Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Week 20 - A New Year Resulted in a Slow Week

  I had to laugh a little bit this week, as Elder Schaff described his week as "BRUTAL." As the mom, I was worried that he was hurt or sick, that they had major car trouble or he had had problems with finances or something. These are things that I worry about. However, being the obedient missionary that he is, he was discouraged because people in their teaching pool were very busy during Christmas and New Years, like the rest of us, and it was a slow teaching week. So, I do not want to minimize his frustration, but this is yet another week, where communication between the mission field and home does not quite align, as we are both trying to be supportive of each other, yet, we have very different concerns and a different daily focus. I would describe a brutal week as one in which I had a migraine, or I didn't have the money to pay a bill that was due, or had unexpected car repairs and no transportation or one of us at home was seriously ill. However, that is me. So, here is his description of a brutal missionary week. Happy New Year everyone! Elder Schaff gets to spend the entire year of 2017 in service of the Lord, and you better believe that I am already looking forward to the phone call home on Mother's Day!

  "Well, I have 20 more minutes, but we have to change the laundry because our member couldn't help us today, so we'll see what I can do!
   This week was BRUTAL. It really was. We had to stop teaching "Mia" because she was out of the boundaries. Our other investigators can only have visits one or two times a week it seems. They are mostly progressing really well, but it's hard because of the infrequent visits. Almost nobody was at church on New Year's, haha.
   Well, even though this week was hard, we set ourselves up for success for next week.
  (It was hard because we'd go out to find people, street contacting or knocking doors and such, but we would end up talking to a bunch of Spanish-speakers that were not interested in our message. We even ran into a Jehovah's witness that we didn't even Bible bash or anything, but had about a 40 minute conversation that led to nothing. Then, the very first English-speaker we found would be interested in taking the lessons, so we have generated a lot of referrals for the English speaking Elders!)
  Anyway, we did find some new investigators, so next week could be good. Also, we ran into (A), whom we haven't seen for 2 months. His girlfriend (L) moved out of his apartment, so she can be baptized now! We tried to set a date with (G) for baptism, but she straight-up rejected us and said she needs more time. We've almost taught her all the lessons, but more time we shall give. She also got a job at a daycare (60-year-old finds job!) and we can only visit her on Saturdays now. It's gonna be a slow go. Matilde referred us to her sister (M), and she's pretty interested. Hopefully all goes well there. 
  I have enjoyed making New Year's Resolutions and hearing how Christmas went from people I haven't heard from! I didn't like the results of New Year's here though, because people were partying real hard and we were unable to teach almost at all yesterday and on New Year's Eve. I guess with all the partying out of the way, next week should be good!
  
Helter-Skeltered, and rushed for time,
I'll try to be more detailed next week!

Your favorite, 
--Elder Schaff

P.S. We had a Zone White Elephant on Preparation-Day last week as well! That was good! No time for pictures this week! I'll try next week!


--Elder Schaff

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