Battling in Bratislava

Well, this week was pretty interesting, fun, and tough all at the same time but it was a pretty good week, I don't have a ton of time to tell you all about it but it was really quite good and I enjoyed it, there were only a few times where it was a little difficult but that doesn't matter now that they're over and it's back to the grind of things. This week I had an exchange with the Elders in Bratislava and we also had a training from the area president here, Elder Teixeira, and we as leaders got a personal training from him and it was delightful I really enjoyed it a lot and it was really powerful and it was perfect for what the zone needs right now and also something that me and Elder Ringger are trying to get the rest of the zone to focus on, which is Baptisms, that's the goal for this transfer because we're not satisfied with only 3 baptisms in 6 months, we kind of feel that we can do a lot better, and that's also about what was training on Thursday here so we're hoping that it has an impact on everyone here. We also ran our exchange I was with Elder Sharp and it was fabulous.

 

Well the training was really good, me and Elder ringger and the sister trainer leaders all met together before the training to talk with the teixeira's and with president and Sister Mcconkie and they all gave us some inspiring thoughts. One was about how we deal with our missionaries on exchanges with love and about how we can show them by example, about how we are supposed to say good job and really raise them up, to try to inspire them ourselves. As well about how any improvement is what the goal is, not the amount of baptisms or the amount of lessons, but of the fact that they improved is really where the real treasure lies, and that's so true, it doesn't matter how many lessons we teach or the amount of people that we find, although that is great and respectable, but it's about the improvement that we have made from before, it's a fantastic idea. This of course doesn't mean we stop pushing and just go with the flow but that we work our hardest and numbers don't tell the whole story, President McConkie doesn't really care about the amount of lessons that we teach but cares about the effort that we put in. A story from Sister McConkie's mission is that her mission president in Argentina, if you taught less than 40 lessons then he would put your name on a list and publish it across the mission that you didn't teach 40 lessons, it's really funny but ridiculous as well, but it was just great because it went along so well with the goals that we made together for the transfer and a lot of the people that we have talked to really have learned about the importance of it and now we hope they won't fight us on it like some people did last transfer but I think the trust is growing and the tension is going down from last transfer, at least I hope it is.

 

Anyways the exchanges went well, I was with Elder Sharp this time and we contacted together and taught a lot of lessons for us and all in all it was a successful exchange. The main part about it was that me and Elder Sharp had a talk afterwards and talked about his goals here in Bratislava with Elder Calderon and we discuss how he can become a better missionary and Elder Sharp is great because when you give him advice or suggestions he just takes off running with it, and makes them his own as well as implementing them right away. I was actually able to see it in action because he had one minor issue he wanted to fix and I saw him take the reins and speak up and work it out himself. He's great and I think as he continues on his path in his mission he'll be able to help the people here a lot, I think he will be a great missionary and already is, so I'm pumped for him!

 

This following week we have planned an exchange with Trencin and we'll see whether we will be going on Tuesday or Wednesday we haven't ironed out all the details but it will be the first time taking the car on a long road trip, so I'm a little nervous but also really excited, I forgot how much I like to drive. I drove today a little bit to take the car to get washed, even though it never washed because there is encrusted bird poop all over it and I'm going to have to go out and clean it myself rather than pay more money to get it washed. I'm not too worried but I'm just excited to drive around because it sure beats taking the train everywhere over here because they really aren't the greatest trains but meh it's ok.

 

We also had a baptism this week, it was Stan and he has been in the church for a year or so and for some stupid reason was never baptized, so we were there and I have pictures but it's on Elder Ringger's camera and he left it home, so until next week I can't show them to you. Michaela is on date for this weekend but she hasn't been able to stop drinking coffee so we unfortunately have to push her date back which is a bummer. But we had a meeting with her today and she said of course I still want to work for it, I will work for it until I'm dead because she knows the church is true so it probably won't be next week either so we'll have to wait the 2 weeks that she's in Austria and then when she gets back we will have to work with her more but we'll see a week is still a long time for her to quit coffee.

 

Well I'm really out of time so this one has to be a little short but thank you so much the package of goods it was really heavy, and really expensive. But I love it none-the-less so thank you mom for all the stuff and for putting all my favorite things in it, especially the warm delights and the socks, my companions and the elders in the district think you're the best mom ever Ha-ha and so do the sisters that I gave the bracelets to. You may be getting emails from them soon because they wanted to write you a thank you note, but thanks for all the support and the love and the emails and the candy, you're the greatest, I love you all and hope you all have a super safe week!

 

Elder Ferrell