Lesson I was taught but did not learn while I in Argentina that I now wish I had practiced to the point of habit but didn't

That's a long title. I was thinking about calling it "things i learned on my mission but forgot" but that seemed too straight foreword. I'm writing this blog about how i should be working instead of working. thats called hypocrisy.

Lesson one: planing (3 parts) weekly plan, daily plan, appointments

Every week on my mission my companion and I would sit down in our Pinch (apartment) with a blank weekly planing sheet. (well to be truthful if we were doing a good job with part 3 of this lesson they weren't always blank). We knew that we had to be out doing "work" and so we would check our list of contacts, and investigators, and inactive families and we would make goals for conversations and lessons and baptism's and how many books we would sell ( yeah we sold them for 2 pesos(about 2 dollars, not really but close enough(nested parenthesis are cool))) we would block out time for each type of activity and sometimes we would even write in specific one sided appointments.

Each morning we would check the daily plan, fill it up if there was blank spots, and go and do the work we had set for our selves. Sometimes we had 4 hours of "walk the busy streets talking to families" but it was planed we weren't just wasting time. we planed it. Each evening we would review the day, and we would check the schedule for tomorrow add any appointments we had made that day to the rest of the week and make sure we were on making progress on our goals.

Making Appointments rocked! If we had a week with 0 appointments during our weekly planing session we knew that we would have a long hard week that would not be any fun. The successfulness of our time was directly associated with the number of appointments we had. Every morning that we woke up to a day full of appointments was a good day because we didn't have to make up things to do. It is so much easier to stay on task when you know what your task is.


Lesson two: Study

Every day I was in Argentina I spent 30 mins studying the Spanish language, and 2 hours studying the scriptures and such. Let's be honest: I watch more TV than that right now. I wasn't in school during my mission but I still studied. I felt the whole time that I was down there that I could never know enough and that everyone else knew more than me, I HAD to study or I would never be able to keep up with my fellow missionaries, and I wouldn't know the right words to say or how to say them if I was asked a question, or if I was asked to preform an ordinance. I was motivated to study for three reasons. First it was a rule and I like to follow rules, Second I am curios and just wanted to know some things, Third FEAR lots and lots of FEAR of Failure.

Lesson three: You can't stay home

The worst time I had in Argentina has to be when Elder Garrett was told to stay off of his feet for a week. I was stuck in side. I went crazy. I wasn't working, I couldn't work because I was in my apartment. The work only happens when we were out talking with people. Any people I remember riding elevators on purpose just to talk with people. The only people in my apartment are already on our team we don't need to spend all day in side.


That's all for now. Those are the lessons I know that I was taught but seem to have forgotten. There is some good news though. I'm able to change.

So the next time we talk ask to see my weekly calendar, or give me a call sometime and tell me I owe you a dollar if I'm in my apartment. Ask me what the requirements are for Pinewood derby cars or who the scout master is with the largest troop.

Good luck to everyone but especially me.