May 6, 2013

Good morning, friends and family!!

 

Yesterday was one of the biggest paydays I could have imagined!!  Since Jian's baptism, Elder Beck and I have had NO Investigators.  Missionaries with 8 weeks of no investigators makes for some tough times.  It seems like we were doing anything and everything to stay busy, using our Mission priorities, obeying the white handbook, and trying to become better, but to no avail.  We were beating our heads against LOTS of brick walls, and the frustration was becoming pretty obvious.  But yesterday changed all of that.  Let's start at the beginning of the day: sacrament meeting was amazing, and we had several powerful testimonies.  Elder Beck and I taught Gospel Principles 2nd hour, and we had two potential investigators in class.  One of them, Pat, made a very insightful comment that caused a lot of thought and discussion among the class.  Alice, who has been attending Church for 8 weeks, bore a short testimony (whether or not she knows that's what she did) about God's role as our perfect and literal Father.  During 3rd hour, instead of Elder's Quorum, Elder Beck and I got the opportunity to have a Q&A session with Pat.  Julio, our Ward Mission Leader, was there, as was Devin Bean, a member of our Mission Presidency.  Pat hopes to bring his wife to Church next week, and we'll see if she feels the Spirit the way that Pat said he does when he's here.  We had a Correlation meeting with several of the auxiliaries present, and got enormous to-do lists (YAY!!!  Auxiliary assignments!!).  We then met with Marcus, the YM Pres and made some slight changes to the Ward Mission Plan for the YM organization.  We got contact information for several "Unknowns" (aka inactives, recent move-ins, and other people whose records are in our ward, but few people, if anyone, knows who they are).  We have an appointment with one family who is friendly and open to Missionaries, but just doesn't want to come to Church.  We'll see if we can possibly change that in the coming weeks and months.  And throughout the day, two visiting members gave Elder Beck and I a total of $30 for "lunch on us."  It's going to become "laundry on [them]," which is an even greater blessing!  Eight weeks of hard work are really starting to pay off!!

 

The various Presidencies have yet to meet with us, as they wanted to meet with themselves first.  We do, however, have several pending appointments with most of the auxiliaries in the ward.  Given our to-do lists, new investigaror, teaching opportunities, and the upcoming renovations of the Ward Mission Plan, this is shaping up to be a BUSY week!!  But that's good, because now we can be as productive as possible.

 

For Chris and all other prospective Missionaries, I'd say that it's important to read and internalize "Becoming a Missionary" by David A. Bednar.  That talk has so much power!!  I got it on CD and I've been listening to it almost every day for the past two weeks.  There are SO MANY takeaways, that I'm not going to pigeonhole anyone (and carpal tunnel is getting the better of me right now).  I'd invite y'all to read/listen to that talk and to draw your conclusions and applications for yourself :)

 

Emily is doing good-she's on bed rest, and given new medical technology, it's possible for the baby to stay inside of her for another couple of weeks before being born.  Hopefully, the baby stays as long as possible, even though Emily is "getting really bored" with 24/7 bed rest.  Needless to say, she's doing well :) haha

 

The challenge to become (the talk and the actual applications in life) have been weighing on me quite a bit this week.  As Elder Bednar so simply put it: "In our customary Church vocabulary, we often speak of going to church, going to the temple, and going on a mission. Let me be so bold as to suggest that our rather routine emphasis on going misses the mark. The issue is not going to church; rather, the issue is worshipping and renewing covenants as we attend church. The issue is not going to or through the temple; rather, the issue is having in our hearts the spirit, the covenants, and the ordinances of the Lord’s house. The issue is not going on a mission; rather, the issue is becoming a missionary and serving throughout our entire life with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. It is possible for a young man to goon a mission and not become a missionary, and this is not what the Lord requires or what the Church needs." ("Becoming a Missionary")  Elder Oaks has suggested that "it is not even enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us toknow something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. …It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become." ("The Challenge to Become")  Anyone can check of boxes.  But, as one no-less-inspired man, Brother Woozley, taught us as young Priests, "It's not about checking off boxes.  It's about what you become in the process, and the boxes will check themselves off."  That has stuck with and resonated within me to this day (and yes, those are his exact words-I remember them quite distinctly. haha)  May we all continue striving to become what we must become and not worry about the little, insignificant, "do's" and "do not's" of the Gospel.  So long as we are actually striving to become closer to our Father in Heaven and more Christ-like, the little "do's" and "do not's" will fall into place and check themselves off.  

 

Love alla y'all and hope this week is a good one!!

 

Elda Boone