~Elder Russell M. Nelson
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Priorities
"When priorities are in place, one can more patiently endure unfinished business."
~Elder Russell M. Nelson
~Elder Russell M. Nelson
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Greenie
Amateur. Novice. Infant.
New.
Newness is hard, and sometimes I forget that.
I have been reading my journal from a year ago, and I hardly recognize the faith-filled struggle that faced Sister Stewart of January 2013. Everything was hard: talking to people; getting up; smiling; feeling good; looking good; working fast; teaching well.
Sister Ellis expresses the challenge perfectly:
"It kind of feels like I went to school naked, and every now and then I'm getting clothes. But it's nothing big-like a sock or a headband or something."
This is it exactly! The mission thrusts us beyond "developmentally appropriate curriculum" and into a world that is as divine as it is challenging.We gain skills and faith little by little, but it never feels like enough to cover our vulnerable consecrated offering. And it is in the is overwhelming experience that we lose ourselves, find ourselves, and learn who the Christ really is.
Now I watch Sister Ellis battle the Goliaths unique to being a new missionary, and I wish that I could promise her a quick-fix to peace and confidence. But I feel that the endowment of power that I have received (and that which she will also receive) is the culmination of faith-filled days. There is power alone in enduring to the end, in learning to trust God, day after difficult day, for the duration of 18 or 24 months. If I were with the hosts of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness, I am sure that I would have tried to store up extra manna for my tomorrows. But the mission will not allow it. I am so grateful for 13 months under my belt. Thirteen months represents approximately 400 days of gathering manna.
And now I trust in God.
I still work hard, but I don't credit successes or failures to my own efforts. As Paul said, "I have planned, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." (1 Cor 3:6)
This is His work. New things grow old, and seasons pass away. But we are saints of all seasons, and He will Guide us in every stage.
New.
Newness is hard, and sometimes I forget that.
I have been reading my journal from a year ago, and I hardly recognize the faith-filled struggle that faced Sister Stewart of January 2013. Everything was hard: talking to people; getting up; smiling; feeling good; looking good; working fast; teaching well.
Sister Ellis expresses the challenge perfectly:
"It kind of feels like I went to school naked, and every now and then I'm getting clothes. But it's nothing big-like a sock or a headband or something."
This is it exactly! The mission thrusts us beyond "developmentally appropriate curriculum" and into a world that is as divine as it is challenging.We gain skills and faith little by little, but it never feels like enough to cover our vulnerable consecrated offering. And it is in the is overwhelming experience that we lose ourselves, find ourselves, and learn who the Christ really is.
Now I watch Sister Ellis battle the Goliaths unique to being a new missionary, and I wish that I could promise her a quick-fix to peace and confidence. But I feel that the endowment of power that I have received (and that which she will also receive) is the culmination of faith-filled days. There is power alone in enduring to the end, in learning to trust God, day after difficult day, for the duration of 18 or 24 months. If I were with the hosts of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness, I am sure that I would have tried to store up extra manna for my tomorrows. But the mission will not allow it. I am so grateful for 13 months under my belt. Thirteen months represents approximately 400 days of gathering manna.
And now I trust in God.
I still work hard, but I don't credit successes or failures to my own efforts. As Paul said, "I have planned, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." (1 Cor 3:6)
This is His work. New things grow old, and seasons pass away. But we are saints of all seasons, and He will Guide us in every stage.
Miracles, duly noted
"Never live life without miracles." -Elder Neil L. Anderson
* My companion opened up this week. This is big, because she's been trying to battle her demons alone. I feel the tension, but there's nothing I can do until she talks. Now we're growing close, and I know that God can burst the pavilion that she thought was separating them.
*Food. Lots of it! We only had two meal appointment this week. I'm spoiled, and I hate to see a week with blank dinner slots. Members help fight discouragement, and their food helps fight the grocery bill. So I prayed, and Brother Newman* (a big-hearted inactive gentleman) responded. He delivered three large bags of groceries. Now our cupboards are stocked, and I know that God hears my petty, tummy-rumbling prayers.
*ARP. I love the church's addiction recovery program! We started working through step one with a less-active woman who is trying to quit smoking. We felt inspired to bring a counselor from the Relief Society with us, and it turns out that she is also struggling with smoking! We simply sat back and let the two of them encourage each other. What a miracle.
* New investigators, no effort required. We chatted with our neighbor Laura* as we always do (she smokes outside, so we see her all the time). She mentioned that her niece moved in with her, and she readily accepted the invitation to get her 13-year-old involved in Young Womens. Ellie* carpooled with us to a Bishop Chat last night, and our sweet young women looked past her non-For-Strength-of-Youth-outfit and befriended her. Miracle!
*Green! It's my favorite color. It is also the color that represents "healthy" on the missionary stress test. I have spent most of my mission in an anxious orange zone, but green is my new norm! Huzzah!! God is blessing me with skills to overcome anxiety. No pill required, simply doctrine of Christ applied.
*Names changed. Bonus points if you find yourself despite the alias!
* My companion opened up this week. This is big, because she's been trying to battle her demons alone. I feel the tension, but there's nothing I can do until she talks. Now we're growing close, and I know that God can burst the pavilion that she thought was separating them.
*Food. Lots of it! We only had two meal appointment this week. I'm spoiled, and I hate to see a week with blank dinner slots. Members help fight discouragement, and their food helps fight the grocery bill. So I prayed, and Brother Newman* (a big-hearted inactive gentleman) responded. He delivered three large bags of groceries. Now our cupboards are stocked, and I know that God hears my petty, tummy-rumbling prayers.
*ARP. I love the church's addiction recovery program! We started working through step one with a less-active woman who is trying to quit smoking. We felt inspired to bring a counselor from the Relief Society with us, and it turns out that she is also struggling with smoking! We simply sat back and let the two of them encourage each other. What a miracle.
* New investigators, no effort required. We chatted with our neighbor Laura* as we always do (she smokes outside, so we see her all the time). She mentioned that her niece moved in with her, and she readily accepted the invitation to get her 13-year-old involved in Young Womens. Ellie* carpooled with us to a Bishop Chat last night, and our sweet young women looked past her non-For-Strength-of-Youth-outfit and befriended her. Miracle!
*Green! It's my favorite color. It is also the color that represents "healthy" on the missionary stress test. I have spent most of my mission in an anxious orange zone, but green is my new norm! Huzzah!! God is blessing me with skills to overcome anxiety. No pill required, simply doctrine of Christ applied.
*Names changed. Bonus points if you find yourself despite the alias!
Monday, January 6, 2014
Miracle Number 27,000,009
Really, I've lost count. As soon as I quit counting the costs, the miracles skyrocketed.
This week's miracle must be told in three parts. Probably there are more than three characters involved, but these are the key players.
1. Sister Chants*. Old lady with sweet words and a terrible driving record. Takes the missionaries to Cici's Pizza whenever we have a blank on the dinner calendar. Calls us on cold days to make sure we're OK. A saint by all accounts. Her greatest challenge is memory loss. She can't prepare a primary lesson in advance because it will slip from her mind before she has time to deliver it. So, in faith, she simply reads the lesson straight from the manual. I'm not sure how her 8 year-old students respond to this, but it is her token of faith, and God magnifies the gift.
2. Sister Gifford*. Our bishop's wife, fondly dubbed "Heavenly Mother" by the missionaries. She has six children and wears a perma-smile. Somehow makes time to come teaching with the missionaries and to raise bright, happy kids. When wrapping Christmas gifts with her recently, she commented that she felt bad that she isn't a better missionary. "I should be giving out Book of Mormons and finding people to teach, but sometimes I just don't know where I'd fit that into my day," she said. We know better. Life comes in seasons, and her season is one of being a missionary to her children.
3. Tina*. New investigator, recovering addict. She has tried to quilt before, but this time it was for her kids. They are a story of their own. Two adorable little boys, and one has red hair. Melt my heart. We taught them a Christmas lesson about Christ, and her boys eagerly accepted Book of Mormons and an invitation to baptism. We set a return appointment with glowing visions of their family filling an empty pew in the OKC 2nd ward.
On Saturday we arrived a Tina's home with Sister Gifford in tow. She brought Marcus* and Lyle*, ages 9 and 11. They were excited to teach the restoration to Tina's boys. Much to our sorrow, Tina was indisposed and could not meet. Sister Gifford spoke cheerfully to Tina, we invited the family to church, and then they loaded up their minivan and left.
On Sunday we reminded Tina about church. No response to our text. We sat at the back of the chapel and hoped. Our hopes were vain, as no family arrived. Disappointment is the common lot of missionary work, but this is not the end of the story.
Our story continues with Sister Chants. That same day, she read her primary lesson to her class. sister Gifford's nine year-old was the only child in attendance, so they sat in a little room and she read while he listened. A dull lesson to most children, but Lyle went home that day and told his mom about the lesson. "Mom, I heard a story about a family who said a prayer, and the prayer wasn't answered. So then they fasted, and their prayer came true!" He then concluded, "I want to fast for Tina's family to come to church."
And so on a Monday morning while we blindly pursued our P-day activities, a consecrated nine year-old prayerfully skipped breakfast so our investigators would come to church.
This the miracle. I do not know how the story will end, but I do know that the faith of a child-the unexpected product of many faithful adults-has given me the faith that I need to believe. I will work harder and pray more this week because a child cared enough about his neighbors to sacrifice his bowl of cereal for their salvation.
This week's miracle must be told in three parts. Probably there are more than three characters involved, but these are the key players.
1. Sister Chants*. Old lady with sweet words and a terrible driving record. Takes the missionaries to Cici's Pizza whenever we have a blank on the dinner calendar. Calls us on cold days to make sure we're OK. A saint by all accounts. Her greatest challenge is memory loss. She can't prepare a primary lesson in advance because it will slip from her mind before she has time to deliver it. So, in faith, she simply reads the lesson straight from the manual. I'm not sure how her 8 year-old students respond to this, but it is her token of faith, and God magnifies the gift.
2. Sister Gifford*. Our bishop's wife, fondly dubbed "Heavenly Mother" by the missionaries. She has six children and wears a perma-smile. Somehow makes time to come teaching with the missionaries and to raise bright, happy kids. When wrapping Christmas gifts with her recently, she commented that she felt bad that she isn't a better missionary. "I should be giving out Book of Mormons and finding people to teach, but sometimes I just don't know where I'd fit that into my day," she said. We know better. Life comes in seasons, and her season is one of being a missionary to her children.
3. Tina*. New investigator, recovering addict. She has tried to quilt before, but this time it was for her kids. They are a story of their own. Two adorable little boys, and one has red hair. Melt my heart. We taught them a Christmas lesson about Christ, and her boys eagerly accepted Book of Mormons and an invitation to baptism. We set a return appointment with glowing visions of their family filling an empty pew in the OKC 2nd ward.
On Saturday we arrived a Tina's home with Sister Gifford in tow. She brought Marcus* and Lyle*, ages 9 and 11. They were excited to teach the restoration to Tina's boys. Much to our sorrow, Tina was indisposed and could not meet. Sister Gifford spoke cheerfully to Tina, we invited the family to church, and then they loaded up their minivan and left.
On Sunday we reminded Tina about church. No response to our text. We sat at the back of the chapel and hoped. Our hopes were vain, as no family arrived. Disappointment is the common lot of missionary work, but this is not the end of the story.
Our story continues with Sister Chants. That same day, she read her primary lesson to her class. sister Gifford's nine year-old was the only child in attendance, so they sat in a little room and she read while he listened. A dull lesson to most children, but Lyle went home that day and told his mom about the lesson. "Mom, I heard a story about a family who said a prayer, and the prayer wasn't answered. So then they fasted, and their prayer came true!" He then concluded, "I want to fast for Tina's family to come to church."
And so on a Monday morning while we blindly pursued our P-day activities, a consecrated nine year-old prayerfully skipped breakfast so our investigators would come to church.
This the miracle. I do not know how the story will end, but I do know that the faith of a child-the unexpected product of many faithful adults-has given me the faith that I need to believe. I will work harder and pray more this week because a child cared enough about his neighbors to sacrifice his bowl of cereal for their salvation.
Monday, December 30, 2013
New Year Nostalgia
Four months left of my mission, and sometimes I wonder what God is preparing for my future. Serving a mission is hard--the hardest thing I've ever done--but it is beautiful when I look ahead. I hope that I will look back in 30 years and see how knocking doors and teaching lessons and training missionaries prepared me to serve in powerful ways and in new places.
President Monson says that "the future is as bright as your faith."
Consider the bright faith of my mother. Thirty years ago, she did not have a husband or children or grandchildren. I was not even a thought. But she had faith, and God was preparing her.
My mom is in Logan, Utah, today, but she must be afflicted with the same New Year's nostalgia that is infecting me in Oklahoma City. Here I deliver her words as my own, hoping that my path will become a reflection of hers one day:
May I take a moment to get nostalgic? As we were gathered for Christmas Eve, I surveyed our little gathering and marveled. Thirty Christmases ago, I was with my birth family for the annual celebration. Little did I know that would be the last Christmas with my family of origin, as a child, in my parent's home. That was 1983. Now in 2013, I have spent this Christmas with my own family, multiple generations. I could not have even imagined all of these wonderful people in my life 30 years ago: my sweet husband (whom was serving his mission in 1983), my incredible children (each of them such a welcomed blessing), my children's spouses, and tender grandchildren (all five!). None of them were present in my 1983 life, and now they are the soul focus of my earthly life. As we hung up those 13 stockings on Christmas Eve (knowing that one more is in Oklahoma, plus one more on the way,), I marveled at my life, my family, my miracle. I remember very distinctly one thought that came to me on the day your dad and I were married. We were in the sealing room, filled to the brim with loved ones. I wondered if my children were witnessing our marriage, the beginning of our family. I love my family! I love living as a family! I want all of my family to be sealed forever. I am so grateful that we are sealed together.
I am so grateful to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I want to share the gift of eternal families with the world! Lasting family units are founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, including the living words of God given through prophets and ordinances available only in His holy temples.
Let us have faith in the future. The Savior came, and He will come again. His role in my life is not limited by the number of pages of the Bible or by the length of my life. His Atonement is infinite.
Excuse the rampaging, ranging testimony of a missionary. It is a weakness of mine to wax tangential with truth. But it's true, you know, however poorly I express it. It's all true.
Happy New Year!
President Monson says that "the future is as bright as your faith."
Consider the bright faith of my mother. Thirty years ago, she did not have a husband or children or grandchildren. I was not even a thought. But she had faith, and God was preparing her.
My mom is in Logan, Utah, today, but she must be afflicted with the same New Year's nostalgia that is infecting me in Oklahoma City. Here I deliver her words as my own, hoping that my path will become a reflection of hers one day:
May I take a moment to get nostalgic? As we were gathered for Christmas Eve, I surveyed our little gathering and marveled. Thirty Christmases ago, I was with my birth family for the annual celebration. Little did I know that would be the last Christmas with my family of origin, as a child, in my parent's home. That was 1983. Now in 2013, I have spent this Christmas with my own family, multiple generations. I could not have even imagined all of these wonderful people in my life 30 years ago: my sweet husband (whom was serving his mission in 1983), my incredible children (each of them such a welcomed blessing), my children's spouses, and tender grandchildren (all five!). None of them were present in my 1983 life, and now they are the soul focus of my earthly life. As we hung up those 13 stockings on Christmas Eve (knowing that one more is in Oklahoma, plus one more on the way,), I marveled at my life, my family, my miracle. I remember very distinctly one thought that came to me on the day your dad and I were married. We were in the sealing room, filled to the brim with loved ones. I wondered if my children were witnessing our marriage, the beginning of our family. I love my family! I love living as a family! I want all of my family to be sealed forever. I am so grateful that we are sealed together.
I am so grateful to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I want to share the gift of eternal families with the world! Lasting family units are founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, including the living words of God given through prophets and ordinances available only in His holy temples.
Let us have faith in the future. The Savior came, and He will come again. His role in my life is not limited by the number of pages of the Bible or by the length of my life. His Atonement is infinite.
Excuse the rampaging, ranging testimony of a missionary. It is a weakness of mine to wax tangential with truth. But it's true, you know, however poorly I express it. It's all true.
Happy New Year!
*Mormon Message of the week: Look Not Behind Thee
*Conference talk of the week: Look Ahead and Believe by Elder Dube
Christmas Video for Y'all
This is what happens when the ward mission leader is a professional photographer! Thank you, thank you, Brother Randy Lusk of Alpha-Omega Productions. Please click on the link and then click "play."
http://www.aopro.com/vimeo/okc2/
http://www.aopro.com/vimeo/okc2/
Christmas Chuckles or "Ode to Sister Ott"
Sister Ott's finest offering to our companionship was her daily joke. She abandoned me for another area six weeks ago, but the dear soul sent a Christmas gift of witticisms. For your laughing pleasure--the puny genius of Sister Sara Ott:
1) Britney Spears is meeting with Mormon missionaries and they teach her about the Word of Wisdom. She promises to live it even though she likes her coffee. Later, when they call her and ask how it's going, she sings, "Oops! I did it again!"
2) Justin Timberlake converts and he opens up a shop for missionaries; when you walk in you hear, "Here I come in my suit and tie/suit and tie."
3) Christina Agilara meets some Mormon missionaries on the street and when they ask if they can teach her she starts singing, "Come on over, come on over, baby."
4) Two Mormon missionaries knock on Nicolas Cage's door and he says to them, "I was knowing you'd come."
5) Ace of Base walks into a bar and the bartender refuses to serve them so they pray about which way to go. Immediately they meet some Mormon missionaries and want to meet with them. The missionaries are surprised and ask why. Ace of Base starts singing, "I saw the sign."
6) Why did Sister Stewart cross the road? She had an appointment on the other side. Why did Sister Ott cross the road? She was Sister Stewart's companion.
7) There were two young men dressed up in suits that walk to a bar and the bartender asks what they want and then they are so frightened and yelled, "We're not supposed to be in here! We're Mormon!"
8) All the members of Nsync convert and decide to go on missions. They all have their farewells in the same ward and for their musical number they all sing, "Bye Bye, Bye."
9) One Direction begins investigating the church and they're trying to keep their thoughts clean. As their mantra they're always singing, "Get out, get out, get out of my head."
10) The members of Nsync are out on their missions and there's one investigator deciding who will baptize him. Nsync breaks out into, "It's gonna be me."
11) Mormon missionaries teach Johnny Depp a lesson and he won't agree to baptism. The missionaries ask him about it and he says that he would end up cutting of someone's wrist and nose because of his scissor hands.
12) Carrie Underwood doesn't know how to pray so some missionaries teach her in a lesson. Later she almost ends up in a car wreck and starts praying for Jesus to take the wheel.
13) All the members of Backstreet Boys convert and find out that they're all in the same ward one Sunday and afterwards starting singing, "Everybody...Backstreet's Back."
14) How many missionaries have graduated from BYU? None! No missionaries go there; they're all RMs.
15) Zachary Levi is given a Book of Mormon and starts to read it and when he meets with the missionaries they ask him what he thought about it and he starts singing, "At last I see the light, and is't like the fog has lifted."
16) Two Mormon missionaries knock on a preacher's house and ask if they can teach him a lesson. He says no, but asks why they knocked on his door. Their reply was, "We thought you were a devil worshiper because your house number is 666."
17) Sleeping Beauty converted to the church because she needed to be married to someone forever--100 years is an awfully long time to sleep!
And my personal favorite-not included in her Christmas e-mail, but once mentioned to a frazzled, less-active woman:
"If you're having a terrible day, don't worry about it. Even Moses was once a basket-case."
Merry Christmas, dear friends and family!!
1) Britney Spears is meeting with Mormon missionaries and they teach her about the Word of Wisdom. She promises to live it even though she likes her coffee. Later, when they call her and ask how it's going, she sings, "Oops! I did it again!"
2) Justin Timberlake converts and he opens up a shop for missionaries; when you walk in you hear, "Here I come in my suit and tie/suit and tie."
3) Christina Agilara meets some Mormon missionaries on the street and when they ask if they can teach her she starts singing, "Come on over, come on over, baby."
4) Two Mormon missionaries knock on Nicolas Cage's door and he says to them, "I was knowing you'd come."
5) Ace of Base walks into a bar and the bartender refuses to serve them so they pray about which way to go. Immediately they meet some Mormon missionaries and want to meet with them. The missionaries are surprised and ask why. Ace of Base starts singing, "I saw the sign."
6) Why did Sister Stewart cross the road? She had an appointment on the other side. Why did Sister Ott cross the road? She was Sister Stewart's companion.
7) There were two young men dressed up in suits that walk to a bar and the bartender asks what they want and then they are so frightened and yelled, "We're not supposed to be in here! We're Mormon!"
8) All the members of Nsync convert and decide to go on missions. They all have their farewells in the same ward and for their musical number they all sing, "Bye Bye, Bye."
9) One Direction begins investigating the church and they're trying to keep their thoughts clean. As their mantra they're always singing, "Get out, get out, get out of my head."
10) The members of Nsync are out on their missions and there's one investigator deciding who will baptize him. Nsync breaks out into, "It's gonna be me."
11) Mormon missionaries teach Johnny Depp a lesson and he won't agree to baptism. The missionaries ask him about it and he says that he would end up cutting of someone's wrist and nose because of his scissor hands.
12) Carrie Underwood doesn't know how to pray so some missionaries teach her in a lesson. Later she almost ends up in a car wreck and starts praying for Jesus to take the wheel.
13) All the members of Backstreet Boys convert and find out that they're all in the same ward one Sunday and afterwards starting singing, "Everybody...Backstreet's Back."
14) How many missionaries have graduated from BYU? None! No missionaries go there; they're all RMs.
15) Zachary Levi is given a Book of Mormon and starts to read it and when he meets with the missionaries they ask him what he thought about it and he starts singing, "At last I see the light, and is't like the fog has lifted."
16) Two Mormon missionaries knock on a preacher's house and ask if they can teach him a lesson. He says no, but asks why they knocked on his door. Their reply was, "We thought you were a devil worshiper because your house number is 666."
17) Sleeping Beauty converted to the church because she needed to be married to someone forever--100 years is an awfully long time to sleep!
And my personal favorite-not included in her Christmas e-mail, but once mentioned to a frazzled, less-active woman:
"If you're having a terrible day, don't worry about it. Even Moses was once a basket-case."
Merry Christmas, dear friends and family!!
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