Saturday, January 12, 2013

January 12, 2013

Mis queridos cuates haha:
¿Que onda? Whats crackin' back down in the motherland? I say this pretty often but it honestly feels like every time I blink it's P Day once again. This week was a really good week, pretty normal all around. Sounds like y'all had a really good week as well. I got a really nice email from Lauren as well who sounds really happy! She sounds like she be straight killin' it at the Y. She made some good points in her email about how truly blessed she is to go to BYU and have the fam that we have. She knows what's up, our fam is truly the greatest blessing in my life. And the coolest part is that nothing in this life can change that.

This week was good, it was probably the least busy week office wise that I've had since I got here, but that was sick cuz we finally had some time to really kill it in our area. It was cool and we got a lot of good work done with less actives and we've got a pretty big pool of menos activos and investigators that we added in this last week. We will see how they start progressing in these next few weeks, the real telling stat is to see who goes to church tomorrow, but I'm confident that we will have good results. So this last week I was really reflecting on the fact that I'm right at the halfway point of my mission. I was thinking a lot on how much progress I've seen in this last year of my life. Like I am legitimately 157 times better of a person than I was a year ago. That progress is something that has come from diligence, and a LOT of hard work. I want, more than anything, for that progress to continue at the same rate, or an even faster rate in this next year. There is a reason that a mission is two years and not one, it's pretty easy to be a good missionary for a year, but two years takes real effort and disipline. This week I set goals for this new year, seeing as my mission year mark coincides almost perfectly with the start of the new year, I found that it was a really good time to sit down and set some good goals so that I see the same sort of progress in this next year. I want to share them with all you people so that you can help keep me accountable on these things. My personal goals are as follows:

1.) Finish the Book of Mormon from where I'm at right now (Alma 60) before we start reading it as a mission February 4. To do this I have to read 8 pages everyday and so far so good. In addition to finish it this time, I want to read the Book of Mormon 4 other times complete in this year. How I'm Going to accomplish it: The first will be from February until May, The second from May to August, The third from August to October and the fourth from October to the end of the year. Everytime that I read the Book of Mormon I read a give away, copy and highlight some topic that I want to know more about and it has really worked well for me. In addition to these 4 times that I want to read it, I want to read it for a second time in voz alta in Spanish. I did it one time as part of my language study and it was awesome. At the end of this year I should have read the Book of Mormon a total of 12 times in two different languages!
2.) I want to read, highlight, take notes on, and apply every General Conference talk from the October 2012, April 2013, and October 2013 General Conferences. I do this also as part of my personal study. I like to take notes on what they say and compare them with my notes from when I first heard them and then write down a way that I can apply each principle. I like reading one talk per day for the three months before each conference session. That's about a perfect amount of time to read them all and then see the next conference.
3.) I want to start every personal study at 8:00 sharp. That was never a battle before I got to the offices, but in the offices its a lot harder because we have the phone calls at night, which means that we don't usually get to sleep till a lot later. This actually doesn't make me more tired or harder to get up at 6:30 suprisingly, but what it does is makes it so that I have to excersise (part of my next goal), iron my shirt, shower, write in my journal, and eat breakfast before 8 am. It's just a lot to do. To accomplish this, I've set the goal to write in my journal and iron my shirt every night before no matter how late it is. I've also started getting up at 6:15 so that I can pray and get all ready so I can excersise right at 6:30.
4.) I want to run 3 times a week this whole year as part of my exercise. Its a pretty simple goal... I still gotta get hitched when I get home... don't wanna get fat just yet, hahha.
5.) I want to be an example to every single missionary this year. I want every single missionary and person I talk to in this year to feel like they're my friend. I want them to feel like they are important to me. I will show them this my smiling and really listening and talking to them about what's important to them.

Well, there you have it. Let me know what you all think. That's where I'm at for this week. I love you all so much. I learn from all of your examples every day. I pray for you often and hope to make you all proud. #143 #GMC$ #SpeacialK #JakeHeaps

Love,
Elder Stockard

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