Week 8: Filling the Week and Me

This week has been one of small miracles, with Christ helping us fill in the rest.

The most recent one comes from one of the elders in my apartment. To be honest, he's been kind of bothering me lately, nothing because of anything disruptive, but he hasn't been very kind either. Then, yesterday, while taking an Uber to lunch at a member's house, he randomly asks me, "do you know why the trees are painted white at the bottom?" I told him no, then he explained why: it's so that ants don't climb them because ants hate the white. It's an interesting reason, but I was mostly amazed to be randomly hearing this from him, because I had been wondering this since literally the day I arrived--every tree and pole is painted white below waist level and I couldn't figure why. I've had this happen many times this week, where I've a question about the language or about anything else, and the Lord chooses the most random ways and times to answer them.

Along with this, we've had many other small miracles. On Wednesday, we taught a couple who knew nothing about our church; we sat among their chickens and rabbits on their lot and told them about the Book of Mormon and Christ's atonement. It was amazing to see their reaction. I had never seen two people so interested in learning more about the gospel. They asked for more of our little pamphlets along with the Book of Mormon, and we had to tell them next time, haha.

We also met a young woman who took an Uber from a neighboring city along with her four young children to attend sacrament meeting yesterday, after we had only asked her over text!

It really is amazing, yet again, how much people here love God with their whole hearts.

But in between those miracles, it's been hard work. Yesterday, I was asked to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, give the closing prayer after a baptism, and give a message to the member who made us lunch. The Lord knows the language is the part I'm most worried about, so he'll test me always, but it went fine, because while my language wasn't perfect in any one, I know the Spirit was present in each one. 

And, not every experience is a success. Yesterday, I had the idea to spent our last hour before the day ended walking to the house of someone we had only talked to once on the street before. We walked there--it was a bit of a spooky walk--and no one was home. I know we will have plenty more moments like these even as we try our best.

But while talking about hard work, I want to share a message by our prophet, Russel M. Nelson, who passed away just yesterday. He once taught, "the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." Right now, as I focus every minute of my day on Christ, I can testify that this is true. While working, I have the desire to learn more about Christ, to explore more in the scriptures we are teaching. Because, I am finding the desire to want to serve others through the little miracles we have with people every day, and I want to know how to help them. And, because I'm being changed. Our mission president yesterday talked with us about what kind of missionary we want to be. The type of perfectly obedient and hard-working missionary was not the best option. The best option was the missionary who puts their heart into the work and is truly changed for the better because of it. Right now, I find joy in every day, even as I don't have english-speaking close family and friends, youtube, and everything else that used to fill my life. Instead, it is being filled with Christ.

Favorite Hymn--For my favorite hymn this week, I thought of the children's hymn, My Heavenly Father Loves Me. It is about a child finding joy and God's love in everything they see, and that's kind of how this week has felt, through small little miracles each day. Including the weather: literally every day has had pure blue skies and puffy clouds. It reminds me of Utah in the summer.

Until next time,

Elder Haroldsen

 

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