Sunday, September 13, 1970

The other afternoon when we returned from Recife, I asked Virginia how Apolinário had made the return trip. That had been a big day for him: the trip itself, seeing an Apostle, being baptized. I was somewhat concerned for his health. Virginia answered, “Oh, don’t worry about him now that he’s full of the Holy Ghost.” Of all the people I have ever baptized, none have wanted into the Church as bad as Apolinário, and I doubt any of them were as truly repentant before entering the waters of baptism as he. Apolinário and Idelta made it out to Sunday School this morning.

Aldo recorded Brother Hinckley’s talk Thursday night, but the volume was turned to zero and he caught nothing.

In our weekly planning and evaluation session the week before last (we hold them on Sunday night after meetings), Elder Blackham and I instituted a new plan of attack for more effectively reaching our goals. Two weeks of practical experience has proven its worth. We decided that a major reason for not reaching goals was lack of follow through. Therefore, we placed our personal goals on the back of our planning cards and each night went over them one by one to check each other out in a mini-evaluation session.

My goals for this week consist of the following: (1) think about the Savior; this was inspired by a talk Elder Blackham gave two weeks ago wherein he pointed out that we covenant in the sacrament to always remember the Savior but rarely do in our daily lives; (2) be out on time; we’ve been lax at times; (3) read the handbook and tract, a weekly goal; (4) read the scriptures at least 30 minutes; this means half an hour actually spent with the scriptures beyond the many hours required by the study guide; (5) watch conversations; this is one of the best goals, keeping us aware of our callings and helping us maintain a higher spiritual level; (6) be grateful, going out of the way to be thankful; it works wonders; (7) love people; (8) help my companion, going out of my way to make him a better missionary, a happier person; (9) pray more frequently and fervently; I try to pray every afternoon in secret to supplement morning and night private prayers; (10) do reports, planning, and evaluation nightly; (11) get to bed on time; (12) exercise; Elder Blackham’s exercising has moved me to take it up also and it feels great; (13) run; this is related to the last goal but is a new one we will try out this week, running around the block the first thing every morning; and (14) be happy, which falls naturally into place when I do everything else.

Elder Blackham’s goals are very similar. He also has added a goal of controlling his temper, which he has been doing admirably the past two weeks.

Because of these several goals our nightly evaluation sessions have become so enjoyable that we really look forward to them. This program has done wonders for our friendship and our love for each other. And this in turn has improved our every working day and our missionary work. Particularly, we are improving our spirituality. Our confidence is waxing strong in the presence of God.

Yesterday afternoon we inaugurated volleyball on the field at the church. Earlier we had to clean off all the weeds that spring up so fast. Elder Blackham and I never did play because we helped give the chapel a major clean up. It was disgracefully dirty. We plan to make every Saturday afternoon an activity period, under the MIA’s direction, with volleyball and ping pong and futebol de saláo and anything else they might want to do.

Elder Smith spoke tonight in sacrament meeting. In the afternoon the youth fireside was held at our house with the lesson under the direction of Elder Christensen.