The migraines haven't bothered me this week. I haven't been taking anything special, but the rest and the paracetermol has been doing its job. A while back I hurt my leg playing football (American Soccer). I was advised not to play football for six weeks because it's the kicking motion that will hurt my leg again. We don't have a basketball court, so that means I'm playing ping-pong for the next several p-days I suppose. My leg has now had over three weeks of rest from playing sports, so today I think I'll play a little bit of chair football.
I had my second driving lesson this week. It went really well, actually. I only stalled twice and it was at a roundabout, which are common places to stall, especially for Americans that aren't used to them. I won't be taking any more lessons for a while now simply due to the cost and the fact that they won't reimburse me if I don't get my license, so I figured I'd just not try to get my license until I'm asked just in case I never need it. But I've had my two lessons now so I'd be allowed to drive a mission vehicle now if asked to, and I feel comfortable with it. I've gotten used to manual very quickly, though I still prefer automatic.
We've had a really, really good week. We got standards two weeks ago, but this week we got standards of excellence! I don't think I actually explained standards last time, so here I go: President Lindley has set key indicator standards for missionaries to achieve on a weekly basis that will help achieve the overall mission goal of 425 baptisms and confirmations with at least 75% retention. Missionaries who achieve these standards are recognized inthe weekly mission news letter, the Leeds Leader... so it's a big deal amongst us missionaries. Normal standards meanby Sunday night, a team has scheduled or baptized at least 1 investigator, gotten 3 investigators to church, taught 6 lessons with a members present amongst 18 total lessons (6 of which cancount as recent convert/less-active lessons), 12 hours of finding (pretty much impossible not to achieve that...), and 4 new investigators. That's what we got two weeks ago. Standards of excellence means also scheduling/baptizing 1 and seeing 3 at church, plus 8 member presents amongst 22 total lessons (6 of which can be LA/RCs... we call them larcs), 18 hours of finding, and 5 new investigators. This week our key indicators were one scheduled, 3 at church, 9 member presents, 7 other lessons, 6 larcs, 6 new investigators, and 20 /hours of finding. We were also over accountable by 5 hours for our weeks. So in other words, we had a great week. We were really lucky to find 6 new investigators this week, as well (well, inspired, not lucky).
We met an Indian man named Rafael street contacting on Friday, when we only had 1 new investigator for the week. He invited us over the next day but didn't give us his phone number. The next day, after finding a new investigator named Marc in the morning who we shceduled for baptism, we tried to go to the Rafael's home only to find that he had just gone out. But his friend Fernando, also from India, was in and he let us wait inside for Rafael to come back. So what did we do? Teach Fernando, of course. Then halfway through that lesson, Rafael came in and we taught both of them. They both prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if being baptied on March 17th was right for them. The next day (yesterday) at about 8:30 (half an hour before we had to go in), we thought we'd just give them a knock to see if we could teach a quick lesson. Neither of them were in, but their friend Ram, also from India, was in and we taught him the first lesson. So three investigators from one house all at different times in a matter of two days. We were laughting with joy.
We also had zone conference this week and President and Sister Walker from the England MTC came! It was really, really good. I love the two of them so much. It was on Valentine's Day, so Sister Lindley spoke first about leaving God's love with every person that we meet, even those who are extremely rude to us, because we have no idea what goes through their mind after they shut the door. They could have a total change of heart. President Lindley spoke about the qualities of a valiant servant of the Lord and gave us a list of attributes for each missionary to apply in their work to become better servants of the Lord. Then President andSister Walker taught about the process of being assigned to our specific mission and why it's so inspired, the purpose of Preach My Gospel being for pure doctrine to be firmly set in the missionaries' hearts so we can then get it into the hearts of investigators; not avoiding the trials God is giving us to build us up; and how to truly enjoy missionary work, the key being to serve God with all of our heart, which is the receptor of love. It was definitely my favorite zone conference so far, especially since I got to talk with President and Sister Walker for a while afterward, and they remembered me very well and missed me. They'll always be my first mission president (and mission president's wife).
Last thing for the week, we had a little miracle happen. Last Saturday I left my scriptures onthe bus and thought there was no way I'd ever see them again. Because it was on a weekend, the bust office was closed and we couldn't call to see if they were inthe lost and found, and by Tuesday, we still didn't know if they had been found. I asked President and Sister Lindley to pray for me to find them and then the next day, we called the bus office again and they had been turned in to the lost and found! So I picked them up today since they weren't even in our area.
Anyway, that's all for the week. Glad to hear everyone is doingwell. Love you!
Elder Winder
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