The other week, Elder Jacobson and I went on intercambios [exchanges] to the Chiloé zone. We had to take a car ferry to get there, which was pretty cool. (Chiloé is an island off the coast of Chile and is part of the Chiloé Archipelago.)
It was good to see how focused the zone leaders are in the Chiloe zone. Elder Jacobson was able to see and teach some people he knew when he was working in that sector a few months ago.
While down there, I got to work with a very special elder, named Elder Bliss. Elder Bliss had only been in the sector for one week when we got there, because he had been "emergency-transferred" to Chiloé, in order to be with Elder Fastidio. Elder Fastidio's old companion had experienced health issues, and so had to be emergency-transferred to a larger city with better healthcare available. That's all great, but there was only one problem: Elder Fastidio was ending his mission in two weeks.
So Elder Bliss had a special assignment: Work with Elder Fastidio and familiarize himself completely with the sector before his companion went home. He had to be able to lead a new missionary after transfers in two weeks. A tough job, but Elder Bliss is an especially mature and dedicated elder, so he threw himself into it.
Well, to make a long story short, some other missionaries had health issues as well, and ended up going home. In the course of planning the transfers, we ended up with an extra companionship of sister missionaries, and it was decided to take Elder Bliss out of Chiloé, and to put the sisters there.
Elder Bliss didn't find out until transfers. Imagine his surprise when, instead of receiving a new companion, he was told that he would be leaving the sector that he had worked so hard to get to know in two weeks.
I was worried that he would feel betrayed or anguished about the change in plans, but I shouldn't have worried. Elder Bliss is a stud, and he accepted his new assignment with excitement. He told me that he knew that he had been sent to Chiloé for a reason, and that he had met and changed the lives of people there, and that he could leave with an easy conscience.
So that was our intercambio [exchange]. On the drive back, in the middle of the highway, without any warning, on a hill, the car died. I coasted it backwards and off the road, and we had a fun 30 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong with it. After trying unsuccessfully to start the car, I gave up, and got out. Elder Jacobson sat down, and tried it once, and it roared to life. I guess the car likes him more.
Between the car problems, and nursing the car on the highway, it took us 10 hours of driving to get back to Osorno.
The past week, we planned all of the cambios [transfers]: the new missionaries arriving and the old missionaries leaving. Everything went off without a hitch. This was my 6th or so time shepherding, so it's all getting less stressful.
Elder Jacobson (my old companion) went home. He finished his mission on Thursday, and should be eating Carl's Jr. with his family by now. I'm going to miss him. I learned a lot from him about humility and obedience. He was an example to me of those two attributes.
My new companion is Elder Medel.
 |
| My new companion, Elder Medel, after a baptism that we attended today. |
He is from Mexico, and he might be the most quietly self-confident person I have ever met. He is an excellent missionary, and I'm really excited to work with him. We arrived to the mission on the same day, and I have a photo of our group a year and half ago. He has a lot of missionary leadership experience, having been a zone leader for almost a year. He became a zone leader the same time that I left the office and became a district leader last year.
We spent all of Thursday afternoon planning the Mission Leadership Council, for all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders on Friday. We used powerpoint to create a presentation. I used a lot of presentation skills that I learned in Valdivia from my ward mission leader there, Jared Linco. He teaches "Gospel Principles" using powerpoint, and they are the best Gospel Principles classes that I have ever attended. Elder Medel and I talked about three main topics: Raising the Bar of the Mission, Improving our Teaching Skills, and Finding More People to Teach.
We did the presentation together, but Elder Medel focused on teaching skills, and I focused on finding.
President asked us to do the presentation a different way than I had ever presented before. Instead of trying to teach the zone leaders new techniques about finding or teaching, we were instructed to use the scriptures to excite, encourage, uplift, and inspire the missionary leaders. That way, they would be inspired to teach the missionaries under their care, and so forth down the leadership chain.
I shared three scriptures with the zone leaders: Doctrine and Covenants 100:5, 60:2, and 123:12. I spoke about our responsibility as missionaries to speak to everyone, and how God is preparing people to hear the Truth, and that He will lead us to them and them to us.
It was pretty stressful, but everything went well in the end. After the council yesterday, I was so tired. Just exhausted. Now we are resting.
Later today, I will make apple pie. The mission home has an apple tree, and I picked a bunch yesterday evening with President and Elder Medel.
Hope everyone is well.
-Elder Crotzer
p.s. Today we saw a gringo couple from California at the grocery store, Bruce and Carol. The funny part is that we had met each other almost one year earlier in the exact same grocery store about four aisles down. It was good to catch up. The experience left me shaking my head in wonder at the small world in which we live.
No comments:
Post a Comment