Being Bold

 

 This week has been pretty dang great. This time around with my new companion, I find myself taking initiative more than I did in my past companionships. A lot of the time with my past comps, usually the split for how much each of us teach is about 50-50, which is great. But some times my comp will take over and teach a little bit more than I did and that's usually because I would be a little reserved. Well, that situation is sort of reversed where I'm at now, sometimes I lead out and teach a bigger portion of the lesson and Elder Jaszkowiak loves it. He says that he feels like in a lot of his companionships he has to do everything, and it he says that it's super nice having someone who can hold their own or even beyond that. Definitely a great compliment to receive, I guess you could say I'm becoming more confident and more outgoing. 

 I don't know if I mentioned in my last email that my companion, Elder Jaszkowiak, is going to complete his mission this transfer which means I'm going to "kill him off." That means I'll be getting a new companion, and I'll get a bunch of his extra stuff. 😎 I had an interview with President this last week and he actually told me I'm going to be training either this next transfer or the one after that. I'm super stoked for that because I know I'll grow so much. There's things I want to change in my missionary skillset and I feel like training is the best way to do that because I want to show the best example for my trainee so I'll need to become that and I'll want to become that if that makes any sense.

 I did something pretty bold this week. We received a training from some old guy named Brother Donaldson who knows Preach My Gospel like the back of his hand. He taught us (more like reminded us) about teaching lessons through questions and even more specifically he pointed out that we should be asking people to be baptized more often. First visit if you have to. So that's what I've been trying, I asked two referrals to be baptized and one of them said yes. Other one, well he was hesitant, wants to feel ready which is fantastic because that's what we are there for. Let me tell you guys, it feels real good to be bold, so much adrenaline. 

 Well, that's all I got for now. There's probably more to write but I was late to write an email and I'm being peer pressured to go to Popeyes right now. Gotta go. 🍗

 

Love y'all, 

--
Elder Batman

New Area, New Comp

 

 It's about time I get sent out of Foley to go experience elsewhere. I lived there for almost 8 months and I was definitely ready to leave. The area is amazing, I'll miss it dearly, but I felt like my growth was at a peak and it was time to get going. I kind of figured I was leaving too. As soon as I found out that my recent convert, Kristina, gave us an engagement announcement and told us she had plans of getting sealed when she could, that's when I figured my work is probably done in Foley. It was basically mission accomplished for her, I've been working with her since the very beginning of my mission and now she's making the big covenants and ordinances with God and I couldn't be happier. Sealed for time and all eternity and I was apart of that, surreal. 

 Now to the new area; Northport. This area is very cool. Our apartment is way nice, two separate bathrooms which is always a blessing, a nice big study area and my new comp is fairly clean so it all looks great in here. Oh and the bed... yeah I've been sleeping really well. I don't know what brand my mattress is but I love it and sleep like a baby when I'm on it. My new comp, Elder Jaszkowiak, is super dope. His name is spelt really odd, I'm not even gonna try to explain to you how to pronounce it, but most of the time I call him Elder Jazz for short. He's 6'5" which in interesting since I'm not 6'5", like at all. He's from Ogden, Utah and him and I get along really well. Very chill guy, only has one more transfer left so I am going to kill him off and get a new companion. He is the Zone Leader for this area which would probably make you think that I'm a Zone Leader too but that is incorrect. Depending on the area, we either have one or two ZL's but this area does not need two. So I'm what they call the "zone chump" or just the Zone Leader's companion. It's kinda nice actually, basically I experience all the benefits of being a Zone Leader like going to private leadership meetings and doing exchanges with the AP's, but I don't hold any of the responsibility! So, yeah, that's pretty great. This area is beautiful, it's right next to the University of Alabama so I see a lot of attractive women while driving around here and I'll never complain about that. Speaking of driving, our car situation is interesting. We drive a 2019 Ford Ekko Sport which basically is a roller skate. Super intimidating looking. But hey, it doesn't have a TiWi (the driving buzzkill that yells at us if we go too fast) since it is a rental vehicle. We still are definitely supposed to monitor our speed, but if I ever am almost late to an appointment, I now have the option to not be late if you know what I mean. Oh and I was definitely joking about it being intimidating, it's actually pretty pathetic looking. I kinda just feel like a soccer mom while driving it.

 The work in this area is interesting. It for sure feels like the ward is on pause due to COVID which isn't good so we are working on getting this ward going, trying to make them realize they can still function even if they can't meet. I'm very stoked to be here because Elder Jaszkowiak definitely wants to grind it out for his last transfer and I'm happy to help in doing that. 

 That's all I got for this week, til next time.

Love y'all 

--
Elder Batman