Group 22 Exit Report - "In a Rut"

GOAL, PLAN, EXECUTE - EXPECT RESULTS – EVALUATE, THEN…

GOAL, PLAN, EXECUTE – EXPECT RESULTS – EVALUATE, THEN…
GOAL, PLAN, EXECUTE – EXPECT RESULTS – EVALUATE, THEN…

ARE YOU BEGINNING TO SEE A PATTERN???

This is our Report!
Group 22 – July 25, 2005
(1 from Australia, 1 from Tonga, 2 from Sierra Leone, 1 from Ivory Coast, 8 from Nigeria and 11 from Ghana for a total of 24) We seem to be stuck in a rut - but a very exciting and desirable rut, a rut which seems to be producing positive results in spite of the mere mortals who are trying to run the program. Every twenty one days the Missionary Training Center feeds their occupants the forbidden fruit and banishes them to the lone and dreary world. We load the vans with smiling – and teary eyed - ‘white shirts’, who are heading for the Accra international airport, each hugging a satchel of personal belongings filled with a few articles of clothing, a treasure or two, lots of new found confidence in their voice, a brain swirling with new ideas, a heart trying to emulate the Savior, legs working overtime trying to walk like Moroni, thinking in ‘scripture language’ like a junior Elder McConkie, already watching for a ‘body’ to share their three minute Restoration message – and harboring tons of memories collected during the past eighteen days spent in a little port town in Ghana named Tema.

We have watched the pattern twenty two times – the scenario has been the same - the bodies all begin looking alike – the hugs are becoming automatic – the speeches and the jokes and the warnings and the counsel and the advice all sound like a broken record, Stand-up, Smile, Firm Handshake, Good first impression, Open your mouth, Think, No Mango Trees, Ponder, Pray, Preach My Gospel, Listen, Do, Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, First Things First, Educate, Edify, Empower, Self-Esteem=Productivity=Event Control, The Amulek Factor, Remember the Church Education System, The Secret of Activity (and CES) = Daily Scripture Study, Master Teachers are Teachers Come From God, God wants a Powerful People, Walk With God, Nobility, “Like Unto Moroni”, Exact Obedience, Attitude Determines Altitude, Moses and the Mountain, Time Control, the One Minute Drill, I am a Leader, I am a happy Cheerful person, I am at Peace, Exodus to Greatness, Great Missionaries Never Peak, The First Vision Pattern, I remember, Object Lesson, Sherem, Habits, White Handbook, Thomas Marsh, The Savior, Book of Mormon, The School of the Prophets, Zion’s Camp, Touch me Not, Teach by the Spirit, “First seek to obtain my work”, ‘Mighty Change’, Atonement, Nature of God, Apostasy, The Commandments, The Plan of Happiness, Temple Preparation, Never Ending Happiness, Exaltation, TRUST, Private Victories Precede Public Victories…the list goes on and on – but in spite of the ‘sameness’ of the message and the routine of the vans and taillights heading down the road - IT NEVER GETS OLD. We have given the ‘Hurrah for Israel’, cheerio to nearly 500 of these warriors and it never wears us out to see their eyes sparkle and their countenances shine and they leave us with a whole new vision of their future and a determination to have a mighty impact on it.

They leave with a journal in their hand, a book bulging with counsel, thoughts and ideas and before they leave we ensure that each understands why the MTC “works”. We carefully teach them the ‘secret’:
1) We helped them set a GOAL – to become “like unto Moroni” in 18 days.
2) We helped them with a PLAN - a plan that included what to do, read, study, memorize and learn each day they were here.
3) We ensured they EXECUTE their plan each day together with recording and measuring of their achievements.
4) We ask them near the end of their stay if they could feel positive RESULTS from their seventeen hour focused days of working their plan?
5) We then help them identify the ‘magic’ of the Goal setting process: GOAL – PLAN – EXECUTE – EXPECT RESULTS – MEASURE – DO IT AGAIN. Finally it is embedded into their brain that what we have ‘imposed’ on them for eighteen days works in mission life, married life, family life, church life, career life and real life.
SET A GOAL
MAKE A PLAN
EXECUTE THE PLAN
EXPECT RESULTS
MEASURE RESULTS
SET A NEW GOAL…

We are certainly in a rut, but again, the RUT is a wonderful continuum of never ending joy, joy that comes from watching a continual stream of wonderful dark faced (sprinkled in with a few pale ones) young people who, with a touch of fear, show up on our door step and eighteen days later walk out prepared to conquer any corner of the world they are assigned.


What a wonderful RUT!