Monday, June 2, 2014

I got called to be a sister training leader!




So.... This week has been crazy.  So I got called to be a sister training leader! That means I have stewardship over a group of sisters and I have to plan exchanges with them and check on their areas and help train them, and then also be their emotional therapist. District leaders really are the ones that are in charge of the areas of their sisters, but they can't talk about emotional things with them. So that's my job. Help settle problems with their companions, stress.... stuff like that. Also means that I have a ton more pressure to baptize because I have to lead by example. Also means that I'm going to help the new President come in. Because President Gelwix just has one more month with us here! :( So sad. But I'm excited. I'm still here with Sister De la Cruz. 

Here's the letter to President Gelwix:

Hola Presidente!

Well this week was pretty... exciting. We had a big disappointment.... We got Paulito all super ready to be baptized.... we went to go ask permission from his mom AGAIN and just had a super powerful lesson ready why he shouldn't have to wait for her to be ready because it was his decision.... President, this little boy had a dream that Jesus Christ baptized him and then gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands the night after I taught him about baptisms and the Holy Ghost. So we went to his mom and laid out the lesson.... AND SHE GAVE US PERMISSION.... AND THEN WE FOUND OUT HE TURNS 8 IN NOVEMBER AFTER ALL. We were sure he was 9 after that age scare and then... nope. So we would have baptized him Saturday. But. God has other plans. Oh well. Paulito was pretty upset... "What?! How many days then?!" Sorry kiddo, we're talking months. Haha. 

On the OTHER hand, we had MIRACLES this week! Brother Ruiz.... we had a lesson with him and we brought backup. We brought Elder Garcia and Elder Ayala to help us, mostly to give the Ruiz family priesthood blessings, but they ended up staying and we taught the family as the four of us. The elders really helped us out and got Bro. Ruiz to commit to not drink coffee for the first time since I've worked with him!! And he's been doing so good since then... he didn't drink anything for like 3 or 4 days, relapsed a tiny bit Saturday and then we called him to repentance that night and Sunday he came to church and didn't drink coffee again! He's getting really close. Tonight we're focusing on Q2 of the baptismal questions using 1 Nephi 1 which basically is the Joesph Smith experience but it happened to Lehi. I'm excited.

We also had a family of 6 come to church for the first time yesterday! That is exactly what I needed. I've noticed that I really haven't felt as happy as a missionary for a while now... before, even when times were hard I was just so happy to be a missionary. This last transfer was really hard on me... new companion, first time transferring, pressure to baptize.... and really I know that I did my best here and I think by invitations I did a decent job of being a successful missionary. But yesterday, having that family walk in just reminded me of the joy I felt being a missionary my first three transfers. I just really haven't seen my investigators progress much the past two transfers, and it was really getting to me. But the Diaz family brought back that "animo", that desire... I'm ready to go! It was the most perfect Sunday meeting as well, I couldn't have planned a better one! It was fast and testimony meeting... they came about a half hour late, but people were just lining up! They got to listen to missionaries, converts, and children bear down in pure testimony... and people kept saying "Well, there's a lot of investigators here so I felt like I really needed to bear my testimony..." THESE MEMBERS ARE AWESOME! And they all talked about how to have peace in your family, which is Sister Diaz's main concern. Then Gospel Essentials, unplannedly, was on BAPTISM, with THREE extremely recent converts in the class, the teenagers loved their class, the little ones loved primary.... so good. 

Other than that we've pretty much just drained our teaching pool. We've kept like three or four houses. The rest... gone. We are starting over, we are committing to finding, this is going to be my best transfer ever President! I can feel it. I'm super excited. I love my companion!  Elder Garcia is really helping us to learn how to complement each other as missionaries better... we just are very different in our strategies, but Elder Garcia is really stepping in and committing to helping us, he's probably the best district leader I've ever had. He really tries to help us and take care of our area in addition to his. Super appreciate his patience and leadership!

Thanks President! I'm super excited for this transfer, I'm excited to be a sister training leader (I think haha) and this is going to be great! Thanks for your patience with me President!

Love you!!

Hermana Zollinger

 I love my branch missionaries because the 6 of us work super close. My branch is my district leader and my zone leaders and us.... super cool. Anyways Elder McClung (ZL) just said "Sister, pretty sure I read somewhere that the age of 8 only matters unless they're super prepared!" haha... so everyone was devestated for us... honestly mom this month/transfer has probably been the most discouraging of my mission. We had terrible numbers all transfer. I'm sure you could tell. But I really feel excited for this month and transfer! Every thing is starting over and I'm ready to go!

our apartmenets caught fire this week, forgot to tell you about that.... like 6 fire trucks. but just one was really burned. the rest of the complex is ok. just exciting experience.  we were just about to head home and two of the elders called us... "hey, there' like a big fire in our apartements, call us when you get here" and three sets of us live there. so the zone leaders came too.... big party.... it was next door to one set of elders. but just the one was really black and damaged. just the weirdest stuff happens here... called the police twice on my mission, my hairs gone, car accident, family death..... it just goes on.

No comments:

Post a Comment