January 19, 2019 Put Me In, Coach

Put Me In, Coach                                                                                            January 19, 2019

Note to everyone: I'll be in El Salvador for my next P-Day, and I hear I might only have 30 minutes to e-mail, so my letters will probably be a lot shorter, and if I don't respond to your personal emails, I did not forget you! I'm probably just typing up a response on my alpha smart to reply to you next week. I love hearing from you all.

Simple:

     This is my last week at the MTC. I leave on Monday at 2:30 in the morning. Everyone in my district except me received flight plans last week, so I was anticipating a reassignment, but nothing changed. Finally, on Wednesday, I went to the travel office to ask what was up, and they just had me fill out a form, then they gave me my travel itinerary the next day. I leave the MTC on my way to El Salvador on 2:30 AM on Monday!

     I'm going to miss the MTC. It's really cool. You have awesome all you can eat food, awesome gym time (with even more awesome volleyball), super awesome teachers, crazy awesome missionaries everywhere, mucho awesome devotionals every Tuesday and Sunday, and the MTC choir director is awesomely awesome. If you didn't pick up my theme, the MTC is awesome. Yep, it's pretty busy, and I got pretty tired some days, but there is so much growth here in ways that I didn't even think about. 

    This week a ton happened, cause it's the last week, but I'll just include some details. We received another new district on Wednesday. The Zone Leaders (my companion and I) and the STL's got to go introduce the new missionaries and they're awesome! They're still a little quiet, but everyone's a little quiet when they first show up. We had Robert C. Gay, from the presidency of the seventy, come speak to us on Tuesday night, and that was an awesome devotional. Spanish is still flying, I've now memorized the First Vision, Moroni 10:3-5, Alma 32:27, and almost Alma 32:21 in Spanish. They're all good reads. I have no clue how to say them in Spanish. I think I'll learn James 1:5 next.

     We had our last TRC lesson with Ana on Friday, and it was really sweet. We sang to her in the end, and also found Ana and said by and sang to her. She cried a little bit. We built some great relationships with them.

     I'll miss it here, but I know I've got more important things to do now, and who knows, maybe I can come back here to work afterwards. (It don't pay great but who needs money anyway?)

Divertido:

     I taught 2 missionaries in my zone how to do the elephant, but the one on top didn't get the concept and I think you can tell by the picture that he really ended up hurting himself.

     The new district of missionaries pulled an Elder Olson and locked themselves out of their rooms while taking a shower. It was a good time. It was interesting cause they did it at relatively the same times in their missions as I did, so I was able to look at my situation from my previous zone leader's eyes. 

     In our last lesson with Ana, there was a really powerful spirit there, and we shared with her a lot of what she needed, and it was a great discussion. We didn't want leave the lesson too briefly like we were more concerned about meeting our time quota than her, so we went a little overtime. Our lessons are supposed to cap at 25 minutes. We were in there for an hour. She was really nice and didn't say anything til the 55 minute mark, and we definitely didn't realize how long we were in there, and to make things better, when we left, we found out that 2 Hermanas were patiently waiting for us to finish teaching so they could start. We put on a lot of guilt that night (and weight too, cause it was pizza night (every Friday night is pizza night)).

     Remember how I'm not good at talking to people? My companion and I were in the computer lab, scheduling our haircuts, and there were 2 other newer Hermanas in the room who we hadn't met, so we started talking, cause they were serving Spanish speaking. It was a good chat. We found out that one of them is from Glendora, so we were trying to figure out if there was a chance that we had crossed paths before. All of the Spanish speakers are usually on the sixth floor of the T-4 building for class, but I had never seen them before, so I asked them if they were on that floor, they said yes, and I was going to ask what room they were in for class, but I stopped halfway through the question, cause I thought it would sound sort of creepy. They probably sensed what I was going to ask, and told me their room number anyway, so I kind of laughed and said "You don't really have to tell me that, sorry" and one of them sort of sarcastically blurted out, "Oh, we'll tell you anything", so I more sarcastically, but serious in tone, replied, "Okay then while we're at it, what are your addresses?" Yep. I know. I guess sarcasm doesn't go very far in the MTC. (In case anyone's wondering, I had no intent of actually collecting their addresses). But they just sort of chuckled and said, "Okay, bye" and walked out. I didn't think it was a big deal, but when my companion walked out, he heard one of them saying, "And I'm like, 'I'm not giving you my address'". Sometimes I just gotta remember that I have a way of speaking that people tend to take me seriously in the worst of times, but I'm sure there was a reason for that encounter. It reminds me of a great quote I read, "Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes that reason is you're stupid and you make bad decisions"

Importante:

     This was a great week, because I saw to it that I was anxiously engaged in a good cause. Last Saturday was a low for me, but since then, I haven't really had a bad moment. I got a little hit with the nervous bug on Friday for going out into the field, but that lasted about 20 minutes. It's been a great week, where I've been able to really help a lot of people in my district, and the newer people in my zone with some struggles they were having. 

     Regarding the field. I am ready to go. I have this thought pretty often, "I just wish I had more time to prepare", but the secret is I'll never stop feeling that way until I get out there. I felt the same way before going on a mission and the same way before getting out in the football field. 

    ~ For those of you thinking to yourself, "Is John really doing another football analogy?", you bet your bottom dollar ~

     My biggest problem in football was I was too anxious to get out in the field. I did a heck of a lot extra to prepare, but I was never ready to get out and show my coach what I was made of because I had to be ready for everything before I went out there, and I never was, and I never started. In my junior year a friend of mine, who also wasn't starting, walked up to my coach during our first game, and said, "Put me in coach, I'll show you something you wanna see", and he was persistent, and he played, and he got a great tackle his first play and an interception his second play, and started from then on. I always wished I had that courage. I never once said "Put me in coach", and I never once opened that door to my new potential, and I hated that. I'm not going to make that mistake again. 

     I was nervous, scared, and a little unsure of myself before I served a mission. But I knew I either could be comfortable or I could grow, and I already chose comfort one to many times. Here I am, and I am happier, and stronger, and more prepared than ever. The mission is not a piano recital. Going to the field is not a piano recital. I am here to do the best that I can, and the best part is, the best that I can gets better every day. These are the thoughts that got me out on a mission, and that carry me with strength as I approach the field: If you're afraid that you'll be uncomfortable on a mission, serve a mission, then you'll find out that sometimes you just gotta be a little uncomfortable to grow more than you thought possible. If you don't think you have what it takes to serve a mission, serve a mission, then you will. If you don't think that you need a mission, just remember someone else might need your mission more.

     I'm ready to say "Put me in coach". I can't promise any immediate touchdown, tackle or interception, but the mission isn't an 11 on 11 game. We don't need athletes, just people who are willing to join and let the coach make you into one. That's why I'm here. It wasn't til my junior year of football that I found out that the most valuable practice time I had was during game time. 

It's game time.

- Elder Olson

"Ask and ye shall receive; Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Amen"