The Seasons of Goals — Setting Your Goals

Missionary son in Taiwan:

Since I’ve been a missionary I have enjoyed following the instruction of Preach My Gospel and setting what I feel are very important goals:

• running plan to get under 5:20 mile
• timing my showers and preparation in the morning (of all the bathroom tasks, shaving is the longest)
• lifting plan
• reading the Book of Mormon everyday (harder than it sounds), memorize scripture references,
• drinking more water,
• more specific repentance,
• good evaluation/commitments with every exchange,
• 15 new investigators per exchange,
• 15 Chinese characters per day (very low, but we don’t often set aside the time for it),
• 4 baptisms for our companionship this move call
• and a few other personal goals

• Run 3x/week for 30min and improve my 11.5min mile while pushing 50lb double stroller, 30 lb.Olivia, &    15lb. Finley

• Remember  to go for a run.
• Remember  to ask Olivia to go pee every 45min and to check& change Finley’s diapers
• Remember  to feed Olivia something other than the chocolate num-nums she asks for daily, all day long.
• Remember  to feed & water the dogs.
• Remember  to put on clean clothes after i have been spit up on and used as a napkin.
• Remember  to say prayers with Olivia before bed and then again on my own
• Remember  to read some form of something spiritual and uplifting
• Remember  to spell my swear words out so that Ollie doesn’t repeat “douche bag”
• Remember  not to take this life too seriously as Nibley says. and Repent. Repent. Repent.

• Be Patient  when i forget to ask Olivia to go pee and she tinkles in her pants for the 3rd time that day.
• Be Patient  when i have to change my shirt for the 3rd time that day because Fin burped up on me.
• Be Patient  when i am washing my four pairs of elastic waste sweat shorts for the 3rd  time this week because cant fit into any of my clothes.
• Be Patient  with Jeffrey when he wants to go fishing for 9 hrs
• Be Patient  when Fin sleeps 6hrs in a row and i am wide awake for 4 of them

• Stay Calm  when i find Olivia drawing on the furniture with only a shirt on because she went pee by herself and tinkled in her undies and unwound the entire roll  of t.p.
• Stay Calm  when I’ve done my hair, makeup, dressed for church and pick up my baby who has saved her poop for 2 days until just now and i find it all over my arm and shirt. then have to bathe her and me. sadly my 2nd bathe of the day (it is only 930am) because somehow i woke up with b.o.
• Stay Calm  when i ask Olivia to pick up one of her 50 messes in a day and she tells me, “i’m too busy”  “i can’t the dolls are napping”  or “in a sec”
• Stay Calm  when Fin fusses to nurse even tho she nursed 30min ago and is hungry AGAIN
• Stay Calm  when i am stuck nursing and Olivia calls from the toilet that she needs her bum wiped! or when she has come out of the bathroom and said,”i made poop by myself!”
• Stay Calm  when i somehow thought (again) that it would be a good idea to take the kids and dogs on a walk together

• Fit Back into ANY of my pre-pregnancy pants
• Get Out OF DEBT
• Save money to buy a home
• Be excited about a church calling
• Write in the girls’ baby books weekly
• Find a friend in the gospel who believes the same way i do and can have a spiritual conversation with
• Understand the importance and meaning of garments personally
• Scrub the bathroom once a week

well….those are some of my goals for now ☺ we are in quite different places in the game of life. its a strange thing.
love you and am excited we get to see you soonish. I’ve been preparing Olivia  about her uncle Eph that lives in china.
xoxo Rach