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Stepping Up |
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May 29, 2000:
Wow it seems like forever since I've written in my journal. A lot has changed around here. Anziano McGuire got transferred to Parma and now Anziano Platt is here from Pordenone...(the U.S. base area) - he brought all sorts of American goodies like peanut butter, maple syrup, Crystal Light, and Ranch Dressing.
It's been sort of tough because I've had to carry the work since Elder Platt doesn't know this place, it's not really a lot different, just a lot more pressure and stress. But now he's getting caught up and I can turn some of the reins over to him.
Anz. Tonon also got transferred to La Spezia and Anz. West took his place and is also D.L. They're both really cool guys. Elder Platt is from Highland UT and has 10 months left on his mission. He served his first 4 months in the Rome mission, and then for some strange reason, as yet unexplained, he got transferred up here to the Padova mission.
He's a really friendly and funny guy - he reminds me of my friends back home - that makes our time together fun, but sometimes it's easy to joke around a little too much and lose sight of the work and our focus, but I'm getting better.
The toughest thing is that he doesn't speak the language real well, so I do a lot of the talking...also when teaching it's hard for me to hold back and let him explain something because it seems like I could do it so much better and clearer. It's a good lesson in patience and humility. I hope to learn it well.
I really feel like I'm progressing in the mission - at least responsibility wise - with Anz. Perry I was a greeny and pretty much just followed him around and bore testimony and taught a little. With Anz. McGuire it was almost perfectly even - we worked very well together and really got a lot done. With Anz. Platt I feel like I've had to step up again and sort of take the lead even though I am still junior comp. And something tells me, fra poco, I'll be stepping up again into the senior comp role. It's kind of exciting, but I think it would be really nice to go for a lot longer without so much responsibility.
In my monthly interview with President Curtis he explained that in the next few months we lose a lot of great missionaries and don't receive many new ones. He explained that he's gonna need me to "step up to the plate as senior comp. after all the dust settles." Scary eh? I hope there's a nice breeze so the dust settles very slowly.
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