Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Letter 04-02-2013

Dear EVERYONE,

Mom, where did you find dinosaur egg oatmeal??????

As most of you probably already know, there's been a change in church policy regarding emails. We can email anyone now! So now you get emails directly from me - feel free to respond to them directly whenever you want at rchandler@myldsmail.net

Not much to report new this week - still "sowing in tears". It's spring break this coming week in Utah so everyone was prepping for their vacations. So. many. people. out of town. We met a few great people this week we're planning on working with into April - one of them is a nine year old named Gabe Cosgrove. His older brother got baptized last year and he was going to get baptized with him but cut his leg on a broken fish tank or something and couldn't get the stitches wet for that day, so we get to do it now! :)

We had a great mission conference this week on teaching investigators the "why" and "how" of praying, studying the book of mormon, and going to church. It was really insightful; it's something I can work on. I think sometimes I get so "what", so task oriented that I forget about the "how" and "why". Teaching is the best part of missionary work, so I love working on being a better teacher.

Hope everyone had a great easter,
Elder Chandler

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thought: behaviors vs attitudes

This is kind of on the same vein as the what why how thing. As I've thought back on how I act and interact with regards to this idea, I have figured out a lot as far as what effective interactions should be like. So I'll just throw some of my musings at you.

Isn't it interesting that people can do the exact same outward behaviors and yet the meaning and feelings conveyed can be absolutely different? What you do is totally irrelevant to the actual interaction. Someone could do something that's pretty dumb socially, but because the intention is good the interaction still pans out for the better. People can sense the inner intention and kind of disregard what is said.

The most important thing in interactions is not what you do, but how you do it. You can practice active listening at the edge of your chair, have eye contact, but if you don't really care about what they're saying, then they know. On the flip side, if a small child comes up to me and I say something to him or her, a bad listening skill, the other person would overlook it. Small mistakes are forgiven more easily.

So it's worth it not to "fake" it during interactions. Decide to genuinely care. Be interested in others! And then, even if you're "too bold", you push too hard, people won't be offended.

Anyways, I like this thought train so maybe I'll keep thinking on it. hm.

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