"for capable young people accustomed to accomplishment,
a mission may be life's first great challenge."
I learned this week that a lot of things are going to happen
in the Russian group, the Russian work, the Bothell ward, and the English work
there. I will be training, and in a trio. We will be taking over the Zone
Leader's area, and combining Russian work with English work.
I repeat..."for capable young people accustomed to
accomplishment, a mission may be life's first great challenge."
I know that there will be some failures and disappointments
over this next transfer because there always are. I know that there are going
to be a lot of challenges and relying on God to become better. Maybe that's not
something that I was accustomed to in my life prior to the mission, but I have
been humbled to the point where I understand that we have to hold on tight to
the gospel and to the Atonement of Jesus Christ if we expect to make it
anywhere through trials and changes. There is nothing that we can do, ourselves.
Something I also learned about myself was that I might be a
little bit of a perfectionist sometimes. I just want to be the best that I can
be. I was thinking a lot about success and how when we do something right in
missionary work and get a new investigator or help to strengthen our area, a
lot of the time, we attribute that to ourselves. (Alma 26 relates to this) We
look at how hard we worked and how we talked to everyone and we say "It's
because of the things that we did that we are having this success."
However, when we aren't having success we just say that it's because of
people's agency. Or that's what we want to think. But, there is something deep
down that tells us that we aren't having success because we aren't being
obedient enough or we aren't good enough. But what the heck! It shouldn't be
that way.
Disobedient missionaries baptize. Obedient missionaries
baptize. Both don't baptize, as well. Both don't experience as much
"success." I'm not trying to say that obedience isn't important, but
God is not going to let someone's disobedience get in the way of HIS plan. If
there is someone who is ready, and they need to get baptized, then they will.
It's not dependent on the missionaries. Why would God limit himself and his
eternal plan by the standards that the missionaries in a particular area set?
He wouldn't. He already knows exactly what's going to happen, and it's all
going to be ok.
There was a quote that I really liked when I read
it.."Becoming Perfect in Christ" by Elder Gong: "We unsuccessfully
try to control out circumstances and the people around us. We fret over
weaknesses and mistakes. In fact, the harder we try, the further we may feel
from the perfection we seek." Moral of the story? I'm still trying to
figure that out. But I know that God doesn't want us to stress out about all of
the little things in life. He wants us to have JOY!
This week, I did some manual labor. I used a hedge trimmer
and rakes and my hands to pull out a bunch of blackberries and overgrown vines.
Blackberries are quite the annoying plant, here in Washington. Honestly, I
think we should just burn them all :) It's not worth the berries! It was a LOT
of fun to be outside and in the hot sun! (YES it's getting hot here! I love it!
The air is so crisp and wonderful and the skies are clearer every day, finally
no rain!)
We have some sad goodbyes happening over the next couple of
weeks. The Petersons and ([some other]members of our Russian group) will
be moving away. It's sad to see the group shrink a little bit, but I know that
everything is happening for a reason!
I'm sure I'll have some exciting news next week about all of
these changes that are going on. It should be interesting, and I am so excited
to meet the new sister coming from Ukraine!"
