First, off, what happened at Mission Leadership Training this week. On the top of the list of things talked about was music. For those of you who forgot, back after my first transfer in the mission, the rules for what missionaries could listen to got changed from being the white handbook rules - pretty much that the music just had to be uplifting and inspiring - to that we could only listen to hymns and Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So that's what I've been listening to my whole mission up until now. This time, though, we all had a council on music. Sister and President Ostler played clips for us of what was mostly classical music and had missionaries put their thumbs up if they thought it was appropriate for a mission and thumbs down if not. For all except for one song (which reminded me of Virginia because it was some bluegrass with a guy singing in a strong Southern accent about his tractor and which few other missionaries understood except for me), I put my thumbs up. But, as I looked around, many of the other missionaries were consistently doing thumbs down... to classical music. Their reasoning was that it was "too exciting" or "too depressing," and I wanted to laugh because I was like... so we're only allowed to have one emotion on our missions? Anyway, I was definitely (and predictably) one of the few voices for being liberal on the music, but I never thought that a mission would be vetoing classical music, haha. I can only describe it this way... Manila MIssion is one of the most straight laced and strict missions you will ever come across. Been doing some technology stuff to try and get it distributed tomorrow at Zone Meeting to our zone since Sister Bechachino and I are assigned to talk about music.
Anyway, didn't really end up mattering, because the Ostlers gave us a USB with a bunch of music on it and said that it was the new playlist for the mission, and we can still listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir and hymns. So that's that. It's a nice solution, I suppose, but. My music choices will change *some* when I go back, but I still miss having more freedom in the category of what we listen to on our missions.
President Ostler is also awesome because for part of MLC, he got down on the floor with some worn out shoes and shoe polish and started polishing them. He said absolutely nothing to us, just started polishing them. He started pantomiming that he wanted us to start giving out suggestions, and pointed to the board that said, "Leadership Qualities." We all eventually realized he wanted us to get "service" out of what he was doing. It was pretty impressive, he didn't speak a word the whole time and afterwards brought it home by handing the shoes to one of the Elders (he had polished the Elder's shoes) and said that actions speak louder than words (hence he wasn't speaking) and that our number one priority in exchanges, etc. is to serve missionaries and not to correct or judge them. I like that, it's much needed in the mission and for us right now.
I went on an exchange with one very happy and enthusiastic Sister who's only in her second transfer (still in her training.) When we went to the apartment, she realized she had forgotten her keys... so we yelled for her apartment mates to come out, but they didn't hear after 10 minutes of yelling. So we planned outside and then tried yelling again. No response. She said, "I'm gonna climb the fence." I protested, but she said she'd do it so we could at least drop my stuff off inside in case it rained (I was going to be spending the night at their house.) So she totally climbed the fence in a skirt and was really quite skilled at it, hahaha. She's from New Zealand of Tongan and Indian descent. It was way fun to go out with her, and I commented on the fact that she has a gold tooth (which I've seen on other Polynesian missionaries before) and asked her why they wear them. She said that it can symbolize having done something noteworthy or good, and I said I totally wanted a gold tooth now after my mission (hey, serving a mission is noteworthy and good) and she said, "Yeah!! That would totally be so cute on an American like you!" Next goal, gold tooth. Just kidding (kind of), but it WOULD be super legit.
Anyway... my time's up. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Always find ways to use your free agency to make good choices every day!
Much love,
Sister Larsen
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