July 27, 2015

hello all,

this week was good, i learned a lot

lesson 1: parenting is hard.

so I may not be a real parent, and i may not be beginning the training of my companion, but no obstane, through training a new missionary and having a district, i think i got a little taste of what it’s like to be a parent. The thing is that more than ever you have to worry about everything you do.  1. you have to be a good example so that they can learn the right stuff to do, 2. you have to not do anything wrong so that they don’t call you on it, and 3. you have to worry about every interaction you have with them, especially when you are teaching them, was that too firm? was it not firm enough? did they understand? how else could i explain it or show them so they will start applying it? what else could i , HEY, DONT PUT THAT IN THE ELECTRICAL SOCKET! ... ok, so maybe nobody almost electrocuted themselves, but still. I’m sure that it will be even more so when i have real children.

also the thing about being a leader/ example is that you have to pretend like you know what you are doing. the more that i gain life experience, the more i am convinced that nobody knows what the heck is going on, they all just pretend. at least i sure as heck hope they don’t know what’s going on, because i sure don’t, and i don’t see that changing anywhere in the next few (ok many) years. the trick is just pretend that you know what you are doing and people will think that you do. (I’m really good at that with directions now, when your lost you just pretend like you know exactly where you are until you actually do.)

lesson 2: take advantage of people.

ok not quite like that, but same kinda principle. so i realized, as I’m sure that most people do, that service is important. giving service is easy, the hard part is learning how to accept service. i have seen this from 2 different points of view.

1. fun fact, missionaries hardly ever give service. why? because nobody lets them. there are many times when we offer service, usually its very obvious that yes the people actually need help. the thing about service is that we all think we are very humble and willing to serve, but we are to prideful to actually accept help from others.

2. so we left the house of some members, they have a little shop and they offered us water bottles like they always do. i gladly accepted because the chimp was ironing (it was hot) but my comp refused multiple times but asked for a glass of water.  now obviously in situations like this we should not overly take advantage of them, it is a source of income, but when they offer us things out of the goodness of their hearts, it can validate them, and help us too. and I’m sure that the feelings of generosity that they had and the blessings for the small act were worth more than the 50 cents that the bottle was worth.

so yeah, the moral of this lesson, be humble enough to accept assistance (without overly taking advantage of them)

well, those are some main points of this of this week. do with them what you will.

love you guys, be good

elder gandola