Week 31 - March 9, 2015 - Q&A with Eric and Stewat

ERIC:  Things I want to know when you email me at some point (when you can):  If you are the senior, what adjustments will you make to the direction of your companionship based on what you learned from the first few companions? What are the best three attributes of your first three companions? What are you doing to meet new prospective investigators? What are the two or three important differences you've noticed between Telde and Oviedo?  What scripture has given you the most comfort in the last few months? What American food do you miss at the moment? 

STEWART: 

Yep, I am the senior companion - the other guy just got done being trained. "Greeniebreaking" they call it.

Adjustments to make - I want to change the way this area does nightly planning - pretty much all missionaries I´ve seen (including me a veces) waste that time. I´ve noticed that doing it effectively changes things. But as a heads up, it´s going to be tough because my companion believes it´s his way or the highway - including if both the president and PMG disagree. I´m going to continue to wash dishes - that small service made me love my companions more when they were driving me nuts. I have actually washed both of our dishes every day, which might sound like a chore but is actually a huge blessing. I also want to improve my street contacting and door knocking.

Best things about the old companions - 

Elder Ganowsky (MTC) knew how to smile

Elder Dyer (trainer) knew how to work - with a smile.

Elder Norrell (Greeniebreaker) knew how to love everybody. Great friend.

Elder Emmett thus far only knows how to get on my nerves. But it´s so funny how that changes directly related to how much I wash his dirty dishes. He´s a pretty cool guy. We´re going to get along.

To meet new investigators - that´s another thing we need to fix here. It seems to be too much of  "if you build it, they will come" as oppossed to "get the heck out there and find them". We need to improve the street contacting effectiveness (Elder Emmett hasn´t contacted a soul in the last week) and the door knocking and the working with members. 

Three diferences from Telde... The ward is WAAY younger. There´s about 15 active YSA, 2 preparing for missions and 2 just got back. In Telde there were 0. There´s also a LOT more potential to work with the members, because of how united they are and that there´s about 20 more. Still a pretty small branch though. There´s also a companionship of Hermanas with whom we share the area - that will be very different. In Telde, we only saw other missionaries every Wednesday. Sometimes we even see the Hermanas in the street. They also just closed one of the elder companionships here - so between us and the hermanas we´re picking up half and half of an old companionship´s stuff. So there feels like a LOT more work to do. The city is much bigger as well, which is nice because there´s always people to contact. 

Scripture of comfort - Alma 7 11-17. And then follow up with 2 Nephi 2: 8. And then follow up with Alma 39:16.  And a talk called "Believing Christ and the Atonement." 

And I really, really miss peanut butter.