Running head: Application Paper

Application Paper
Ashtyn Turville
COMM122
February 14 2015
Sister Burk

Application Paper

To communicate effectively, its essential to understand ones self. There are

many ways that someone can learn about himself or herself. It could be through trials,
errors; tender moments with loved ones, meeting with new people, even writing about it.
Each person has different personalities and characteristics that allow them to
communicate in the most effect way for them. In this essay I will establish techniques
that help me to communicate and understand myself, it will also include a few of my
strengths that supports the way I communicate.
Through my short life span, Ive had a difficulty learning how to best
communicate my thoughts and feelings. Many times have people misunderstood how Im
feeling because the struggle that it was to explain exactly what and how I was feeling. I
have made errors through anger because of my inability to share my thought process to
explain how I got from A to B. I however didnt usually know how I got so angry, where
it started or sometimes to just say I was happy. Because I was misunderstood so many
times, I think it caused me to dig deeper into what I thought was protection from cross
parents or heated friends. However, it was ruse that was made up in my head, it wasnt
protection. I was hurting myself from the inside out.
While I spent time in Chile, many wonderful leaders from the LDS church came
to visit me and the other missionaries I was serving with. One of them was from
Argentina, and he taught about our minds and how they work. His attempt was to teach
us about sin, and how to avoid it. Right now, however, I will relate this concept to our
communication ability. He taught about a spiral, he drew on a board in the front of the
room. He started his marker in the center and drew three layers on the spiral. He wrote on

Application Paper

the layers a different word, each of them. The outside layer was sin, center was
exemplified as thoughts, the very center was considered tendency. He explained to us
that many times we think that we can control our thoughts, and we all agreed quickly. He
then retorted that we all have little tendencies, that cause our thoughts to be more
increasingly similar if we dont change the tendency. Just as it is difficult to change our
actions, which starts with thoughts, our tendencies affect our thoughts and how we follow
through with those thoughts shows our natural tendencies. The same can be said about
our communication. That our ability starts with tendencies, whether its things we hear or
see, itll spark something.
To understand how to better communicate, I had to learn what were my
tendencies. I was able to track more of a thought process and I was able to understand
more about my personality. Once I was able to understand myself, this led to a better
communication on my part. I discovered this in while I was in Chile, and I continued to
progress in all forms of communication. I was a happier person, that could personify what
I wanted others to feel and know about me.
Learning about my strengths only built my testimony about who I truly am. My
strengths are empathy, connectedness, harmony, input, and consistency. I discovered
some of these during my time as a missionary, and by understanding these strengths, my
personality and my tendencies I can better my personal communication with others.