Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): Office Work...

Here's a brief excerpt from Dallin's email to me (Mom) that sums up his assessment of the past few days: "Now, more than ever, I know that assistants aren't the best missionaries in the mission; they're just good missionaries that need the chance to grow..."

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a crazy week. Definitely some of the most humbling days of my mission. This Monday I was called into an interview with President Evans. I thought it was just going to be a regular catch-up interview (because we haven't talked in 5 months or so). But I was wrong. I got to the office at five, entered in, we said a prayer, and President called me to be the new assistant... Never saw that coming. And since then, my mission has completely changed. I haven't done real proselyting since. I've visited the airport, taught missionaries, started to practice driving (more on that later), attended meetings with President where I don't exactly understand what's going on... lots of things like that. It's definitely a lot to swallow.

In a lot of ways, it feels like I started my mission over. On Tuesday morning, I showed up to the office early to prepare to recieve the newest wave of missionaries, and from there, we went to the airport (a place I haven't visited since my first day), I sat through the same presentations about health, water safety, etc... and then I spent the night in the office elders' house -- another place I really haven't had anything to do with since my first night. Along with that, I've been accompanied by a re-immersion into new responsibilities, questions, and a desire to take things slow and learn everything at a more tranquil pace.

Another thing that's going to change a lot for me is that now, I'm going to have the responsibility to drive! Kind of exciting right? Well, I've already had some fun experiences with that new assignment...

When I was with Elder Schmidt, one of my favorite things that I learned was, "If you don't feel confident, act confident. No one can tell the difference." Keeping that in mind has helped me teach, train, share my thoughts, and lead other missionaries up till this point. I figured it should apply to driving too, so when I finally got the chance to get in a car (after almost a year and a half) and Elder Crofts asked me if I was ready, I confidently said "Yup. Lets go!" And I learned that it doesn't apply to driving: We were off... until 15 seconds later, when the thin roads and oncoming traffic spooked me into driving too close to the side of the road and *smack!* I high-fived the right side-view mirror off on that of a parked car. So in my first 15 seconds of driving practice, despite a confident foot forward, I had already gotten into a "wreck." (The goal was 100 days without a wreck and I dropped us from about 30 right back down to 0 again). I felt (and still sort of feel) super terrible and dumb, and terrified to drive again.

"The board of shame... (Days without a crash)"

This Morning, President came in to have some meetings with us and well... as was inevitable, he learned about the wreck. I was expecting something drastic--maybe a flight home, suspension of driving priviledges, or something of the sort. But after hearing the circumstances and what had happened, he kind of chuckled and assigned me to drive his personal car with Elder Crofts to the service station to be washed! He had literally heard that I got into a mini-wreck seconds before, but he gave me a second chance to drive. It sort of spun my head a bit, but I accepted the task and did it, without a problem--thereby casting off the dark cloud of fear to touch a car again in Paraguay.

That's just one example of what a loving, forgiving, patient, and wise man President is. It's going to be pretty great to work so closely and to learn so much from him in these next few months.

Other fun things:

- Today we played volleyball as office elders and President himself came out to play with us. And he was pretty good! Definitely an athlete.

- I'm going to be travelling to Chaco next weekend

I don't really have that much more to say. My emails from now on might be shorter... or maybe they'll get longer. Only time will tell. But for now, not a whole lot has happened. I just feel like I'm kind of living in the office, and I'm most excited to get to Mariano, my proselyting area, and to be comfortable driving around. Once I've got those things down and under my belt, I'll be golden.

Even stressed out, even embarrassed that I probably have the mission record for quickest crash after driving for the first time, I know that the Lord is at my side. I've felt Him supporting and carrying me already. He's helped me teach, placing words in my mouth; He's helped me find peace of mind; and He's helping me learn and grow. He will make "weak things strong unto me" (Ether 12:27). I know that the Church is true, and that in the end of it all, God is calling the shots, putting us where we need to be placed to grow. So even though I don't know everything, I know that He'll help me grow if I trust Him.