Week 19: Transferred

May 25, 1988

I have been transferred, but first let me tell you about my last week in Palo Alto.

Our teaching appointment with Leslie on Thursday came through.  We practically flew down to her place but she showed up a little late.  When we knocked on the door, her daughter answered and told us that her mother was at her new store in Redwood city.  Thinking we got dogged and feeling dejected, we crossed the street, sat in some shade and decided to wait.  Maybe we could still get lucky.  Then, just as we were about to give up, Leslie drove up.

I taught the first two principles and the steps of prayer. It went really well and she was very open with her concerns. It turns out that Leslie has a degree in anthropology and she has a concern with how the seed of Lehi got here, or that the American Indians are 100% direct descendants from Lehi. She says it does not fit with what she knows. Because of that Milo figures it would take three months to get her into the water.

As we started for home after the teaching appointment, Milo got a flat tire. So we enjoyed a ninety minute walk home.  The teaching appointment was really the highlight of the week.  At one point, we were turning to a scripture in the New Testament we wanted her to read and I gave the page number as found in the LDS edition of the King James Version.  It turns out that the LDS edition numbers pages differently, "There's no such page!" Leslie said.  They didn't teach us that in prep, ha ha.

On Friday morning, Milo and the other elders going home, went to the temple in Oakland.  They then spent the rest of the day across the bay in San Fransisco.  I spent the day with Elders Lake and Able.  Milo did not get back until midnight.

On Saturday, the Menlo Park Stake held a heritage fair.  The zone had a booth with many foreign language copies of the Book of Mormon on display and we spent most of the day there.  At one point, Elder Milo had a disagreement with Elder Baker and my companion told the zone leader to look him in the eye and tell him if he could see even an ounce of concern.  Wow.  As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Milo does not appear to be intimidated by anyone or anything.

On Monday, I followed Elder Able in the First Ward elder's car while he ran up to the Stanford Clinic for his radiation appointment.

Transfer calls came out at noon on Tuesday.  The call said I was being transferred to Carmel, down by Monterey; in actuality, I have been transferred to the Carmel Ward, but am in a town called Seaside.

Elder Milo left Tuesday afternoon to spend his last night in the mission home before flying back to Louisiana.  I spent part of the evening with Elders Whopper and November and went to a dinner appointment with them at a mansion in Menlo Park.  The mansion belonged to the owner of the Mervyn's department store chain; his housekeeper happens to be a member of the church.  Mr. Mervyn was out of town, and the housekeeper gave us a tour. 

I finished packing this morning and Lake and Able drove me up to meet the transfer van at Edgewood chapel.  Once aboard, the van headed south. At one stop Elder Golf got aboard. He is going to the mission office to become the new mission secretary and be companions with Elder Lima, the financial secretary. We talked a little and I even helped him with his luggage. I do not know about him, but I had no hard feelings.

There were several stops before the van arrived in Salinas, and that is where I met my new companion, Elder Spandau from Hope, Indiana. He has a cast on his left leg because he tore some ligaments while jogging recently. Because of the cast we have a car.

Also transferred in as the new district leader was Elder Tango, who trained Elder Lake. His companion is Elder Victor. We drove over to the coast and our apartment here in Seaside. How ironic is that? In that sub-line transfer joke they played on me in Palo Alto, they said I was going to be transferred to Seaside Apartment. After Tango and I got settled in, the two of us went to Wendy’s for some dinner.

I am excited about this new area and it is great to have a fresh start. Even so, it was not easy leaving Palo Alto. I left behind a lot of members and contacts that I had grown close to. I left behind the coolest ward mission leader, a great bishop, and some great members, that was not easy. But I figure I will be able to settle in here in just a few days.

As the name suggests, this town is by the sea, with Monterey Bay to the west, Monterey to the south, and Fort Ord to the north.  The town itself seems to lie on a series of sand dunes as many of the north-south streets rise and fall along the hills.  This place is the opposite of Palo Alto, which was almost entirely flat; there are also significantly fewer trees as compared to my last area.

Life is Good!

Love

Douglas

Week 18: Learning is Success

May 18, 1988

Things are starting to pick up a little around here.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will teach my first standard discussion to Leslie.  Woo Hoo!

Last Thursday we went out to check on some old call backs that we hadn't managed to get back to.  The first was not interested, the second was not home, and the third was busy and asked us to come back.

On Friday we stayed in and studied.  There does not seem to be much work to do; we could tract but the fact that it is typically fruitless is not very appealing. We could try to see members, but they are usually not home as both parents typically work.  I can see Elder Golf's point of view, but he taught and baptized here. He had success here. The most success I have had is getting in off a door approach. I also have not had success anywhere else as this is my first area.

We did more studying on Saturday before going out in the afternoon.  When we returned to our flat in the evening, we ran into a group of born-agains in the parking lot of the apartment complex.  They saw us and pounced.  The ring leader asked us how we were "saved."  I answered by talking about accepting Christ as our Savior, repenting of our sins and being baptized into His church.  I was interrupted and the discussion went off on the necessity of baptism.

"Do we need to be raised on a cross to die and be resurrected to follow Christ's example?" asked the ring leader.  My companion answered, and when it appeared that he was getting the upper hand, the born-agains immediately changed the subject.  The ring leader claimed that the Book of Mormon is false and said that “no man could add to the Bible.” He said that he had read parts of it and knew it was not true. He said that Joseph Smith was a thrill seeker.

When they changed the subject from baptism I just stopped talking, as I realized it would do no good.  At one point, however, I was about to respond when Elder Milo stopped me.  The discussion continued for a few more minutes between my companion and the ring leader, who kept changing the subject each time Milo started making a good argument.  Then the born-agains claimed that they had to leave, but in a show of bravado challenged us to attend a revival the following week.  If we had any guts we would be there, the ring leader claimed, but the location is out of our zone.

It rained on Monday, so we stayed in and studied.  That night I followed Elder Able on my bike as he went running.  As we were going along, a thought hit me: “The fact that I have learned so much here makes this a successful area.” Wow, what a true statement! I am not the same person that stepped off the plane in San Jose.  I have learned so much there is just no way that I can list all the lessons. I have learned and I have grown. I have overcome challenges. In four months I have noticed a lot of improvement in my ability to communicate with others. But I am ready to move on to the next battlefield.

On Tuesday, we taught a new member lesson to a member of the Palo Alto First Ward who was baptized last November.  After that, we hopped down to Corina to see Leslie, and that is when we scheduled the appoint for tomorrow.

I am having some mixed feelings.  As I said, I am ready for the next battlefield, yet there is a small part of me that actually wants to stay here in Palo Alto.  I want to see where the discussions go with Leslie, but outside of that I am truly ready to move on.

Hope all is well at home.

Love

Douglas

"Judge Righteous Judgements"

I like a good sea story, and a number of years ago I came across the following:

On board a four-pipe destroyer proceeding through the quiet waters of the Caribbean, the executive officer was not convinced that the engine room was giving him the precise speed he ordered, and so set about measuring the ship's actual speed. He would throw a chip of wood into the water from the bow, start his stopwatch, run the length of the ship, and stop his watch when the ship's stern passed the chip in the water. Knowing how long it had taken the 341-foot ship to pass the stationary chip, he could calculate her speed.

The only problem was that every time the exec started his dash aft, he ran into various crew members, and never made it to the stern in time to see the chip pass. A particular bottleneck was the galley passageway, where all traffic had to funnel through a narrow aisle on one side of the ship.

The skipper watched this operation with growing irritation, until finally he told the exec that he would run interference for him. So off they went, the skipper in the lead, with the exec holding his stopwatch aloft as they headed for the stern at full speed.

As this strange procession reached the galley passageway, the skipper began to shout, "Look out for the Exec! Look out for the Exec!" in order to clear out any approaching traffic. The ship's baker, busily baking pies in the galley and unaware of the circumstances, looked up from his work, took the situation at face value, and did his duty as he saw it. He waited for the skipper to pass, who obviously was being threatened by the beserk exec pursuing him, and laid out the exec with a single blow of his rolling pin.

Things are not always as they seem -- they might only rarely be what they seem, in fact -- so taking things at face value can be risky.  We often judge people based on first impressions, but sometimes we find out later that our first impression of them was ill informed.  In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior warned us about judging: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

In the footnotes, we read that in his translation this passage, Joseph Smith rendered it this way: "Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged; but judge righteous judgement."  In a March 1998 address at BYU, Elder Dallin H. Oaks talked about the difference between final judgements and intermediate judgements:

"I have been puzzled that some scriptures command us not to judge and others instruct us that we should judge and even tell us how to do it. But as I have studied these passages I have become convinced that these seemingly contradictory directions are consistent when we view them with the perspective of eternity. The key is to understand that there are two kinds of judging: final judgments, which we are forbidden to make, and intermediate judgments, which we are directed to make, but upon righteous principles."

Elder Oaks added that, "We must, of course, make judgments every day in the exercise of our moral agency, but we must be careful that our judgments of people are intermediate and not final."  The question, then, is how do we make righteous, intermediate judgements?  Elder Oaks gave some guidelines in his talk:

"First, a righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate. It will refrain from declaring that a person has been assured of exaltation or from dismissing a person as being irrevocably bound for hellfire. It will refrain from declaring that a person has forfeited all opportunity for exaltation or even all opportunity for a useful role in the work of the Lord. The gospel is a gospel of hope, and none of us is authorized to deny the power of the Atonement to bring about a cleansing of individual sins, forgiveness, and a reformation of life on appropriate conditions.

"Second, a righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest. The Book of Mormon teaches: “For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain … as the daylight is from the dark night.

“For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil” (Moro. 7:15–16). . . .

"Third, to be righteous, an intermediate judgment must be within our stewardship. We should not presume to exercise and act upon judgments that are outside our personal responsibilities. . . .

"Fourth, we should, if possible, refrain from judging until we have adequate knowledge of the facts."

Elder Oaks quoted William George Jordan as saying:

“We do not need to judge nearly so much as we think we do. This is the age of snap judgments. … [We need] the courage to say, ‘I don’t know. I am waiting further evidence. I must hear both sides of the question.’ It is this suspended judgment that is the supreme form of charity.”

The ship's baker in the sea story above made a snap judgement without possessing all of the facts.  BYU professor Arthur R. Bassett related in the June 1991 issue of the Ensign the following experience in which he did not have all the facts in a class he was teaching:

“I was troubled when one person whispered to another all through the opening prayer. The guilty parties were not hard to spot because they continued whispering all through the class. I kept glaring at them, hoping that they would take the hint, but they didn’t seem to notice. Several times during the hour, I was tempted to ask them to take their conversation outside if they felt it was so urgent—but fortunately something kept me from giving vent to my feelings.

“After the class, one of them came to me and apologized that she hadn’t explained to me before class that her friend was deaf. The friend could read lips, but since I was discussing—as I often do—with my back to the class, writing at the chalkboard and talking over my shoulder, my student had been ‘translating’ for her friend, telling her what I was saying. To this day I am thankful that both of us were spared the embarrassment that might have occurred had I given vent to a judgment made without knowing the facts”

Elder Oaks offered another guideline for making intermediate judgements as he acknowledged that there are circumstances where we have to make at least a preliminary judgement while waiting to gather more information:

"A fifth principle of a righteous intermediate judgment is that whenever possible we will refrain from judging people and only judge situations. This is essential whenever we attempt to act upon different standards than others with whom we must associate—at home, at work, or in the community. We can set and act upon high standards for ourselves or our homes without condemning those who do otherwise."

There are two more guidelines for making righteous intermediate judgements:

"Sixth, forgiveness is a companion principle to the commandment that in final judgments we judge not and in intermediate judgments we judge righteously. The Savior taught, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). In modern revelation the Lord has declared, “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:10). . . .

"Seventh, a final ingredient or principle of a righteous judgment is that it will apply righteous standards. If we apply unrighteous standards, our judgment will be unrighteous. By falling short of righteous standards, we place ourselves in jeopardy of being judged by incorrect or unrighteous standards ourselves."

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of love; the Savior commanded us to love God with all our heart, mind, might, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37-40); he taught us to "love one another; as I have love you" (John 13:34).


"May God bless us that we may have that love," concluded Elder Oaks, "and that we may show it in refraining from making final judgments of our fellowman. In those intermediate judgments we are responsible to make, may we judge righteously and with love. . . . May we be examples of His love and His gospel."


Sources:

Jamison, J. P. (1998) "Look Out for the Exec." Proceedings, September 1998.

Oaks, D. H. (1999). "'Judge Not' and Judging." Ensign, August 1999. Accessed November 11, 2014 at LDS.org: https://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/08/judge-not-and-judging?lang=eng

Week 17: Commitment

May 11, 1988

On Thursday, my new companion and I walked down to the bank on University Ave, got haircuts, and then hopped over to Walgreens to pick up slides I had taken to get developed.  The slides are from the first three rolls of film I have shot on my mission, beginning in the MTC.  In the afternoon, we went to check on a referral; he said he was not interested, but we were able to give him a audio cassette of Our Heavenly Father's Plan and our phone number.

We called Lloyd, one of our contacts, on Friday morning.  When we asked if we could set up an appointment he replied, "Well, like I said at the onset: I'm Catholic and I'll probably die Catholic and I'm not really interested in changing."  He went on to say, "I don't know that I'm really searching.  I thank you for your dedication, but I think you would better spend your time teaching someone who is interested."  Essentially, he dropped us; as it was, however, I was considering dropping him if we had been unable to set up an appointment.

In the afternoon we rode our bikes all the way down to Leslie's place on Corina.  We chatted with her for ten minutes, and hopefully built a relationship of trust by getting to know her.  She is opening her own shop on the fifteenth, she fixes up antiques and makes quilts.  After the opening, her schedule should ease up so we can start teaching her.  She is interested in learning more and looks promising.  Leslie is one of the few reasons I might want to stay in Palo Alto.

After that, we went tracting. At one house we almost had a Book of Mormon placed when this lady acted like we offended her. She gave the book back and told me to cross her name off the tracting card. This bummed Elder Milo out bad.

On Saturday, we stayed in the flat most of the day and studied.  In the early evening, we hopped down to the ward mission leader's home but missed the WML again. We talked to his wife, who said their son Josh wasn’t feeling well, in fact rather bad. She asked us to give Josh a priesthood blessing; I did the anointing.

Elder Milo is incredibly outgoing; he doesn’t seem to be intimidated by anyone or anything. So imagine my surprise when he told me that before he came out he was so shy that he couldn’t even order a hamburger at a fast food restaurant. In fact, he didn’t even speak at his farewell; he has a twin brother and the meeting was for both of them. He didn’t even show up to the meeting until the last five or ten minutes. The bishop asked if he would come up and bear his testimony and he declined.

After being out awhile another missionary pointed out that it was all just intimidation. Milo realized that he was allowing that girl behind the counter at the fast food place to intimidate him and that struck him as ridiculous. I wrote about Elder Sierra last week, he and Milo demonstrate that remarkable transformations are possible on a mission.

We had a zone conference on Tuesday up (or down, according to the locals) in San Mateo.  If there was a theme it would have been obedience to the mission rules.  I got up during the testimony session in the afternoon and talked about how I had committed to living the mission rules.  I read 1 Nephi 3:7 -- "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. . . ." -- and then Helaman 10:4-5:

"Blessed art thou Nephi, for those things which thou hast done: for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people.  And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.  And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word; for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I then said that in the MTC, it was easy to live the mission rules, but when I got out here, I was timid of what others might think, so I have not been diligent in keeping my commitment to live the mission rules.  I blamed myself for the lack of anything going on in the Palo Alto Second Ward.  I considered breaking my commitment to be a transgression, and I apologized to President Douglas.  I then committed with him to live the mission rules.  I said that it didn't matter what others thought because I knew I would be blessed in the long run.

After I sat down, it occurred to me that some might think that I was brown-nosing, but mostly some missionaries told me that what I did took guts. My flat-mates said I did a good job. President Douglas thanked me and said that he knew I would hang in there.

Meanwhile, Milo is driving me crazy, trying to get me trunky.  But I am looking forward too much to what lies ahead in the next 20 months.

Today was a hot one, the hottest since I got here.  We played basketball this morning then went to the hills in Woodside to play nine holes of golf on the worst course ever.  Seriously, there were gopher holes everywhere.  Perhaps the shoddy grounds keeping explains why a group of missionaries was able to afford playing a round or two here.  In my third ever round of nine holes -- the priest quorum played on a course in Park City two years ago as an activity -- I shot a 54 on a par 29.

All is well here.

Love

Douglas

Missionary in 30 Seconds

If you were looking for a job and happened to stop by and visit an LDS employment center, at some point you would hear about something called "Me in 30 Seconds."  According to LDS Jobs.org:

"A 'Me in 30 Seconds' statement is a simple way to present to someone else a balanced understanding of who you are. It piques the interest of a listener who invites you to 'Tell me a little about yourself,' and it provides a brief and compelling answer to the question 'Why should I hire you?'

"Me in 30 Seconds" statements have also been called "30 Second Elevator Pitches" or just "elevator statements" because chance meetings in elevators have provided opportunities for networking.

A "Me in 30 Seconds" might have statements that begin with the words "I am", I have", "I can," and "I want to".  Also included might be sentences called "power statements."

A "power statement' is a concise statement "that briefly describe[s] the value you can bring to the organization."  Such statements can highlight a "a strength you have, and show how you have used that strength to achieve results."  Good power statements include "power words" such as "self-starter", "creative", "motivated", "resourceful" and "teachable", among others, as well a an achievement.

For a Me in 30 seconds, with power statements, I might say:

"I am Douglas Cox.  I am smart; I enjoy reading and writing about history and I am good at doing research.  I am flexible; I have many years of office experience in different industries, including printing, binding, publishing and medical records.  I am teachable; I have done accounts receivable, invoicing, accounts payable, estimating off a price list, manuscript reviews and quality control of transcribed medical reports.  I am reliable; I have handled $500,000 in accounts payable without incident.  I am confident that I can do just about anything in a general office setting."

A "Me in 30 Seconds" statement can be a powerful tool for a job hunter, but what about for a missionary, or a member missionary?  Could we have a different kind of statement, one that focuses on sharing the gospel, and call it a "Missionary in 30 Seconds" statement?  Consider the following statement in 3 Nephi chapter 5:

"I am called Mormon. . . .  Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life. . . .  Therefore I do make my record. . . .  And I know the record which I make to be a just and true record. . . .  I have reason to bless my God and my Savior Jesus Christ, that he brought our fathers out of Jerusalem . . . and that he hath given me and my people so much knowledge unto the salvation of our souls" (see verses 12-20).

A missionary in 30 seconds statement can include statements that begin with the words "I am", "I have", "I can", and "I know".  It can have "power statements" with which we bear testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  Most importantly, it can have an invitation or a challenge to the listener to hear more.

For a full time missionary, some version of a missionary in 30 statement can be used in street contacting or door knocking, or any other finding activity.  For a member missionary, a missionary in 30 statement can be a ready statement to use in an expected or unexpected missionary opportunity.

What would you say in your "missionary in 30 seconds" statement?


Sources:

"'Me in 30 Seconds" Statements" accessed at LDSjobs.org (https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/articles/me-in-30-seconds-statements?lang=eng)

"Presenting Your Skills" accessed at LDSjobs.org (https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/articles/power-statements?lang=eng)

Week 16: Shakeup

May 5, 1988

On Thursday and Friday we had to deal with a clogged kitchen sink.  In fact, on Friday morning we woke up to find that the sink had backed up, leaving us a nice mess to clean.

On Friday, the zone leaders came down for another chat.  Elder Baker talked with Elder Lake and then sat down with me; I guess he knew that things haven’t been too great with me.  I told him how I felt, that I was discouraged and had a confidence problem.  I said that I had come into the mission field with an inferiority complex because I had grown up with heavy persecution in school and in the neighborhood, and even at home.  I said that I didn’t know who I was.

Baker said that he had faced a lot of persecution, too, and that everyone comes out not knowing who they are.  He said that the best thing I could do is share my feelings with others, particularly my companion.  He said that I would learn more just talking about myself with them.

After that we went out to the living room and talked with Lake and Elder Beach.  We had a good discussion, particularly Baker and I, and we learned a lot about each other as I repeated what I had told Baker.  Lake, Baker and Beach each made some comments, presented some good ideas, and even paid me some compliments.  They said I have a good jump shot, and if I have enough time I usually make it.  Baker also complimented my mind; he said I was a good thinker and had a good memory.  I didn’t think anybody noticed such things.  I also found out Baker is a photographer like me.

Baker then told me something about his previous companion, Elder Sierra.  When he came out, Sierra was extremely shy and during his two month training period probably said no more than five words.  But Sierra set a goal to change and did a lot of soul searching.  Sierra is now an assistant to the president.

On Saturday, Elder Lake went down to the mission office with Elder Lima for an interview with President Douglas.  When they came back they said that President Douglas now has a better understanding of the situation. They also said that I should be leaving the next transfer for sure. Also, Lima will be going to the office to replace Elder Studebaker who is going home soon. President Douglas is thinking about leaving only two elders to cover both of the Palo Alto wards, but it is not definite yet.

On Tuesday, President Douglas spoke with Elder Whopper at the monthly leadership meeting.  Later in the day, Whopper told me that he is going to try and get me teaching on team-ups so I can get some experience.  The sentiment is great, but it is not the experience that is important.  I’m not sure how much it will help my confidence to teach someone else’s investigators.

On Tuesday night, Elder Able and I had a discussion about mission rules.  I remained firm in my position about living the rules.  He said that he doesn’t care much about “our” rules because they are not “his” rules.  In the Fresno mission he was allowed to do some things, like weightlifting, that he is not allowed to do here in the San Jose mission.

On Wednesday morning, we played some basketball with the zone leaders and the Menlo Park elders, followed by some football in the afternoon.  A couple of months ago, when we played some football up at Woodland Hills, I couldn't catch the ball to save my life; today I made a few catches, which means that I am getting better.

We were in for some big surprises when we got back to the flat.  Instead of finding Elder Lima waiting for us with Elder Able, we found an Elder Milo.  Lima had been transferred to the office to get some training from Studebaker before he goes home.

But wait, there’s more.  At first Elder Lake and I were going to be moved over to cover the Palo Alto First Ward.  After our zone meeting tonight, however, Lake risked calling President Douglas to suggest that he and Able take the First Ward while making Milo my companion.  President Douglas agreed to this arrangement, probably because it was a little less radical than swapping wards.

So, I've got another new companion!  Milo is going home to Shreveport, Louisiana in three weeks -- on the twenty-fifth -- less than twenty days, really.  I am beginning to feel like the mission orphan, like no one wants me.  I am getting juggled around like crazy, in the same apartment, in the same ward.

I am badly discouraged and things do not look to be getting better.  One year ago I started attending missionary prep, so I had eight months of prep and now I have been out four months.  I have yet to teach a real discussion to a real investigator, and I am certainly not actively teaching anyone anything.  I’m foundering as if I have gone aground on a coral reef.

Well, that's about all that is going on out here.  Hope all is well at home.

Love

Douglas

--

As it would turn out, my new companion would be a breath of fresh air, and the change was probably one of the best things that could have happened.

Week 15: Surreal

April 27, 1988

Can you believe April is over already?  Almost 4 months of my mission is behind me -- time really flies.  But the work is going just as slow as usual.

Not much happened on Thursday.  It rained again on Friday, but in the afternoon we made it out to the library, the bank, the Stanford clinic, and the Stanford bookstore.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity of observing Elder Lima teach a first discussion in Chinese.  I know it went well because I felt the spirit.  In the afternoon, Lima and I went checking on referrals.  We also stopped by to see Leslie who is doing well.  She seems very interested in the Book of Mormon.  If we can baptize her, maybe we can baptize her whole family; the situation looks good.

On Sunday there was a regional conference in Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus.  President Thomas S. Monson, Elder Joseph E. Wirthlin and Elder Ted E. Brewerton spoke to us.  It was a great meeting.

I saw Elder Golf today at the conference and paid him back the money he lent me for pizza.  He is now with Elder Delta who came out with me.  Golf recently had another bike accident, and this one was worse than the first one.  It seems that he was following Delta when he blacked out.  The next thing he knew he was laying on the ground with a lot of scrapes and bruises.  Ouch.  On the other hand, he and Delta are having success down there in Santa Clara.

In the afternoon I went with Elder Lima to a baptism.  The zone leaders were baptizing a Stanford student; it was very inspirational.

On Monday I went out with Elder Able.  We did follow-up in the morning and tracted a street in the afternoon.

Tuesday was the day that transfer calls went out.  The four of us in the flat sat around that morning talking, and after some discussion, we decided that it would be a good idea to put Lima and I together in the Palo Alto First Ward and Lake and Able in the Palo Alto Second Ward; in other words, we wanted to switch companions.  Lake and Able get a long better and Lima and I do as well.  Then we had the brilliant idea to call President Douglas and suggest this arrangement to him.

The absurdity should be obvious.  Transfer call day is the busiest day of the month at the mission office, very nerve racking.  So it would make sense for the mission president to be more than a little edgy.  He was, and he chewed out Lake and Able and then hung up on Lake.

Later, when the actual transfer call came, we learned that no one was being moved.  So I am to be stuck here at least another month.

Shortly after the call, the zone leaders came down for a chat.  It was a rather big discussion about rules and calling the mission president on transfer call day.  Another big issue was weightlifting, which some of the other missionaries want to do, but which is against the mission rules.  We also found out that Elder Whopper is our new district leader.

Speaking of weightlifting, a member of the Palo Alto First Ward, who lives close to our apartment, has a home gym and invited us to use it whenever we wanted.  One night, recently, Lima, Able and Lake decided that they were going to start going to this home gym every night after our 9:30 check in call.

They also decided that I would be the one to make the phone call to the zone leaders to report that we were in for the night.  So, on this particular night, I made the call and then we all went over to the member’s home gym.  I went only because I could not be at the apartment alone.

Unbeknownst to us, while we were out, the zone leaders called back, and when we got back to the apartment they were there waiting for us.  While I believed I was in a position where I had had little choice, I still had to admit to Elder Baker that I had lied.  Then, of course, we also got a lecture on obeying mission rules.

It's been a crazy week, but otherwise, all is well here.  My health is fine, no problems.

Love
Douglas

Week 14: Discouraged

April 20, 1988

We have been getting a lot of rain here, lately.  This has been good as the water has been needed.  There has been talk of water rationing, so every drop of rain helps.  It rained cats and dogs on Thursday, so we did not get much work done.

On Friday, I drove the elder transferred in from the Fresno mission, Elder Able, up to his radiation treatment at the Stanford Medical Center.  After that we went on team-ups -- actually, I was with Elder Able as he did a lot of shopping on University Avenue.  In the evening, I followed Elder Able on my bike as he went for a run.

On Saturday morning, we had a district breakfast and study at the zone leaders' flat.  It was a good morning.  But then, the rest of the day, we did more shopping.  You have some interesting experiences on a mission.  I love going into stores in a shirt and tie; it doesn’t take very long before someone approaches you and starts asking questions about the merchandise.  “I’m sorry,” you say, “I don’t work here.”  My personal record is four times in the same store.

One reason we did so little on Saturday was that it started raining again in the afternoon.  It was a hard rain, too.  Riding bikes in that kind of weather seems like a bad idea.

When I talked with President Douglas last week, I told him how discouraged I was with how slow things were going here.  He said that he felt things would get better in the next week.  Unfortunately, with the exception of the stake presidency, the bishopric and the ward mission leader, it does not seem that many people in this area are excited about missionary work.

At the same time, I feel like I am getting a lot of verbal abuse from the elders in this district.  Elder Able is particularly good at dishing out this kind of abuse.  During team-ups yesterday he just about drove me up the wall.  His verbal shots were incredible; I tried to counter with something but that just made things worse.

Then I was the victim of a practical joke.  On Friday we received a couple of phone calls from the mission office.  Actually, while the person on the other end of the line said they were calling from the office, I think it was really Elder November talking through tissue paper.  Whoever it was, they said that I was in for a sub-line, or special transfer.

I figured it was a joke but I was not 100 percent positive.  Anyway, they said that they would be here at 9:00 p.m. on Monday to pick me up (why so late?).  Here was the dilemma: If it wasn’t real I would be packing for nothing and falling for the joke.  But if it was real and I didn’t pack. . . .  It was a no win situation, a real catch-22.  One reason I thought it was a joke was how little information they gave.  The only thing they said was that I would be going to Seaside Apartment.  Where is that?  I was awfully nervous because the set up seemed almost too good.

When we got home from church on Sunday – we had to bike it all the way down to Middlefield chapel because the ward mission leader, who usually drives us to church, was out of town.  Anyway, when we got home, Elder Lima said that President Douglas had called to say that both of us were being transferred.  That seemed to confirm it all for me, so I started packing.  A little later Elders Whopper and November dropped by our apartment.  When they saw that I had started packing they laughed and said it was all a joke and sub-line transfer was a made up term.  I had been had.

At first I sat in my room and sulked, but then I realized that I have been taking everything – all the verbal abuse and the jokes – too seriously.  I decided that I had to lighten up and so I changed my attitude.  I went out to the living room and laughed a long with everybody else.  It seemed as though a great weight was lifted off my shoulders.

On Monday evening, we had dinner with the ward mission leader's family, after which we watched a local broadcast of the church video Our Heavenly Father's Plan.  The ward mission leader had even invited a neighbor to join us.

It rained again on Tuesday, so naturally we ended up going shopping.  This morning we played some b-ball, and then some football in the afternoon.

Transfers are next Wednesday (so soon?) and Elder Lima thinks that I will be leaving -- he was right about Fox and Golf last transfer.  To be honest, I'm ready for a change, but if the Lord wants me to stay here a little while longer, I will.  I am still discouraged, but I have been asking myself how much I have learned here.  The answer is, a lot.

Love Douglas

--

On the back of the envelope I wrote:

Defeat in battle does not mean defeat in the war.

Victory in battle does not always mean victory in the war.

Defeat can turn to victory, and victory to defeat.

Be watchful and wary, but do not be afraid to be aggressive.

Do like Admiral William F. Halsey: Attack -- Attack -- Attack.

Week 13: Slow Week

April 13, 1988

We tracted on Thursday and Friday without much success.  Sunday was church as usual, then dinner with the ward mission leader's family.

On Monday, my companion bought a copy of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.  He is hoping to get some ideas on how to work with members.

In the afternoon we had our interviews with President Douglas. We had to ride all the way down to Middlefield chapel which is near the south end of our area. On the way I had a small accident but suffered no injury or damage to my bike or pants or anything else. We were hopping onto the side walk on the left side of the street; I went too wide and my front tire was on the grass. I tried to get it back up onto the sidewalk, but there was a bit of a lip and I toppled over instead.

In my interview with President Douglas I said that I was really discouraged. He said that he knew Palo Alto was a rough area to start in, but he was sure things would pick up. He was just so positive that it couldn’t help but rub off on me, at least for a while.

On Tuesday we went over to Stanford again with Elders Whopper and November. We went to the memorial church and while we were there a man asked me if we were Mormons. He said that he had a friend who was looking for us. We gave him our address and phone number.

We played basketball this morning and touch football in the afternoon.

This evening, we showed the video Our Heavenly Fathers Plan to a less-active member. She wants to become active but just can’t seem to do it. We did, however, commit her to bring up the video to her neighbors.

Sorry, but it wasn't an eventful week.

Love

Douglas

Week 12: New Start

April 6, 1988

This has been an interesting week.  On Thursday and Friday, we worked hard; we went around and checked on some part-member families, finding almost no one home, so we did some serious phone contacting Friday night.  We were able to set up a few appointments.

On Saturday and Sunday, we attended General Conference at the stake center.  Sitting in the chapel, dressed in Sunday best, made conference so much more special.

On Monday, we went on team-ups with the elders in Menlo Park -- actually, we went over to the Stanford bookstore before going up to the top of Hoover Tower and then visiting the Memorial Church.  We did find someone to chat with about the church, so my new comp is calling it pros-time [proselyting time].  I thought it was a waste.

We had a spiritual experience on Tuesday.  When I picked the streets we were going to tract, I prayed that the Spirit would guide me in my choices; I prayed that I would pick the streets that Heavenly Father wanted me to pick, a street where one of his sheep was ready for us to stop by.  After much prayer and consideration, I picked two streets and we headed out the door.

We stopped at the first street I had picked and locked up our bikes.  There was no interest at the first door, no one home at the second, but at the third this teenage girl answered.  Elder Lake gave the approach, "We're sharing a message about Jesus Christ today and if you have 15-20 minutes, we were wondering if we could come in and share that message with you?"  The girl replied, "Uh . . . yeah . . . I guess."

So in we went, and we taught most of the first discussion.  We talked mainly about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  The girl seemed to be interested in what we had to say, but she said that she would have to talk to her parents about it first.  We had a closing prayer and gave her a pamphlet dealing with our Heavenly Father's plan for us, as well as a copy of the Book of Mormon.

We finished tracting that street, but no one else who was at home was interested.  We then went back to the flat for lunch.  But that is the only way to tract, by the Spirit.

After lunch, we went to see Leslie down on Corina.  We talked with her and gave her (finally!) a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Then we went and tracted the second street I had picked that morning.  That street didn't turn out as well as the first; we ran into a born-again Christian and had a near-bashing situation.  After that we went to see Lloyd; he was at home and we were able to commit him to hearing a discussion of Friday.  Things may be looking up.

This morning we went and played basketball at the stake center.  We had a few serious, physical games; I ended up on the floor a few times and banged up my left leg a bit.  After basketball, we went over to the Menlo Park apartment with Elders Whopper and November.  As we were sitting around, talking, there was a knock on the door.  Some J-dubs had knocked on the landlord's door, and he brought them back to chat with us.

At first, we pretended to be Stanford students -- we were still in our sweats and street clothes.  One of the other three elders, as part of our pretending, asked if they were Mormons; they said that they were not, of course, and then proceeded to rip on the church.  They said that Mormons believed that Jesus was God and that Mormons believed in the Holy Trinity; they also said that Mormons did not believe in the Bible.

Going along with the ruse, for the moment, I pretended that I had talked with some Mormon missionaries recently and said that they had told me that they believed in God the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  One of them interrupted me to say that Mormons believed no such thing and, in any case, God and the Holy Ghost are one and the same.

It was at this point that we confessed that we were, in fact, Mormon missionaries.  I said that just yesterday, we had been out tracting and that I had had my Bible with me.  The J-dubs said again that we didn't believe in the Bible.  I picked up a copy of the Bible from a nearby table and turned to John 15:26:

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."

One of the J-dubs, likely the senior of the two, countered by saying that God and the Holy Ghost are the same person and that the Spirit is only the force used by God.  I flipped back to John 14:26:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (emphasis added).

"Whom" would denote a separate person.  The J-dub pulled our her New World Translation, which changed "whom" to "which".  Now, I wasn't trying to bash, just present a scripture to support my beliefs [that's what I told myself, anyway].  I was trying to steer the discussion into the Joseph Smith story, but darn if they didn't keep on interrupting me.  The other three elders, my comp included, were no help -- they were trying to bash.

A discussion of competing translations got us briefly back to John 14:26, but from there all control was lost.  The senior J-dub continued to tell me that we didn't believe in the Bible, so I turned the copy I was holding so that she could see the spine, "See, The Holy Bible, King James Version."  I said it three times!

Eventually, the J-dubs decided to leave, and as they did so they parted with: "When the day of destruction arrives and Jehovah is come, and you are destroyed, just remember, we warned you!"  I shot right back, "And you just remember, we warned you."  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Then they ran into the landlord, who said to them that he once looked into the J-dub faith.  Well, that got a reaction as they quickly condemned him to hell!

The whole experience was rather educational.  First, there is just no talking to J-dubs and, second, love and sincerity is where it is at.  Their whole attitude and approach were completely wrong, calling us to repentance and telling us over and over that we did not believe what we said we believed.  That's just not how you spread a message, whether you're a J-dub or an LDS missionary [you cannot antagonize and influence at the same time].  Instead, you should use love and sincerity.  We do not have the power to prove our words, that is the job of the Holy Ghost (may the Force be with you!).  If your message is truly from God, then you have no need to tear down the other person's beliefs.

 After all the excitement, the landlord, a member, took the four of us on a drive to San Gregorio Beach, on the Pacific side of the peninsula.  I love the ocean.

As I said, it was an interesting week.  Well, gotta go.

Love
Douglas

Plan of Salvation Cutouts

The other day I found the cutouts I used when teaching the Plan of Salvation.  I recall making these at a Tuesday night meeting during missionary prep.  The Plan of Salvation can be difficult to understand if you are an investigator, and some visual aids can be very helpful.

At first I thought I didn't have one that says "Pre-Earth Life" but it actually says that on the back of the first one.

It says "Resurrection" on the two arrows.

Week 11; Transfers

March 30, 1988

On Thursday, we gave a short Book of Mormon presentation to Leslie down on Corina. Unfortunately, we did not have a marked copy of the Book of Mormon with us, so we will have to drop one by tomorrow. I don’t know why we went all the way down there only to give here a short presentation instead of taking a little bit longer and teaching the first discussion.

On Friday, we tried to see one contact, but he was not at home.  Transfers are next week, and my trainer is convinced that he is out of here.  I guess that explains why the work has fallen off.

The Menlo Park Stake had its conference this weekend.  After the adult session on Saturday night, our ward mission leader, as he was driving us home, said that he wanted to take us out for pie.  As we were trying to think of a place to go for pie, our WML said that he had been craving Chinese food all night, then he mentioned a place called Chinese Delight, which he said his car automatically goes to everyday, and then he goes from there.  Moments later we were pulling into the parking lot and we all said "What the heck, let's do it."

Earlier in the day, Elder Golf and I rode all over our area -- some elders, a long time ago, divided the area into five subdivisions, and we went to all five -- dropping off thank you notes and trying to see contacts.  Additionally, we hopped the zone boundary to visit Golf's aunt in Mountain View.

On Sunday, we had the general session of stake conference today at the Menlo Park chapel. President Douglas was in attendance and was asked to bear his testimony. Afterward we attended a baptism for a family of five. The lucky missionaries were Elders Victor and November. The whole thing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. It fired me up so that I can’t wait until my first baptism, even more than before. That strengthened my determination to work hard.

This area has been dead since October. Golf and I have not worked very hard these past two months. I wonder how hard he worked with his previous companions. If we had worked harder and given it our all, while living the mission rules, we might have had success. But we did not give it our all and our Father in Heaven did not give us all his blessings. If Golf is transferred, I hope my new companion will be a hard worker, one that will give his all so that we can breathe life back into this area.

On Monday morning, Elders Golf and Lima had a minor bike accident. They were riding down Hamilton Avenue, which parallels University Avenue, when they saw two guys point at them and start running after them. Golf and Lima sped up to make their escape by turning right onto Hale Avenue. Golf was in the lead and was hugging the curb; he saw the cause of his demise at the last second.

At the corners of many streets in Palo Alto the sidewalk is flush with the street and underneath is a drainage culvert. Golf saw too late that he had hugged the curb too tightly, he tried to turn away but he was out of room, so he smashed into lip of the sidewalk. His back wheel flipped up and he walked his bike four steps before Lima smashed into him from behind.

Lima had heard the noise of Golf’s collision with the culvert and he thought, “No, he’s not dumb enough to hit that.” Alas, they both fell in a heap, fortunately for Golf, his arm kept his face from hitting the pavement. Neither suffered any major injuries, just bumps and bruises, their bikes, on the other hand, were not so fortunate.  Golf's front rim, which struck the culvert head on, was bent inward, a total loss; Lima’s front forks were bent out of shape. As they lay twisted on the ground, a police car pulled up and the officer asked if they were okay. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, back at the flat, I was passing off the fourth discussion to Elder Fox. Elders Victor and November came down later and November and I passed off the fifth and sixth discussions. Tonight we went over to our ward mission leader's home and they invited us to stay for dinner. We earned our keep by teaching family home evening after dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we went to see two of our contacts, Todd and Lloyd, but neither were at home.  In the afternoon, I went with Elder Fox to see one of their contacts who had become one of ours with the ward boundary changes.  Nicholas had some questions about baptism, as taught in the second discussion; he thinks a lot and seems to be teachable.

Transfer calls came around noon.  Elder Golf is finally getting out of here; all week he has been impatient to move on.  Elder Fox is going as well; he has been called to be a zone leader in Los Gatos -- couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Last night my companion got a call from his trainer.  I was in the other room, but I could not help but overhear some of what was said.  It was no surprise to hear that he was happy to be leaving, but then he said that his last two months here had been a joke.  Yeah, that might explain why we haven't been working all that hard.  That really got to me, that he would consider my training period to be a joke.  I don't think my companion ever really accepted my quiet personality.  I love the guy, but what a jerk.

I'm sorry, I never wanted to write negative things about my companions, but, wow.  When I wrote in my journal last night, I had been in a mood to be magnanimous.  I admit that I am feeling less so, today.

For the transfer, we drove Elders Golf and Fox up to Edgewood chapel in Redwood City to meet the transfer van.  This mission is small enough geographically that the mission mechanics can pick the elders up at different points in the mission and take them to other points to meet their new companions.  Golf and Fox would ride in the van, which was pulling a trailer with their luggage, south to the next zone.  My new companion got out of the van after riding south from San Fransisco (the City).

Elder Lima's new companion was not on the transfer van as he is actually being transferred in from the Fresno mission.  He was recently diagnosed with cancer and will be getting radiation treatments at the Stanford Medical Center.  We took my new comp, Elder Lake [as usual, names have been changed to protect the innocent -- it may have been obvious that I have been using the phonetic alphabet, but I couldn't have two Elder Limas] back to the flat so he could unpack, then we went to get a pizza before returning to Edgewood chapel to pick up Elder Lima's new comp.

When we got the pizza I noticed that Golf had left a note in my wallet reminding me that I still owed him a few bucks from a previous pizza purchase -- I had also found a note in my closet.  I was surprised that he hadn't talked to me personally.  There were a few times during the last two months that he gave me the "silent treatment"; I guess he wanted to see how I would like it.  It wasn't a particularly effective approach.

Enough about my trainer.  I've got a new comp, who seems like a good guy, and a chance to start over.  Life is good.

Love

Douglas

--

As I wrote a few weeks ago, around Christmas time I got a card from my trainer in which he thanked me for everything he learned during our two months together, and also that we sat together at lunch during the mission Christmas conference.  To this day we are still friends.  I want to add that, during those two months, he was sick a lot, so the lack of hard work was not all the result of his attitude at the time.  After few weeks in his new area he had another bike accident, this time it was because he simply passed out while riding.  It appeared that he was dealing with some persistent virus -- like Mono, or something.  A few years after my mission I had a case of Mono that left me feeling fatigued for 15 months, so I can imagine what he might have been struggling with.

Tactics and Strategy

In April 1975, Colonel Harry G. Summers, U.S. Army, was visiting Hanoi in Vietnam, where he had a conversation with a Colonel Tu of the North Vietnamese Army.  "You know," said Summers, "you never defeated us on the battlefield."  After thinking for a moment, Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."

Summers would later write that "One of the most frustrating aspects of the Vietnam War from the [U.S.] Army's point of view is that as far as logistics and tactics were concerned we succeeded in everything we set out to do. . . .  On the battlefield . . . the Army was unbeatable.  In engagement after engagement the forces of the Viet Cong and of the North Vietnamese Army were thrown back with terrible losses.  Yet, in the end, it was North Vietnam, not the United States, that emerged victorious.  How could we have succeeded so well, yet failed so miserably?"

Summers would write a book seeking to answer that question.  "At least part of the answer," he wrote, "appears to be that we saw Vietnam as unique rather than in strategic context.  This misconception grew out of our neglect of military strategy in the post-World War II nuclear era."  Instead of providing answers as to why the U.S. should fight in Vietnam, military and civilian leaders in the 1960s, only provided answers as to what means should be used.  "[I]nstead of providing professional military advice on how to fight the war, the military more and more joined with the systems analysts in determining the material means we were to use."

Somehow, it became an Army precept that the service did not make strategy, or worse, that there was no such thing as Army strategy.  Strategy was driven by budget considerations and became a function of resource allocation.  "The task of the Army, wrote Summers, "was to design and procure material, arms and equipment and to organize, train, and equip soldiers for the Defense Establishment."  In Vietnam, Summers would conclude, "a failure in strategic military doctrine manifested itself on the battlefield.  Because we did not focus on the political aim to be achieved . . . our so-called strategy was never a strategy at all."

Indeed, the desire of the civilian leadership in Washington was to send a message to the leadership in Hanoi; rather than seeking to defeat North Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson hoped to persuade Ho Chi Minh to end his support for the Viet Cong insurgents in South Vietnam.  The president is supposed to set the policy and the generals are supposed to formulate a strategy to achieve that policy; because the policy was to send a message to Hanoi, the military commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland opted for an attrition "strategy" against forces of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.  "Westy" hoped to inflict enough losses on the enemy that they would unable to continue the fight or be persuaded to quit fighting. The result: Tactical victory, but strategic defeat; instead of eroding the will of the North Vietnamese to fight, it was the American will that was eroded.

The ability to prevail on the battlefield, but still lose was a lesson that should have been learned during World War II.  A classic example was the Battle of the Coral Sea, a naval battle in which aircraft carriers fought each other for the first time -- which might be one reason why the Army failed to learn the lesson.  In the two day contest, the U.S. Navy lost a large carrier sunk while sinking a smaller Japanese carrier.  The tally sheet gave the tactical victory to the Japanese, but the Americans had stopped an attempt by the Japanese to invade Port Moresby on the southern coast of Papua, New Guinea, thus gaining a strategic victory.

Believing, falsely, that it had employed a counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam, the U.S. Army after the war purged anything and everything to do with counterinsurgency.  The Army repeated the mistake of the post-World War II years by focusing on tactical proficiency in order to defeat a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.  The proficiency achieved was put on full display against a different enemy, and on a different battlefield, during the First Gulf War, which liberated Kuwait from the forces of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Twelve years later, that tactical proficiency was again displayed in the invasion of Iraq.  But after the fall of Baghdad, the Army was hard pressed to cope with the chaos that immediately followed, or the insurgency that rose out of it.  An Army that had wanted nothing to do with counterinsurgency, flailed around for four years trying to find a way to end the war in Iraq.  It was not until the so-called surge in 2007, that a counterinsurgency strategy was implemented under the command of General David Petraeus.

What lessons can we learn from the experience of the Army in Vietnam and Iraq?  How can we apply those lessons in our personal lives?  Do tactics and strategy matter?

To answer the latter question, one might consult the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.  For whatever reason, Mormon chose to spend a lot of the precious space in his abridged record on the wars between the Lamanites and the Nephites.  For example, in chapter 49 he details the defenses created by Captain Moroni at the cities of Ammonihah and Noah.  In an earlier battle, the Lamanites had destroyed Ammonihah in one day, and Captain Moromi correctly surmised that the Lamanites would return to that city expecting another easy battle.  Instead, the Lamanites were deterred by the city's strong defenses and they chose, instead, to attack the city of Noah.  Again, Captain Moroni anticipated this move, and the city of Noah was even more strongly fortified; the Lamanites only attacked the city of Noah because they had taken an oath to do so.

What is our strategy?  What tactics do we employ in order to achieve that strategy?

Sometimes we lose the battle, but we still have the opportunity to win the war.


Sources:

Gordon, M. R. & Trainor, B. E. (2012). The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, From George W. Bush to Barack Obama.  New York: Random House.

Summers, H. G. (1982). On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.