14 Oct 2008
It's hardly worth talking about weather from Provo, but this morning was so beautiful--cold and crisp and frosty. It felt so fresh. We went up to the temple this morning (it was still dark) and on the way back, the sun was peaking over the mountains, with rays lighting up the sky.
This week the branch president asked me to be the coordinating sister. (I'm going to explain this, because I never understood it before I got here) At the MTC, we are grouped into zones and districts. Our zone had...maybe 60 or 70 missionaries until about half of them left for Korea Monday morning. The zone is broken into districts of about 8-10 missionaries. They're the ones we have class with--and end up spending a lot of time with.
An elder from each district is asked to be the district leader, to keep track of things in the district. Two elders are asked to be zone leaders, to keep track of the things over the whole zone--including things like trying to keep things in order in the residence halls. The zone leaders aren't ever in our residence hall, though, and it would probably be awkward for them to tell a sister her shirt is't buttoned high enough, so they ask a sister to be a "coordinating sister" to (for lack of a better way of describing it) keep track of things with the sisters in the zone.
On Sunday I went to a training meeting with the new district leaders. I was the only girl in the room. It was an interesting experience...I have heard of women in predominantly male workplaces feeling an extra need to assert themselves to make sure everyone else knew they were part of the group. That's kind of how I felt, and a lot of why I participated as we discussed examples of good leadership.
The meeting had a lot of comments about how you do not lead with cooersion (sp?) or force or fear. Later that afternoon I went to another meeting, this one with newly called coordinating sisters, lead by the MTC president's wife. She began the meeting by stating it was a forum for how to serve the sisters, and the first suggestion from one of the new coordinating sisters was that we could put treats on the pillows of the new missionaries coming in. And then I realized men and women are different.
Also this week we had zone conference. We had all been told to write a talk in Korean, and people would be picked at random to give them. I actually don't know much Korean, and I was a bit frustrated with the assignment. But I felt pretty proud of myself after getting together a few coherent sentences and some scriptures to quote. It even had an introduction and conclusion. And guess what? I got called on to give it. That I did--very slowly.
After I sat down, all shakey, there was a musical number. An elder sang--in English--about the God we are serving. And I remembered why I let them call on me to give a talk in Korean, even though I don't speak Korean. And I stopped shaking.
I love you all!
Carrie
It's hardly worth talking about weather from Provo, but this morning was so beautiful--cold and crisp and frosty. It felt so fresh. We went up to the temple this morning (it was still dark) and on the way back, the sun was peaking over the mountains, with rays lighting up the sky.
This week the branch president asked me to be the coordinating sister. (I'm going to explain this, because I never understood it before I got here) At the MTC, we are grouped into zones and districts. Our zone had...maybe 60 or 70 missionaries until about half of them left for Korea Monday morning. The zone is broken into districts of about 8-10 missionaries. They're the ones we have class with--and end up spending a lot of time with.
An elder from each district is asked to be the district leader, to keep track of things in the district. Two elders are asked to be zone leaders, to keep track of the things over the whole zone--including things like trying to keep things in order in the residence halls. The zone leaders aren't ever in our residence hall, though, and it would probably be awkward for them to tell a sister her shirt is't buttoned high enough, so they ask a sister to be a "coordinating sister" to (for lack of a better way of describing it) keep track of things with the sisters in the zone.
On Sunday I went to a training meeting with the new district leaders. I was the only girl in the room. It was an interesting experience...I have heard of women in predominantly male workplaces feeling an extra need to assert themselves to make sure everyone else knew they were part of the group. That's kind of how I felt, and a lot of why I participated as we discussed examples of good leadership.
The meeting had a lot of comments about how you do not lead with cooersion (sp?) or force or fear. Later that afternoon I went to another meeting, this one with newly called coordinating sisters, lead by the MTC president's wife. She began the meeting by stating it was a forum for how to serve the sisters, and the first suggestion from one of the new coordinating sisters was that we could put treats on the pillows of the new missionaries coming in. And then I realized men and women are different.
Also this week we had zone conference. We had all been told to write a talk in Korean, and people would be picked at random to give them. I actually don't know much Korean, and I was a bit frustrated with the assignment. But I felt pretty proud of myself after getting together a few coherent sentences and some scriptures to quote. It even had an introduction and conclusion. And guess what? I got called on to give it. That I did--very slowly.
After I sat down, all shakey, there was a musical number. An elder sang--in English--about the God we are serving. And I remembered why I let them call on me to give a talk in Korean, even though I don't speak Korean. And I stopped shaking.
I love you all!
Carrie
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