Elder Colton Winegar's Mission Blog: 11/29/2015 Taking the Challenge & Setting Goals

Hello everyone!
How are you all doing? Sorry it's been a while, our last two P-days have been a little crazy. Two weeks ago, we spent the whole day with one of my companion's recent converts from a previous area. We had lunch, and then showed her around the city for the rest of the day until she had to go home.

Last week was even crazier than the week before. Among missionaries, there is a famous challenge in our area called the Muroto challenge. Muroto is a city about 80 kilometers (~50 miles) from our city. The challenge is to bike all the way to Cape Muroto and back in a single P-day. We decided pretty late in the week that we wanted to attempt it, but once we decided, there was no stopping us. We started our journey at 6:30 in the morning, and took frequent stops along the way to enjoy the scenery, take pictures, and play games. Our trip there was pretty uneventful, but it turned out to be further than we originally thought. It was 80 kilometers to the edge of the city just like the map said, but we were going to the cape, which added about 20 kilometers onto our trip. I felt pretty good considering we had just biked over 50 miles, but of course we were tired and hungry when we finally made it to Muroto. That was when we learned that there were hardly any restaurants in the city. The only place we could find was too expensive, and would take too long. We ended up just buying some snacks at a convenience store and planned to start the long trip home.

While we were in the convenience store, we were the recipients of an amazing act of charity. A woman walked up to us, and explained to us (in English) that she had been at the first restaurant we had stopped at. She heard us discussing about what we were going to do, and she followed us to the convenience store almost 30 minutes away. She handed us a bag with a loaf of bread and a bunch of Costco rolls! We couldn't thank her enough, but she quickly left and continued on her way. It was so funny that even on a long bike trip we can have experiences that strengthen our testimonies and teach us gospel principles.
We started out with renewed strength after lunch, but it didn't last forever. One of the other Elders got a cramp in his leg, and we had to stop for a while until he was ready to go again. He pushed himself really hard, and we were able to barely make it home in time for our dinner appointment with an investigator. I was so exhausted, but I had a really great time. We found out after the trip how far we went, and it was nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) in just over 12 hours, including stops.

There are too many awesome experiences to share from the past few weeks, but I recently went on missionary splits with Elder Matsumoto, the Japanese Elder in our apartment. He helped me a lot with my Japanese, and really got me excited to go out and work. We set a goal to teach seven lessons in one day, something that neither of us had done yet. We worked so hard all throughout the day, but at the end of the day we had only taught 6 lessons. We had contacted every single potential investigator, investigator, and less active member that we could think of, housed a ton of apartments, and especially prayed a LOT for success. I was really disappointed that we didn't reach our goal, but I looked back on all the good we had done that day, and I was amazed. Because we had a specific goal in mind, we worked harder than I normally would have. We ended up teaching the six lessons, finding seven potential investigators, and learned a lot about teaching.
This reminded me of a quote from Elder Ballard about setting goals, something that I wholeheartedly believe. He said "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." I am seeking to improve my ability to set goals, and I hope that you will all join me in this endeavor. I know that when we set specific goals and work towards them, we can amaze ourselves with the progress we have made. But please, always remember to set your goals with God, "pray[ing] unto the Father in the name of Christ, that He will consecrate thy performance unto thee," (2 Nephi 32:9). I love you all so much, hope you have a great and eventful week!

Winegar長老より (Elder Winegar)