Thursday, May 12, 2011

20 April 2011 The Daily Routine, etc.

I thought I would tell you a little about what a normal day is like.  I’ll tell you what it was like during the last transfer, since I’ve only been at the Beehive House (my new assignment) one week.

A typical day starts at 6.20am when we literally roll out of bed and pray that we’ll have a good day, see lots of miracles and my alarm will be perpetually broken.  Then it’s out to the hall or down to the dungeon/garage for exercise.  Usually that would just be a walk with a little jogging thrown in, but I’m working harder at it now.  From 7 - 8am it is breakfast, shower, clothes and make up.  Not always in that order and not always all of the above.  Next comes the part I wish we had more time for - personal study.

Personal study is sometimes the best and most vital part of the day.  You should see my copy of Preach My Gospel.  President has told us to use it like a work book, so that’s what I’m doing and it is incredible.  PMG should be the new Gospel Principles.  It makes the gospel so simple and so direct.  The ‘whats’ ‘whys’ and all the stuff in between.  Obviously it doesn’t go into great detail, but that’s partly why it is so amazing.  ‘Everything you need to know about the gospel in 20 words or less’ kind of thing.


9:00am - Companion study.  Last transfer it was hard.  I was not good in the morning.  It’s much better now.  Probably because we go to the garage every morning.  Much more of a workout and time to talk/wake up since we’re in new apartments.  Usually comp study is reading the daily 4 pages of the white handbook, reviewing what we learned in Pers Study, reading or studying from PMG about our weekly attribute (see my fav - chapter 6) and role playing.
Role Playing is the most effective and useful tool we have for studying.  Practicing and pretending teaching situations is really helpful.  We role play and real play (that’s when we’re members, not guests, so we’re basically ourselves) for situations on the phone, in the Square and now in the Beehive House.  Remind me some day to explain what the Contacting Model and 2 Nuggets are - we role play parts of those, too.  (I’ll have to make a T Mission dictionary/encyclopedia some day)

 From 10:00am - 9:00pm we have shifts of varying length on the Square, on the phones (Motors in Square vernacular), on chat - we’re the ones you chat with through mormon.org, and teaching over the phone if we have appointments.  Lunch and dinner come when you can fit them in, but never during scheduled chat time.  Twice a week you can go home an hour early for 8:00 dinner.  Mail comes around 1:00pm and if we all happen to take lunch around then.....well, it’s really just coincidence.  At 8:45pm we pack up and head home.  9-9:30pm is planning.  After that it’s journaling, praying and off to bed, usually with ice cream and fun girl-time worked in.

So that’s how I spend my days.  Now, most of our time is spent in the Hive, we a lot less Square, Motors and practically no chat time.  But I love the house and we’re getting the hang of it.

Dad mentioned using a talk by Elder Holland when he spoke in Sacrament Meeting at home.  If there is one thing a missionary can tell you about it’s that.  I’ve learned that we really can’t understand it.  We can describe it, feel its power, be grateful for it, but no one can really understand it.  If you thought you did, you’d be in great need of applying it to your prideful heart.  (Side note: It’s been in my head a lot that there are beautiful and tragic parallels between Christ’s life & legacy, and the life & legacy of Joseph Smith.  A wonderful Family Home Evening would be watching the new Joseph Smith movie online.

 I can’t describe how much you need to rely on the Atonement as a missionary.  There is no possible way on earth that we could do this without Christ.  Missionary work or just life in general.  He died so we could live.  More than that, He gave every single moment of His mortal life to His Father’s plan.  Every minute was for us.  He never thought for himself, his own wants and needs.  And us?  We are unprofitable servants indeed.  King Benjamin spoke the honest truth - we cannot do anything to save ourselves (see Mosiah 2-4).  The analogy where we’re in a pit and there’s a ladder or whatever, but we can’t get out without Christ dropping a rope for us.  Nothing we do has saving power.  Only through the Atonement, only through Christ can we be saved. Our works are important, but they don’t do anything to save us.  I had a session with people who believe only in grace.  It is unbelievably hard to explain that it is both.  I go back to that conversation often so I can plan for the next time it happens.  But my point is that the Atonement is so deep and so....unfathomable that you just have to....I can’t even describe this.  If Brigham Young was converted by simplicity and power and shot down eloquence, I guess I’d better stick to the “brief but clear” approach.  Here it is:
I know that Christ is the Creator, Saviour and Redeemer of the world.  I know He used His life to show us the way to live.  He did all that His Father, the only true and living God, sent Him to do.  He is the Only Begotten of the Father.  He lives.
Sister Clayton

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