Week 98 - "I'm willing to go the distance. How about you?"

 

Hey, all.

This week has been pretty awesome. A lot of good things have happened, and I've been learning some things I think are really important. There are a lot of questions I have that I never knew were questions I had, or rather questions I couldn't really put into words. Throughout my mission I've been able to clarify and sharpen those questions and find the answers. I'm not sure how to phrase the question that brought me this answer, but it's important to me, and it's the reason for the quote above, which, by the way, comes from Phil (Philoctetes, if that's how you spell it) in Hercules.

So one of the things I have experienced a lot as a missionary is blessings and insights from personal study. I have learned so many things that, like I said, have been answers to questions I could never really put into words. As the hymn says, "Jesus, listening, can hear the songs I cannot sing." He understands what we're going through even when we don't fully understand it. So anyway, I was starting with a prayer before study the other day, and basically just saying the usual things I say before study, asking for certain blessings, and so forth. And then, because of a talk I had been listening to a day or two before, the thought came to mind that I wasn't really being very sincere and was maybe repeating things without putting real feeling behind them--just saying things because I'm in the habit of saying them, not because I really mean them. So I basically just stopped in the middle of the prayer and was sort of like, "OK, I'm going to level with you. What I just said? That's not really what I want right now." And I sat and pondered about what it is that I was really needing right then. When I finally came to what I needed, I expressed that in my prayer and asked Heavenly Father to be able to help me find it during my study. By the way, my grandfather talked a little bit about the idea of being inspired to pray for certain things--Joseph Smith was given the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer by revelation, which rubbed some people the wrong way--why would God tell a person what they should say to Him? That seemed circular. But that principle is definitely something I've developed a testimony of on my mission. Sometimes the Spirit will communicate to us as we pray and tell us to ask for specific blessings that God is willing to grant but that require us to ask for them, or he'll inspire us to pray for things, and in the process we will learn some important truth. That's been my experience.

So I got to studying, and I went to the 11th chapter of Preach My Gospel, which is about helping people make and keep commitments. As I read those first few paragraphs I was taught some things by the Spirit that I wanted to share. Basically here's what I learned: I'm going to try to set this up with some context, but like I said, I'm not sure I entirely understand the question this is the answer to, so it's probably going to come out a little garbled and unclear.

OK, sometimes we know we need to do something, like overcome a vice, gain a Christlike attribute of some kind or improve ourselves in any number of ways, and we take a few approaches to try to accomplish it. There are two approaches that I think I've taken a lot in my life. The first is to simply put a lot of effort into it. It's to say, "OK. I'm going to do that. I'm going to set some goals and make some plans and try to do it." The second is to involve the Lord, to ask that He give us the strength to accomplish this thing, what we know he wants us to do. Sometimes that's good, too, and is very helpful. The Lord can certainly do more with our efforts than we can, and we can do more with Him than we could ever do on our own. But when I was reading and pondering, I realized that those are not the only things we can do.

Do you ever know you're supposed to do something, but you don't have a lot of faith in your ability to do it, so you say that you'll try to accomplish it? Like, it's a pretty hard task, and you don't want to disappoint anyone, so you're not going to out-and-out say you'll get it done, but you'll put in your best effort. I've noticed sometimes we do that with the gospel. We look at a part of it, and we're like, "I mean, yeah, it would be good if I did that, but I don't really know if I'm quite capable of doing that at this point. I'll certainly try--I'll do everything I can--but I can't make any promises." I learned something that might help a person get around that. It definitely helped me. I've been having a problem with getting distracted by Facebook. I would scan a lot of the news headlines and read an article or two, and I was starting to see a dip in my mood, and maybe a little bit my ability to work effectively. So I decided I wanted to stop. I did all kinds of things. I put the application in a folder that I colored red and said labeled "Pray before opening" or something like that, and then that didn't work for very long, so I used Firefox bookmark shortcuts to give myself a message to read before opening the app and then put all those in a folder with the app and labeled it "READ EVERYTHING," but then I would just skip all that and go into the app. Then I colored the folder red so I would be warned before clicking on it. I removed the News button from my dock... I did a lot of different things. This week I changed my phone password to something that would help me remember that I want to be in control of myself--I don't want something else to be in control of me. I was inspired by something my grandfather said John Taylor said upon reflecting on his habit of using snuff and going to grog shops. As Bapa put it, he said, "Who is in control: me or it? I will not be subject to snuff. I will not be subject to grog." I did not want to be subject to an application. But all of that, though it worked for a little while, didn't work permanently. So I had this on my mind while I was learning about commitment. I really wanted to stop this habit, but I was just weak sometimes and would slip, and then eventually my mood would get worse. Then I basically realized that I had never really told the Lord or committed to the Lord that I would stop. I wanted to stop: I had a desire to stop. I did everything I could to stop, but there were just little things where I couldn't set up a system to intervene. I needed some help. So I decided I was going to commit. I told the Lord that I wanted to stop doing this, and while I was praying, I was sort of like, "I don't know that I'm going to be able to do it perfectly, but I'm telling you right now, I'm committing to you that I will not do it. Please help me not to do it, and if I mess up, please help me to do better." I don't know what to say except that since then I haven't gone into the news section of the app once. As much as I've wanted to, I made a commitment, and I've felt less tempted to do it. I feel that the Lord has made it possible for me to do it. And I think the reason he made it possible was because I made a commitment to Him. This is what I learned--this is the truth that helped me that I wanted to share: If we are struggling with some behavior or temptation--anything that is incongruent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (in this case, this is because it's something I shouldn't be doing in this context--also it doesn't help me keep the Spirit)--you can commit to the Lord that you will stop doing it, you can take that leap of faith, and then you can ask Him to help you follow through with that commitment, and He will. I have a testimony that that works, and it's something I want to use throughout the rest of my life.

So that's that. As far as what's happened during the week, there have been a lot of good things. First of all, we've been seeing better and better content being published by other missionaries, and several missionaries have told us that they've watched the videos that we made, and they're very good and helpful. One said they're implementing one of the planning techniques we've recommended! It was great to see that that's finally bearing fruit (incidentally, that was something else I prayed for and asked for--to see at some point that what we've done has been a good thing). So that was really great. The next thing is that we've been doing a few live events on Facebook because the Lisbon district decided that was something they wanted to do, so that's been great. We're learning how to do live broadcasts a little bit better, and we're happy that those missionaries have enough enthusiasm to bring us that idea and carry it out. It's awesome! It will also make some great lessons that people can explore when they come to the Facebook page.

We also had an AMAZING lesson with a woman named Summer. The Spanish elders found her, and they had us come to be the third male, and she's super in tune with the Spirit. She has developed a personal relationship with God and receives inspiration, and she's exercised faith to do things that she felt God was telling her to do, and she has been blessed as a result. She basically has a testimony of personal revelation! It's awesome! And as we've talked with her, she really feels like the Lord has brought us into her life. I guess she was praying for help from Him before the elders called her. She's one of the coolest people I've met on my mission. She's just a spiritual giant, in a lot of ways. So we're really hoping that she uses that gift for personal revelation to arrive at the truth about the message we share. We met with her for over an hour, and the Spirit was super strong.

Also, side note, when I went and got a haircut today, the woman cutting my hair was very similar! She has a personal relationship with God, and we talked about that and about how important that is. We also talked about her own missionary work, and I shared some of my thoughts about some things, so hopefully she's able to implement that and be blessed by that. It was really cool. She seems like a really good person.

Also, another aside, we had, like, two people within 10 seconds say hi at Walmart and address us as "Elders," and that was surprising. We also had another person or two greet us very happily and warmly. It was, like, the most positive experience I've ever had in public as a missionary. It was really cool. We never really found out who those people were or how they know who we are, but it was super cool.

What else is there? We made another video. This one was about creativity and getting around writer's block. It uses a TEDx talk by a guy named Michael Bahr about thinking outside the box. He basically points out that we like limitations, and they make us more creative. So we made a video about that for the missionaries. Also, today we issued an invitation to view these new videos to a bunch of missionaries from other missions who asked for access to the Facebook videos I originally made in Cambridge. So we're hoping that those and the other videos they make help missionaries to make better stuff and find good ways to use their time.

I can't really think of anything else for this week. I think that's it. I'm also running a bit short on time. Oh, we played beach volleyball again today with our district, and we did ultimate frisbee, too. That was fun. Hmm. What else? We had a cool district devotional where we wrote on pieces of paper what we think other people's spiritual gifts are. That was neat. It's always nice to learn the good things other people think about you.

Oh, yeah. We're not meeting in person for church anymore. The county went into a more dangerous COVID zone or phase or whatever, so larger in-person meetings are kaboshed for now. But that's OK. Some missionaries are a little worried that we'll be going back into heavy social isolation, though. If we did, though, I don't think I would mind. Most of the work we do isn't in person anyway. :P

I think that's about it. I love you all and hope you have a good, healthy, safe week. Talk to you next time!

Elder Davis

We made schawarma bowls on Monday night. "You ever try schawarma? 

There's a schawarma joint a couple blocks away. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."