Be Straightforward

So not much has happened this week. This is proving to be one of my most patience-testing areas haha. There's a lot of potential here, but there are also lots of struggles. Without needing to get into too much detail, we have to deal with a lot of crap at church haha. 

Member problems, blasphemy, the like. I think a main reason why it's as big of a problem here as it is is that for who knows how long, two things have been happening: missionaries neglecting the recent convert lessons, leading to members not to fully understanding the basic doctrines; and missionaries letting themselves get walked all over. 

Right now I've kind of had to take the position of "bad guy" and deal with these types of member problems. My policy is basically that if there is a problem that needs to be resolved, I will at least discuss it with the person involved. 

Many missionaries seem to take a much more cautious approach fearing that people will get offended or something, but the problem with that is that doing that leads to the problems mentioned before. So I just carefully and respectfully talk it over with the respective person and so far they've all been like "oh wow I didn't know it was a problem. I'll try to keep that under control." And it's turned out well pretty much every time. 

This is one of those things I've learned from my mission; to address problems head on. It's the same with companions. If you have an issue with your companion and you don't address it, not only will it keep happening and you'll have to keep dealing with it without a right to whine, if it's a bigger deal problem, it will continue to affect your companion's other future companions too! 

I've realized that pretty much whenever you encounter an issue that needs to be resolved, if you take a quick step back and weigh all the concerns and why it's a problem, and do it making sure it's coming from love and a viewpoint of just sincerely wanting to help, it will turn out well.

Be bold! It works. Haha I love how my mission has taught me to just not take anybody's crap.

Yeah. We're going to Buc this week for Zone conference! I should hopefully get my package! Here's hoping!

Yeah I don't really have that much to say sorry I suck at that now.

Have a great week!!

-Elder DeGraw