Week 56

Happy Memorial Day! This morning I watched a short film that was talked about on Church News, "The Miracle at Gapyeong."  It's about an artilleryman battalion from Southern Utah that fought during the Korean War. They were in a massive battle, outnumbered 240 to 4000 and they won without a single casualty. The interesting thing is that the artillerymen met with the president of the St George Temple not long before being shipped out, and he promised them that if they would be true to their God and obedient to His commandments they would all come home safe. I recommend giving it a watch, It's only 12 minutes long. 

Today we went to play pickleball with some of our friends. An older couple in Arcadia ward, the Farnsworths, let us use their backyard pickleball court, and we had a great time. We played with Graham, our friend who's preparing to be baptized, and Michael our other friend who's preparing to be baptized but who we had to refer since he doesn't live in our area. They are both cool but very different, it was interesting to see them together. 

Michael is a free spirit, he has a loud laugh and a gregarious attitude. He's done a lot of international traveling and likes walking everywhere. Graham is analytical and competitive, he likes cool cars, movies and pop culture. He wants to help people and is going to school to become a therapist. Graham is pretty good at pickleball, Michael had never played before so he was struggling a bit. Elder Bressan is pretty good and I'm... getting better. So with a match-up of Michael/me vs Graham/Elder Bressan, it was pretty brutal. Michael and I got smoked 2-11. It was fun though. It was also very hot, I think the dreaded Arizona summer might be at the doors. I didn't bring sunscreen but Sister Farnsworth thankfully had some, and also a hat. Not that I would need one more than anyone else. 

At Zone Conference two weeks ago we talked about how we can maximize our effectiveness in street-contacting. So often we don't know how to approach someone properly, how to introduce ourselves and our message simply and clearly, and even when we try we get hit with "I'm not interested," "I have a church," "I'm too busy" etc. What do you say when that happens? Usually I just blink stupidly and say something like, "oh ok, have a good day." 

At Zone Conference they introduced some new proselyting materials and some new techniques for getting over hurdles of prejudice to deliver our message. This includes using a very specific hook to get people's attention: "have you ever wondered where the nickname 'Mormon' comes from, or why people call us that?" Most in Arizona have seen the 'salesmen' in white shirts and ties around, and almost everyone has heard the term 'Mormon.' If they're not interested or use one of those deflections we hit them with a disarming question (our mission president calls it a 'pivot' question like the pivot you can make in basketball when you're boxed in). Usually something like "what helps you to feel closer to God?" Or something totally audacious. My favorite is "Did you know that Jesus Christ visited the ancient Americas?" That stops a lot of people in their tracks, probably in pure confusion. 

We've been given these cool world map cards with pictures of scrolls and Jesus and the Bible over in the Old World, and gold plates and Jesus and the Book of Mormon over in the New World, with Nephi's boat sailing over the ocean between them. It's more detailed then that but you get the idea. 

We use the card to teach people what the Book of Mormon is, what it's about, and why it's called the Book of Mormon. We've also been given these cool bookmarks that have a '5 Experiences in 5 Days' study plan to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. The best part of those is the QR code you can scan which brings up the free, no sign-in Book of Mormon app on the app store (that being for the people who prefer to read on their phone or who don't want to take a copy because "oh, I won't read it, you should give it to someone who will read it"). The app has the Book itself, the BoM videos, links to connect with missionaries etc. It also has the QR code so other people can scan from your phone to get the same app. 

The unifying idea behind all of these innovations (read: basic sales techniques) is to spread our message as shortly, succinctly and clearly as possible, to as many people as possible. This method was pioneered in the Fort Collingsworth Colorado mission, and it was massively successful. They tripled their yearly baptism count in a year. Our mission president has said that at the very least it will double the amount of people we find on a regular basis. 

I do wish that we had been given these tools at the beginning of my mission, it's nothing complicated and basic guidelines like these would have been very helpful to people like me for whom talking to strangers (in general, much less about something as important as the Gospel of Jesus Christ) doesn't come as naturally.  But I'm glad that I have them now and that I'm able to apply them. It feels like I've been able to access some of my potential as a missionary that was barred before. 

Usually in my current area we find 1-3 people per week. Not very much, worse than a lot of areas, better than some. Zone Conference was on a Thursday, in the 4 days that remained that week we found 8 people and sent off 4 referrals. I felt like I was able to teach clearly, simply, and powerfully. It helps massively that I have been making some changes in my life and seeking to increase my connection to the LORD. 

On Saturday we participated in what the missionaries here call a "Blitz." The idea is that when the missionaries in a particular area are struggling because their teaching pool has become too full to manage, all the missionaries nearby come together to split up the task of visiting everyone to see who's still interested/who they should cease teaching. 

I had never done one before but I enjoyed it a lot. My good friend Elder Bright and his trainee Elder Ruiz were really struggling in the Camelview/ Camelback area, they had over 31 people being taught (far too many). Elder Bressan and I participated along with the other companionship in our district, Elders Clark and Keller, as well as the Zone Leaders Elder Brown and Elder Bahr (the Camel² Elders' roommates). The Camelback branch is Spanish-speaking so we split it up so that each of the 4 companionships had one spanish-speaker. 

I went with Elder Bahr, he's relatively young in the mission but he's very friendly and full of energy. One of my friends in Black Canyon, Nate, met him once when they were on exchanges and described him as "having a smile that should be in a Coke commercial." He's known for his skill in street-contacting, and when I used the card method during the course of the Blitz he complimented me and said I did a good job, which was nice. We spent the next 2 ½ hours contacting a lot of Spanish speakers, which was enjoyable. 

I continue my reading of the Old Testament, I just reached 2 Chronicles. The Books of the Chronicles cover the same period of time as the Books of the Kings, just with more useless and irrelevant names recorded. If you ever wanted to know who the door greeters were in ancient Judah, you can. We are greatly blessed to know that "Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was porter of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (1 Chr 9:21). Thank you for your service Zechariah, you sound like you were a real one.

Faithfully Yours,

Elder C. Calder

P.S. I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't mention it was my brother and sister's 20th birthday today. Happy birthday to Jackson and Peyton! (Äldste Calder and Kizkardeş Calder). No more messing around, you're not teenagers anymore. You're officially old. 👴

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Our friend Preston got baptized last Monday. I'm very happy for him, sad to see him go since the day after he moved back to his family's house in California for the summer. But hopefully I'll get to see him back before I leave. 

We saw this random car in someone's driveway and I was a little bemused by it. I guess breast cancer awareness *would* be an issue of interest to that particular institution. 

No covenants?

Our area, not just the mission but our area alone, contains all of Tempe North of the Salt River. I think we might have more of Tempe than the Tempe mission. We actually got permission to leave the mission and go down to South Tempe for our friend Estella's baptism, which was a rejuvenating experience. 

I think somebody misplaced their bumper. I can just picture somebody knocking into this parked car by mistake, being all panicked and not knowing what to do, and just awkwardly putting it back on top of the car. "This way it won't get lost."