Saturday, November 5, 2016

Accountability :Frankfurt Week 6

November 1, 2016
Subject: Reply :)

Hello!

Hey, glad to hear you're doing well at home. I'll start by answering a few questions. We have a basement that we store a lot of stuff in, we could fit more for sure (not everything that was at the apartment we were closing), but we don't have enough space in the van to feasibly take a whole apartment of stuff with us.

Looking back at the week it's hard to know what to share. It's been fairly uneventful with office work and normal missionary work sprinkled in. In the office: I'm caught up on orders and have the rough inventory that I wanted to make. Knowing what I have is really helpful so that I don't accidentally order things that we already have too much of. I just finished organizing everything with driver's license translations, who in the mission has one and is working on getting a German license and things like that.

We had a few appointments with senior couples this week, the Markles and Kirks for example, who work in the office with us. Tomorrow we have the Kirks coming to us and will make food for them and they can teach us a lesson! At the beginning of the week we met with a nice couple in the ward and I was really impressed with some comments that were made. In the course of our dinner conversation we talked about some fitness goals that they were working on and during our lesson we naturally talked about goals in missionary work. The Sister owned her actions and said that she simply hasn't had enough desire or "has been too lazy" to exercise. She later made the comment that she uses "the excuse" that all of her friends are church members to not share the gospel as much as she could. Without diving into the topics of how we could adjust our goals and make slow progress instead of no progress, or how she Does share the gospel with her church friends as well ('cause we all need to hear and feel the Savior's love and testimonies of it), I'd like to comment on accountability. I was so impressed that she didn't blame her inaction on anything or anyone else. There was no, "I don't have time" or "it's not my fault". She recognized and owned her actions and decisions and was honest with herself. As a side note, this family does great member missionary work, being a good example to their friends, inviting people to activities and even to hear lessons from the missionaries. She recognizes what holds her back and that enables growth.

The stake president in Frankfurt is also all about accountability. When Elder Taylor and I asked him what he would like us to focus on with the missionaries he wanted us to  help the missionaries to develop a good "return and report attitude". We should finish assignments quickly and correctly, take responsibility for our actions and be excited to report back as a result of that.

This coming week ends the transfer over here. We're getting ready for an exciting week of transfer prep (buying tickets and such) then sending missionaries across the mission next week. Hope you all have a good one.

Love,
Hayden



I don't know if Dad remembers, but at some point in growing up I remember being told not to use the phrase "it's not my fault", thanks for teaching me to be accountable.

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