So lots of stuff happened this week. I´m writing on a Friday. This is crazy.
I bought a lot of food for people to eat on Thursday. I bought 264 empanadas and 44 milanesa sandwiches with fries. I just love how people handle these calls. ´´Hey how can I take your order?´´ ´´Yeah I´m going to need to buy a lot of stuff. You ready?´´ ´´Yeah ok I can handle it.´´ ´´I need 44 complete sandwiches/22 dozen empanadas.´´ ´´.....Um. Ok. Alright wait a second. I need to get somebody else to handle this´´ Goes to get the manager. ´´Hey how are you? How can I help ya?´´ Good stuff.
Pretty much this whole week revolves around Thursday which was basically Game Day for me. We put half the mission in the offices all at the same time and I had to take care of that. I did the math. We put in 13 hours of work straight. Leaving the house early. Getting back late. It was craziness.
On top of this, I had a problem with the food I ordered. The empanadas came in wrong (I ordered one flavor and they gave me another). The quantity, at least, was ok. So I got the idea to call, and tell them that they had messed up to see what they could do to fix it. I did not receive a happy response. Pretty much sat there and listened to them refuse to believe that they had messed up. They kept blaming it on me saying that they had checked numerous times what I wanted and I doubt I even once heard the words ´´Lo siento.´´ That was a bit tough for me. I realized that they weren´t really invested in making me happy or keeping my business. They wanted to win an argument. So they won their argument. I wonder if there are any other places near here that sell empanadas?
If we look at this, there´s actually a pretty important demonstration here outside of the customer service issue. President Resek actually brought this thought to my mind when I saw the way he handled a situation with his wife. We had half the mission come into the offices, but they were split into 2 groups. President and his wife gave their workshops twice. The first time, President talked, then his wife. The second time, President spoke, then his wife told him to just keep going because ´´he could tell it better than she could.´´ What happened next, at least in my small little world, was astounding. President proceeded to share the start of her workshop, and kept interrupting himself to invite his wife to speak until he finally got her to stand up and give her talk. To me, that was incredible. After seeing how someone on the other side of a telephone line could make me feel bad for a mistake I hadn´t made, I got to witness President Resek practically give confidence to his wife. He´s invested in her progress. He wants her to be great just as much as he wants himself to be great. Do you see how awesome that is? Do you realize that you can make people happy just as easily as you can make them feel awful? The ability to make someone happy, especially your spouse, is a gift from God. God expects us to use our gifts to benefit the lives of others. I hope that you chose to make people feel happy instead of awful. Be careful with your words. Be wise in your conduct. Learn to love others and become invested in their progress just as much as your own.
So that was my short 5 day week. It was a good one. Elder Tanner and I were blessed to have found 2 really cool guys who accepted to be baptized in August. We´ll be focused on helping them work towards making that important step this week. I´m loving the mission. I´m learning a lot. Don´t stress. I love you people. Until next week (Saturday?),
Elder Sultan
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