The Adventures of Elder Barlow: 30 May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

30 May 2011

Family,

I'm in Yap this week, and the other missionaries planned a boat tour of the island, so I'll have to make this really short.

We went to Palau on Friday and Saturday, and now we're in Yap. Wednesday we go over to Chuuk. I'm sure I'll get a bunch of cool pictures for you guys. I didn't take any pictures in Palau really, but there wasn't really anything new. It was cool because a lot of people were excited to see me. It makes you feel good when that happens.

We should be having quite a few baptisms in our district in June, so we'll see how things are when we get back (we asked the sister missionaries to teach our investigators while we're gone).

Love,

Elder Barlow

Posted by Jacob at 11:05 AM

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Missionary Lingo

Click the terms below for their definitions:

AP - Assistant to the President

Two Assistants serve together and are assigned to cover the entire mission (typically 5-6 zones in a mission). They train, instruct, and sometimes handle problems as the Mission President sees fit. They often prepare special trainings during Zone Conference once every six weeks. They gather weekly reports from Zone Leaders in the mission and report directly to the Mission President.

ZL - Zone Leader

Zone Leaders are responsible for the activities of an entire zone (typically 10-15 missionaries, or 3-4 districts). Zone Leaders often divide up with a companionship in their zone for training purposes. Zone Leaders report weekly activities to the Assistants.

DL - District Leader

There is normally only one District Leader in a companionship. Often times they are training a new missionary, but not always. District Leaders are responsible for the day to day activities of their district (usually 4-6 missionaries). They may divide up to train other missionaries in the district, but this is less common. Districts meet together once a week at District Development Meeting to train each other, coordinate, and plan. District Leaders report weekly to Zone Leaders.

Less-Active Member

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that aren't as active in their church service. Reasons range from feelings of guilt and unworthiness to bitterness to simple laziness. Missionaries spend a good portion of their time working with these members because it's often a simple misunderstanding that prevents them from attending Church. Also, their families tend to be more sensitive to the gospel message.

P-Day - Preparation Day

One day a week, missionaries have the opportunity to do their chores. They clean their apartment, do their laundry, buy groceries, and also can send email to their families in a public place (like a library) or send letters. They often have planned activities as a zone on P-day. Museums, physical activity, and local attractions are some common activities for a zone. Missionaries return to proselyting in the evening.

Exchanges

Missionaries use exchanges as a training mechanism. Normally Zone Leaders go on exchanges with the District Leaders in their zone (one Zone Leader with one missionary, and the other Zone Leader with the other missionary), but District Leaders can also do it within their district. Missionaries can also go on exchanges with members of the Church, sometimes called splits. This enables twice the missionary work to be done in the same amount of time.

"Pools"

Finding, teaching, and baptizing pools are a way for missionaries to prioritize. Working with one person exclusively very well may help them be baptized, but ignoring the finding and teaching pools will leave a missionary with nothing to work with once they are baptized. Planning to keep these pools full of people, or ideas, keeps a constant flow of people toward baptism.

Investigator

Investigators are those who may be interested in joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Progressing investigators make and keep the commitments extended to them by the missionaries teaching them. Sometimes missionaries will "drop" investigators when it turns out that they are unwilling to keep commitments or for a number of other reasons. The premise is that a missionary's time is better spent with those who are willing to listen and keep commitments.

Transfer

For a missionary, a transfer is a period of time, normally about six weeks. To be in an area for four transfers calculates out to about six months. Transfers also refer to the possibility for a missionary to be moved to a different location, with a different companion at the end of every six weeks. It is uncommon for a missionary to remain in an area for only six weeks and then be transferred elsewhere, but it is not unheard of.