repent to feel the remission of sins or to feel literally comforted from the trials and stains of the fallen world around us; to feel the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.

The Holy Ghost purifies us because we want to feel this comfort, so we strive to live the commandments to be able to. God doesn’t change us by punishing us, he just gives us the chance to be comforted if we do what he says and lets us choose for ourselves if that´s it what we want.   

That is why Jesus said:

“Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 27:20).

It’s really just this, as we receive the Holy Ghost we are purified and comforted, and as Preach My Gospel says:

Many of these people are searching for purpose in life. They are concerned for their families. They need the sense of belonging that comes from the knowledge that they are children of God, members of His eternal family. They want to feel secure in a world of changing values. They want “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23), but they are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12).

And I´m here to help them find it.

Love you all! Until next week!

-Elder Leete

Encouraging our Zone to be Better

Mon 7/9/2012 1:31 PM

its weird, i had completely forgotten that it was fourth of July week.  . . you get really out of it here.

this week was great, we have been working with the zone to get everyone to teach more lessons with members, and we doubled the average for the week! it makes me happy that we actually were able to encourage our zone to be better, that is the hardest thing about the mission, being a good leader in a way that you actually make a difference, instead of just keeping the thing going the way its always been going.

one more transfer passed by, i will stay here in m while Elder C gets transferred to another city, my new companion will be Elder A, he was my Zone Leader when i was in Londrina, he´s really crazy, i´m excited to see how this next transfer will turn out.

we´ve been using Al and Qui to  teach their neighbors and family, their Daughter really wants to be baptized but shes not married to the man shes living with who doesnt want to get married, so she has to decide if she will split up with him or get married anyway to get baptized. this happens a LOT here in brasil, its really annoying, I´ve never seen a person receive a testimony so strong so fast before, so i really hope it will turn out well for her.

I´m glad R got the package, enjoy the fotos everyone, I´ve been taking a lot less i got to repent of that

love you all!

-Elder Leete

Learning a lot about Patience, Faith, & Hope

sounds like everybody is having a great time! this week was a little hard for us, we baptized everyone that we were teaching last week and so we were having a hard time finding new people to teach this week. but, one of our investigators went to church this week that we didnt even excpect would go, so i´m really happy about that.

i sent a package this last week to r and in it put a memory card with an update of all the pictures i have, so tell her to share with you when she gets it. I couldn´t remember when i sent the last memory card so i bet there is a bunch of overlap but thats okay.

love you all, lesss miracles this week, we had a lot of trials in the zone, a lot of missionaries that had baptisms that fell through, so i´ve been learning a lot about patience, faith and hope. working and working and working and even when it seems like its not working out, working and working some more

love you all!

-Elder Leete
 

Picture from baptisms last week!



me and elder c with our beautiful jumpsuits and Al and Qui on the left and the sister missionary that taught him three years ago with her husband that came to watch on the right, was a really great day