Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Chapter 8: Stuck

3 meanings for this chapter title:
1) this keyboard is sticky, so if there are problems with spelling or more than one word put  together, please forgive me
2) the mud took off my shoes this week because it was stuck. Luckily, I put my foot back inside without taking another step or falling into the dirty slime.
3) I feel like I´m stuck. I´m not making the progress that I´d like and I can´t really think of a good reason why. I´ll express a bit of what I´m feeling:
I know that the only way to measure success as a missionary is with the dedication  that you put into the work, but all of the leaders keep saying that the Lord will reward your dedication with the souls of those who are chosen, meaning that the numbers will show your hard work. It´s simple math here that says that even though you can only measure success with your level of dedication, you will get the numbers if you are dedicated. I´m not getting any of this, even though I feel completely dedicated to what I´m doing. We´re finding, we´re teaching, but we are not retaining and we are not baptizing. I don´t think that I´m effective but I need to keep moving.Like I said, I feel a bit stuck and my logical mind but together this "equation" to show me that I can´t do it. All I can say is that we had a baptism planned for this upcoming week but it feel through because he didn´t come to church. In addition to that 2 less actives that we´ve been working with didn´t come to church and another wouldn´t enter the meeting room because his Ex was there. I´m more than a bit frustrated right now.
HOWEVER,  I refuse to give up and I refuse to end on a bad note. Before I was in Equipo Nicoya and now we have begun Equipo Siquirres. We are working hard as a team and actually made some great progress in our area. We found some new people recently,but haven´t had time to visit them since. I know that at least one of these 3 families can progress if not all three! We are actually doing splits with Siquirres 1 and we are learning a ton. My companion spent a day and a half learning from Elder De Leon and Elder Branham had a day and half with  me! It was actually a ton of fun and It was weird being 2 gringos together. I appreciate having a District leader, former companion, and highly respected and trusted amigo here with me to help in the times of need. We´ve both needed each other´s help at least once in the last week, but we helped each other through. It´ll be sad when one of the 4 of us leave the area. LONG LIVE EQUIPO SIQUIRRES!!!!!

That´s about it for this week,
Elder VanderMeyden

P.S. I really am doing well, I just needed to put a few of my concerns/doubts in the air. I will never give up, even if I feel miserable, because I know that when you hit bottom, things can  only get better. :D

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