A few days ago on Friday, I learned from a fireside (talk by a general authority of the church to young single adults) to expect miracles everyday and to write them down. So I started to focus on specific anecdotes of my day and mission where I learned something of significant importance when writing in my journal at night instead of merely writing what I did each day. Here are a few of them from this week:
I am currently on a 1 day exchange (meaning I have a different companion for 1 day) with the district leader, Elder Murray. Ironically today I have been out in the field for exactly 3 weeks and he has exactly 3 weeks left until he goes home! We talked a good amount last night about the mission and what he learned from it. I had not anticipated that a lot of the growth/learning experiences would be from companions. I have definitely experienced that - I have never spent this much time with 1 person before. Elder Murray told me sometimes your companion just doesn't like you or doesn't have tact and tells you everything that annoys them about you. So, it has been somewhat enlightening already. Fortunately my companion Elder Nash likes me and strives to be tactful, but I can imagine times in the future where it will be different. Elder Murray shared last night (this seems to make sense, but correct me if I'm wrong) that the main thing that you can righteously judge is where a person's heart is at. Are they genuinely trying to do the best they can? Are they willing to humble themselves and repent (change)? Although, there are probably some cases where they are really blind to the truth and don't recognize their errors. On the mission (for other missionaries and sometimes investigators), you can generally use that method for judging people. Elder Murray has talked with the Mission President about companions being disobedient; the Mission President has always asked him to go back and discern where the hearts of those missionaries are at. He was asked to figure out if they want to change or if they love being disobedient more than fulfilling their purpose. Interestingly, I was super nervous to be Elder Murray's companion because of my interaction with him before today, but it has been an amazing experience thus far.
I had a chance last week to go on an exchange with Elder Murray's companion who also taught me something valuable - to always remember that every missionary out here took the step to serve the Lord full time and are giving up a lot to be out here. No matter how frustrating, disobedient, or etc they are, they are out on a mission. Somewhere inside of them they found a desire to go out of their way to be on a mission. I feel like that can be applied to a lot of things. For members of the church who are there on Sunday - they made it! To people at work or at school. They want something enough to at least show up. They are giving up something to be there. I pray that I remember that and don't judge people as much as I do for not being as "righteous" as I think they should be. I think it really comes down to being more grace-filled and Christ-like. Christ is the perfect example of someone who loved always. He recognized the importance of every person. It makes me think of Matthew 18:21-22:
"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times:but, Until seventy times seven."
I definitely feel like I will be given opportunities on this mission to exercise that same type of love and forgiveness that Christ taught and demonstrated.
The last thing is something I have been thinking about a lot that was shared by Richard Reynolds a few weeks ago. He is a new member (of 4 months) who is in hyper growth going to lots of lessons and Institute classes, trying to learn as much about the Gospel as possible. He shared that "God binds us to free us and Satan frees us to bind us." WOW. So profound. We are taught that the standards of the Gospel are designed to protect us, enabling us to live with peace and joy in this life - in addition to living with peace and joy throughout the eternities. Sometimes people (myself included) think of the standards of being too intense. I just heard about a guy out here who went on a mission and has been back for a couple years and is experimenting with things against the standards of the Gospel because he felt he was "missing out" on things. I can definitely testify that living the Gospel has blessed my life a lot and that having the Spirit with you is worth the effort. I just feels really really good to live the Gospel. The biggest reason why is because I have seen lots of times people experimenting with things against the standards of the Gospel and having to face terrible consequences. My companion testifies on a regular basis about the Gospel changing his life (he rebelled and stuff for a number of years until accepting the Gospel he was taught growing up). Satan just deceives us making us think we will be totally fine living whatever way we see fit. My companion was super addicted to video games, as others are addicted to other things. Before he (and others) knew it, Satan had them bound. Ironically, living the "harsh" standards of the Gospel free us to live life to the fullest whereas not living them will ultimately bind us. Living a life of responsibility and specific standards is truly the way to go.
Have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment