The Pilot Takes Off

Hey everyone!


First off, I don't think I mentioned it in my last E-mail, but transfers have actually happened last Tuesday. It doesn't make a huge difference for me though - though me and Elder Black both got moving notices, the only thing that changed for us is the apartment we lived in. We are still companions, still in the same zone, and still observing the same P-Day. The district wasn't even reorganized to include those involved in the pilot program so that the district wouldn't be separated at work, as we had kind of expected (we currently work on separate floors). As for the other major changes at Transfer Conference, Elders Shubin and Krauss have returned home. As Elder Shubin was a Young Elder Training Leader, Elder Buers was called to take his place there. There were no other leadership changes aside from this.

So, for the past week, me and the others in the pilot have been working separately from the others in the zone, as previously mentioned. The cases are challenging - it is a completely different type of work managed by a different software. However, we have been getting the hang of it, and are actually working quite effectively. I am not the most effective of all four of the missionaries there, but I do work hard, and I get quite a bit done. I am also learning every day, which is great. I think by the end of the program, we will have met the expectations of the people in charge. I look forward to that!

There have been some major announcements made at transfer conference, which I feel I can include in the E-mail. Night zone has always been a bit of a slower time for missionaries, and when things are slow, missionaries get bored. When missionaries get bored, they get off-topic. Now, I don't mean to say that they have been doing things worthy of having to talk to the mission president about or getting sent home for them - but, to put it simply, night zone is not the most productive time of day. To remedy this issue, we will begin doing night zone a bit differently. Every night zone which we go to (Tuesday through Friday), half of us will go to night zone, and the other half will attend classes about a variety of subjects - some will be gospel related, some will cover more temporal subjects involving life skills (personal finance, for example). The people attending these classes will alternate every night so everyone gets a chance to attend. This keeps everyone busy - those at night zone will have a more healthy workload, and those at the classes will be enriched and enlightened. I look forward to these coming changes - night zone could use improvement to keep everyone busy, and I think this will help with that.

Anyway, that's not the only big thing going on. The choir has been working on an arrangement of the hymn "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet," which sounds great. However, I think that a bit more work has been put towards working on it than most of the musical numbers we have been doing. I have been asked to give a quick message before the singing of this hymn (which message is the text of D&C 21:1-5), and we will have three young elder soloists - Elders Stephens, Buers (who will afterwards no longer be in the choir due to his new assignment), and Harris. We have also been working individually as sections for the number. Finally, last Sunday, the men's section of the choir had practiced for a bit before our Sunday meetings. None of these things are normally worked on for musical numbers, so I look forward to the performance we do of this number, and seeing what happens when we perform it.

The mission was able to have a special visit to the Church History Library yesterday, which was enjoyable. They never did announce what the situation would be in regards to our zone work, because the actual presentation which we saw there happened 45 minutes after the beginning of night zone. When me and my companion had arrived to get some work done before this began, no one was there. Anyway, the aforementioned presentation was on the translation of the Book of Mormon. It was an interesting presentation on how the Book of Mormon was translated, and they even showed us a bit on the importance of doing proper research, which is fitting - this library is all about research. Anyway, before the presentation itself, I looked up some resources on one of my ancestors, and found that the library actually had quite a bit about him, including letters to Brigham Young while he served as a mission president, biographies, and even an autobiography. Some resources required me to visit the library again the next day (today) to view, and that I did do! His autobiography is quite a work, and though I was not able to read through it all with the limited time I had, it was still good to have been able to learn more about one of my ancestors there! I would definitely recommend visiting the place sometime!

That's what has been going on with me this week. I believe that there will be some good things to talk about next week, so stay tuned in. Have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: It has been said a million times that life is short. That is true - my mission has been flying by, and each month moves more swiftly than the last. However, is there any importance to knowing that life goes by quickly? It would not, if we were to always do what needs to be done immediately. However, procrastination often is a problem for many of us - it definitely is for me. The major problem with procrastination is that it is easier to say "tomorrow" than "today", and doing the former gets easier every time it is done. However, we are not given forever to do things which are important. Our opportunities are limited, and when they do come, they never seem to stay long enough. There are a couple reasons for procrastination. One may feel like the situation is not optimal - for example, one may postpone starting a family when money is sparse. However, I have found personally that just going ahead and doing things which I may not have felt completely ready for has never ended in regret. another reason one may procrastinate is because of a lack of motivation. It is important to remember that for things which are not fun to do, motivation is not simply given - it is earned. It comes after one has done some of the task, and gotten himself or herself in motion - remember, one of the laws of motion says that an object in motion stays in motion. Finally, one may put things off because of a lack of urgency. While it may be true that there is often not a ton of pressure to do important things, one can set personal goals for himself so that he can tackle such tasks. Do not simply reschedule important tasks simply because there is not currently a pressing need - tell yourself that it will be done by the end of the day. One thing is certain - procrastination is an enemy to progress. So, my challenge is to put off procrastination, and begin doing that which needs to be done. Do it even if the weather is not optimal, or if you still cannot find your headphones which you usually wear while working. If finding motivation is hard, just do it for about ten minutes, and see if it isn't suddenly easier to keep moving until the task is done. And finally, do it before it becomes too late.