Week 51 - "Oh, yeah. It's all coming together."

Hey, everyone!

So this week, like all weeks, has been a whirlwind. It seems like the weeks are just going faster and faster, and by the time we reach another preparation day, I wonder where the time has gone. Maybe it has to do with the regularity and consistency of our routine. Or maybe I'm tired--things stop standing out in my memory.

But good things are definitely happening. That's the reason for the quote, by the way, which is from Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove.

I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but one of the senior missionaries from the mission came down to our ward and gave a presentation on planning events. It was really awesome. He basically asked the auxiliaries to plan a year's worth of activities at the beginning of the year and recruit the help of other members and nonmembers and so forth. The byproduct of that took place this last week, when I, Elder Neddo, Sister Petersen and Sister Wesenberg participated in a carnival activity for the primary children. There were two or three nonmembers there, and a number of families that normally are not at church. It was awesome.

We're having a linger longer after church this week, and we're making a concerted effort to invite everyone we can to come and to encourage members to invite people to come. In addition, the Primary presidency has caught the vision of the events initiative, and they're planning an activity called "A Night in Bethlehem" at the church before Christmas where they're going to have people come in and "be taxed" (they'll take donations for the needy, like canned food), and then go through a market in the gym as though they are in the time and place of Bethlehem at the Savior's birth. There's also a possibility that, at the end, we'll watch "The Christ Child" (the 18-minute film the church is going to release on November 24th, which I'm counting down to daily with screenshots from the short film on my wall on Facebook). The participants will be able to participate in activities and shops that give them a sense for what it would be like. When they were talking about it during ward council, I think we all got a sense for what this activity could do, and the Spirit it could bring to those who participated in it. It was awesome, and it's going to be awesome. We're going to invite as many members as we can, and ask them to invite their friends and RSVP, and we're going to assist in whatever way we can. We may also invite missionaries in nearby areas to come participate and help us. They're also thinking of turning the event into an annual thing.

So that's awesome. We've also been talking with ward leadership, and it seems like they're taking steps to make adjustments to the ministering assignments, and we're meeting with the members and inviting them to reach out to other members of the ward and invite them to participate in the activities the ward is putting on.

This past week we went and visited a woman, Tara, whom we had met at the library several weeks ago. After listening to a devotional and learning about the need to talk with everyone, we went to the library, and Elder Neddo took the counsel we were given to heart and took action on it: There was a woman with some baseball cards (he collects football cards), sitting next to us at the library, and he asked her about them. That began a conversation wherein she told us that she used to live across from some missionaries in Circleville. She invited us to come by and meet her family sometiime. So we did. Later in the week we went and actually taught her a lesson, and she seems like the perfect person to teach: She's open and receptive, she accepts commitments, and she seems like she has a desire to learn. We invited her to church, and she said she'd be happy to come, if we can find her a ride. So we're looking forward to having her there.

This week we also helped out at a senior center, helped a member work on her property in Waverly, and traveled to Columbus to give a blessing to someone Elder Neddo had taught previously. President Stratford was supposed to be there but came down with what I had (I guess the virus is going around the mission), and was unable to come. That was a very good experience, though. I had been asking the Lord for a witness that what Elder Neddo and I had been doing in the area was what we were supposed to do. As we met with her, she and the other members with her spoke about the dire state of their own ward when it came to the love and care the members had for one another. It seems that through complacency and fear the adversary is working on the church from the inside out, encouraging its members not to care for one another. You must minister to those you are assigned to minister to. The members of the church must be watched over and cared for. We are all vulnerable, without exception, and we all need one another. That is a truth that we need to come to accept, because it's not going away. It's just a fact of life and of this work. We need to help each other. We need to get over whatever it is that's preventing us from doing that and do it.

I want to include something of a spiritual nature I learned earlier this week. I had thought, in fact, of using a different quote for my subject line considering this experience: I sometimes feel a need to plan and prepare that, if taken to an extreme, can be counterproductive. There are so many things I don't know, and there are so many things I want to learn, but I only get an hour set aside exclusively for individual study each day. I hope the following is understood as coming from a place of humility: I am beginning to understand what it means to "feast upon the words of Christ." There is so much to learn and so much to understand that is applicable to the work of a missionary and to life in general, and there is not time in which to learn it all. At least, that's how it feels. In this struggle to learn and assimilate all that I hope to, I can sometimes feel unprepared as we head out the door to face everything I have to face. I thought about quoting Jeong Jeong from Avatar: The Last Airbender, who tells Aang, "YOU are not READY!!! You are too WEAK!" That is how I feel sometimes. As I studied this thought and this problem during an individual study session, I thought of a phrase I have sometimes used to help myself understand where I need to be, progression-wise, as a missionary, and likely in the rest of my life. It is this: "What you are today is enough... but it will not quite be enough for tomorrow." I have learned as I have read the scriptures that the Lord can use even the unwilling and the wicked to accomplish his purposes (look at prophecies about the Lamanites, I think in 2 Nephi), so it follows that he can use the imperfect. He can use us even in all our flaws and weaknesses, especially when we turn our time and lives over to him and ask him to direct us and listen for what he says and seek to follow his counsel. We can be infinitely more effective instruments as we seek his guidance. So I wrote down the following scriptures on sticky notes and put them on the wall above my desk:

"That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers." Doctrine and Covenants 1:23 (side note: It seems significant to me that this scripture appears in the very first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, and was intentionally put there, seeing as the Doctrine and Covenants is out of chronological order.)

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my own strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Alma 26:12

If we as missionaries did nothing but plan, no work would get done. If we never planned, our work would be woefully ineffective or would not get done at all.

There is a time to plan, and there is a time to sink in the sickle. We are asked to do both in diligence, and we can have faith in the Lord when we feel that we have done all we can and still are not prepared. He will compensate for our lack and help us make it through.

I love you all. Thanks for reading.

There are a lot of photos this week, and they'll come in many emails.

I made a scripture case out of a priority mail box and some pictures from old Ensigns we found. I've been working on this for a while and finally got it all finished and missionary-laminated (that's "covered in packing tape" for you civilians). It carries a missionary copy of the Holy Bible (no footnotes, no study helps--that's why it's so thin) and the copy of The Book of Mormon I've been using to study various topics.

Elder Neddo and I before scraping off our car

Us and all the Gahanna elders at the Gahanna 1 apartment having Wendy's at the end of the day.

WARNING IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH AND DON'T LIKE SPIDERS. A massive orbweaver that was hanging out at the church. It's disappeared since it's gotten colder.