Week 92 - Elder Bednar visits the Mission

Today we went to see a castle! We were sitting in the office, thinking about what to do, when Elder Doxey said, "Let´s go see a castle." So we looked up "castle" on our maps on the iPad (not google maps, some other wierd application) and we drove for about an  hour straight north until we hit a little town called Buitrago del Lozoya. There´s an old church and a castle on a hill overlooking the river (very defensible). There´s some super cool history behind it, but no need to go into detail here. 

So, on Saturday and Sunday we saw ELDER BEDNAR. It was amazing. Dad, there were several recurring themes included in the notes you sent me from Lonn. We spent three hours in a discussion, with one quick break (because, and this is an apostolic quote, "The mind and the heart can only recieve what the rear end can endure."). And he taught us as agents. He asked questions the whole time and invited us to act and to write on small plates what came into our hearts. We had prepared by reading several of his talks, and he led the three hour discussion with only four questions - 

1. What stood out to you in your preparations?

2. What are you learning about the process in which we are learning?

3. What questions do you have for me?

4. What have you learned today?

When he opened up the discussion to "inspired questions" - that is, questions that have to do with the current speaker, place, and moment that you may not be able to ask ever again - he called on me. So I asked him what he had done to prepare himself for our meeting. And I got the sassiest apostle answer I had ever seen - "Elder, I´ve been alive for sixty-five years." I asked what I could do to get to where he is now, and he said to be content with where I am and to consistently experiment and try to not be afraid of messing up - because that´s how you learn. I remember from the "conversation on leadership" about the lawn-trimmer theory of management. There was more to it, but suffice it to say, it was awesome. I learned a lot, not just from him, but as to HOW to continually learn on my own. Huge boost. It was a great week! 

Elder Maxfield.