This week we hardly had any time in our area because Tuesday we had a training meeting in Managua and Wednesday we had division with the sister training leader and Thursday we were Matagalpa all day an interview activity with President Collado. That was a hard day. Part of the activity was certifying a lesson so that they could see if we had learned the new form of teaching they introduced to us a few weeks ago that includes a focus on blessings and more inspired questions. I thought I was already using the new form of teaching, but it turns out, not so much. In the activity, we had to teach an investigator who was played by one of the sister training leaders and the other one rated us. We started out really well and then somewhere in the middle we tried to cover too much lesson material instead of really focusing on her needs and I could just see our leaders´ expressions change from impressed and excited to disappointed. It was really disheartening. Afterwards, they explained to us what we did wrong and my self esteem took a dive as a realized I have been doing a lot of things wrong in my mode of teaching for the entire mission and that I had forgotten a lot of the simple things they taught us in the CCM. It was a great learning experience and helped me to know what I need to work on, but it was also really overwhelming knowing I had a lot of changes to make and wondering why I hadn't figured this out before. How much wasted time could I have avoided? How many more investigators would have progressed instead of being dropped? How many more baptisms would I have seen? How hard will it be to master this new teaching techniquew? It was a lot to take on at once. But the next day, as I started to put some of the things I learned in practice, I started to feel more hopeful and it seems like we're already seeing results. I wish I had understood earlier in my mission what exactly it means to teach people and not lessons, but I'm grateful that I'm starting to understand it now.
We found some pretty promising investigators this week. One of them is a couple named Pedro and Idañia who were former investigators and accepted a baptismal date for this Sunday. But they didn't come to church this Sunday as they promised so we'll see. Please pray for them so that they can move forward with their decision to be baptized.
Sadly, we still haven't been able to bring investigators to church here, but we have some good plans for this weekend so I'm feeling hopeful about General Conference. I am soooo excited for conference!! I'm already prepared with some good questions of the soul.
I'm having a lot of fun with my comp. Hna. Gubler is super smart and ambitious. She's really funny too. Dad, I got a joke for you (courtesy of my comp): What happens when a cow jumps over a fence? Udder destruction!! Hahaha, that's punny, eh? I laughed.
Yesterday, my comp and I each had to give a 12 minute talk in sacrament meeting. I've never had to give a talk that long. Even my farewell talk was only about 10 minutes. And here's the worst part: the theme was... the millenium. What? Of all the themes they could have chosen, they picked the millenium? They could have at least picked something that was more related to missionary work so I could use the things I'm already studying in personal study for my investigators. I hardly knew anything about the millenium! But I learned a lot in the process, so it was a good experience. And I was able to tie it into missionary work, temples, and General Conference so it turned out pretty well.
Hna. Castillo told me that Gabriella is going out with the missionary almost every day and sharing her testimony. Aw, so awesome! That made me really happy to hear.
Well, I'm super sorry, but I'm completely out of time and won't be able to respond to any of your personal emails, but I will try to plan better next week so I can respond to everyone. Love you all! Enjoy General Conference!!
Hermana Hawkins
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