First a personal note from Syd: #1... I  want each of you to know that I have been a "shining example" of a missionary mom.  I am not one of the parents who called or emailed the mission office to find out where my e-mail was, nor have I emailed when he was having companion problems or when there was a tsunami warning off the coast of Peru.  I have given the boy to the Lord for two years and I've been stellar.

#2  I like Sister Larson she sounds a little feisty....No wonder Dave loves her!!!!

Now enjoy Dave's letter!!!

 

First off, I suppose I owe an explanation as to why I'm writing today.

You see we had a multi-zone conference yesterday, and in the words of Sister Larson:

"Apparently some parents have the idea that every Monday they will always get a letter from their missionary. That is simply not true. In some missions the missionaries don't communicate with their families for a week or two, because they don't have electricity."

"We do not want your parents e-mailing us and calling us if they do not receive a letter every Monday. Sometimes p-days change and they need to deal with it"

If you couldn't tell.....she was not very happy......So from here on out sometimes I will be writing on a day other that Monday and you all (mostly Mom) will have to deal with it.....Hahahaha

Speaking of the Multizona, it was incredible!!!

We had some great practices shown to us by the president and the assistants. They showed us effective ways to contact, as well as to involve members in the missionary work.

A major theme of the conference was obedience. Not only to the commandments, but the plethora of Mission rules that exist. It was really cool to hear of the experiences of other Elders, and their testimonies about obedience. I also had the pleasure of sharing a few of the experiences I have had.

Although much apart from all of that, it was my favorite zone conference for the following two reasons

1) The spirit that was felt

2) The laughs that were had

It was by far the funniest Multi-zone conference I have ever had. Thanks in no small part to a rather rotund Peruvian we have in our zone, here's what I can recall:

President: "So if a thief robs you, just give them all your stuff, don't resist. We don't want you dead"

Missionary in the back: "But what if they want to rob our family scriptures or something really important"?

Elder Navarro: "YOU HEARD THE PRESIDENT, DO YOU WANT TO EAT LEAD, TASKER"?

Or this gem:

In our mission we have to note down every expenditure on a sheet every day, to keep track of what we spend, here's Navarro’s reaction:

Assistants: "So make sure you're all writing all your expenditures down somewhere you'll see them"

Elder Navarro: "Like my agenda"?

Assistants: "Yes! Can we use your agenda as an example"?

Elder Navarro: "I didn't bring my agenda"

Assistants: "Then where are you writing it all down"?

Elder Navarro: "When did I say I was writing it all down"?

The president, the assistants, and most of the elders made a normally boring meeting, reflect the true spirit of missionary work.

I learned a lot about the role of laughter in our lives.

It's truly a wonderful thing, and brought much joy to a otherwise dull day. Instead of a lack of focus, I found that all were attentively listening, happy to be among beloved friends, in a work we all loved so dearly.

Annnnnnnd in other news. Here's what a normal day is like in my life now:

6:30- Get up, brush teeth, exercise, shower. There's usually not breakfast here, and if there is, it's usually with the family across the street from 7:30 to 8:00

8:00- Personal study. Normally this means the BOM or Jesus The Christ, or Preach My Gospel......although if I'm bored of one of those three I usually read Liahona's (we've got like 100ish).

9:00- Companionship study- We read from the missionary handbook, then share what we learned during personal study.....then study for our investigators together.

10:00-12:00 We either leave and preach, have a district meeting(Wednesday), plan for the coming week(Thursday) or have some other conference (not very often)

12:00 is language study which means I read the BOM in Spanish or help Ramirez with his English.

At 1:00 or 1:15 we leave to go eat lunch with the pensionist. She lives about 5 blocks away so we play our harmonicas and contact en route.

2:30- we have finished lunch, went back to the room to brush/floss (yes Mom I floss daily). and are ready to leave

And then usually we eat dinner at like 8 and go home at 9. Although sometimes we're home at 9:30.....

And that's it!!!!

I know this Thursday is thanksgiving.....but I figured you'd get messages on being thankful from everywhere else. I figured I'd do something different!!!

Love you all!!!

-Elder Winn