On
Tuesday, we had a devotional by Elder Echosmith. He's in the Quorum of
the Seventy. One thing that he said that really stood out to me was that
we will "serve and love the people of our missions for the rest of our
lives". Our entire district absolutely loves everything about the Thai
people. We haven't even gotten there and all we can think about is how
much we want to go teach them. Already from knowing our native teacher
and another missionary here from Thailand, we can already tell that
they're some of the friendliest, nicest people on earth. When Elder
Echosmith said that we'll be serving them and loving them for the rest
of our lives, it kinda just hit me that all that I'm learning here in
the MTC, the language, learning how to teach, etc aren't just for these
next two years. It's for my entire life. Heavenly Father shapes us into
the people He would have us become everyday, a lot of times without us
even realizing it.
On another note, our zone
got two new Cantonese districts on Wednesday. There's 27 of them all
together. Not even kidding, it's like a Cantonese invasion here. When
they all stood up in Sacrament, it was basically our entire congregation
that got up. Anyway, whenever a new district comes in, we show them a
video called the "School bus" (if you haven't seen it go on lds.org
and watch it). We all went into their classrooms and showed them this
video and told them it was super good and that they should take notes
etc. Little did they know that this video has absolutely no point to
it. "School bus" is one of those low budget videos that just ends with a
cliffhanger. It was just so funny because everyone was waiting for a
spiritual message and then it just ended. It's hard to explain but it
was sooooo funny. It's just the little things like that that keeps us
going. I don't know, or our zone just has a weird sense of humor.
I
just have a couple more experiences that I wanted to share with you
all. Our lessons are getting better and better and the language is
starting to flow a little more. Saturday, we were able to teach a couple
of sister missionaries who came back from Thailand and were
volunteering in the MTC. Their names were Karly and Heather. Anyway,
they shared something that really meant a lot to me. Obedience brings
miracles. Since being here, I've been trying to see the hand of the Lord
more and more each day and it's hard when you get into the same routine
of the day and you get busy with learning new words and how to teach.
Anyway, she told us that as we strive to be obedient, we'll see so many
miracles. The more we recognize the Lord in our lives and put our faith
and trust in Him, doing all that He asks of us, the more we'll be able
to look back on our day and think about how much the Lord helped us out.
Sorry I have so much to write, just skim through if you want but one
last thing. After Sunday devo last night, our district went and watched
the Joseph Smith Restoration video. The Spirit was so strong. Most of
you guys know the story, but I want to remind you all of how hard it was
for Joseph Smith and the first members of our church to establish what
we have today. One of the saddest parts of the video was when Joseph
Smith was tarred and feathered for being our Prophet. I can't tell you
guys how sad it made me feel. As Emma was cleaning him up and brushing
the tar and feathers off of him, Joseph said "Perhaps I was meant to
swim in deep waters. Better deep than shallow." Those words meant so
much to me. I'd rather live a life of challenges trusting God than an
easy life of mediocracy. It's no doubt that what Joseph had to go
through was hard and it's no doubt that our lives are hard just as well
but I promise that there's nothing greater than putting our faith in
God, knowing that things will all work out. Have a good week everyone!
Can't wait to hear from you guys.
Elder Rawlinson
Here's a few pics I attached. I got to see my cousin who just got here Wednesday! He'll be leaving to the Philippines in 6 weeks! Same time I leave!!
No comments:
Post a Comment