Elder Dallin Schipaanboord: Changes

This week was pretty awesome! Elder Burch and I were out of our area for 3 1/2 half of the days, but still managed to teach quite a bit of lessons, and got members out with us! On Wednesday we were so busy with getting transfers all figured out and making sure that they went smoothly that we had no time for our own area. Transfers were super sad because this was the first group that I knew most of the people going home and most of them were very close friends. I love how close that you get with those that you serve with and around, they truly are friends for life!

On Thursday we went over to Tallahassee for a 2 day MLC, it was so much fun! The first day all we did was eat dinner at President Smith's home, played games at the church, and then had a camp fire. While at the campfire, President Smith got everyone's attention and and told us to clear our schedules for February 18th. All of us were super confused, but then he told us that we are going to be having a FULL MISSION CONFERENCE WITH ELDER STEVENSON, ONE OF THE 12 APOSTLES!!!!!!!! I couldnt believe what heard!! I am going to have the opportunity to sit in a chapel and listen to a special witness of christ for 2 hours! We then found out that Richard J. Maynes is coming to the Panama City Stake Conference! We are literally so lucky!!!

Day 2 of MLC was super cool too! We watched a worldwide missionary broadcast with Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, and a few other general authorities, it was so cool! They talked a lot about how we truly need to have the doctrine of Christ always be a part of our lives, so that we can not only know what it is, but truly understand how the Savior can help "Bad men become good, and good men become better." One thing that i really liked that was talked about was that if we want our investigators to understand the importance of baptism, and have a desire to be baptized by the proper priesthood authority, we must always be speaking of the doctrine of christ and baptism. so what i am starting to do is figure out how to bring up baptism in every lesson that we teach, and it is going so well! at first I thought it would be hard, but it is actually really easy, all things point to baptism! 3 Nephi 11 is so awesome and explains baptism and the priesthood very directly, I love using it! So the big news from this broaadcast is that our schedule got changed to help us get more sleep and stay effective. So rather than planning at night, we plan in the morning. When we get home and get to do what ever we want for an hour and a half rather than stressing over getting a bunch of stuff done, it is soooo nice!! The other thing that was changed was what we report for numbers. Rather than reporting 9 numbers each week, we only report 4, and they are the most important ones, so it is making us focus on doing the most effective things, its soooo cool, I love it!!!! "Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates" and what is being reported back? Only the most important things!

On the way back home, we went to visited one of our new investigators, and we were finally able to go inside, and taught an incredible lesson of the plan of salvation, the Spirit was so strong!! The thing that really stuck with me is the humble circumstances that she lives in.... she lives in a trailer with literally nothing! There was a tiny table with three chairs, and that was it! We brought a member with us, so I knelt on the ground as we met. The 3 times we have met with her, she wore the same clothes.... and all she has to eat is soup, it literally kills me!!!!!! We are so fortunate to have what we do, and I wish I could give it all away! When I get home I want to help less fortunate people out as much as I can, I hate seeing people in these circumstances, why be selfish and not help when I can? Mosiah 4:19-27 is what i feel right now: "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God,