Hello! How are you this week? My week has been pretty good. Sadly, however, it also means another week and another month are over. One less week as a missionary. As my mission winds down, I become more and more grateful for the time I have left. In the past week, I opened my last bottle of vitamins, started using my last toothbrush, and realized that I officially only have 100 days left as a missionary. It just gets faster and faster as the end gets closer. Every night I go to bed thankful that I get to wake up tomorrow and keep doing missionary work. So- here are just two things from the week that is over that I want to share, something I experienced and something I learned.
One of the families we've been visiting regularly is the Agsunod Family. The mother and children were baptized in October and we've been helping the father to prepare so that he can join his family as members of the church and they can begin preparations to go to the temple and be sealed as a family forever. His current goal is to be baptized this March 3rd and he is really excited about it. We last visited them on Friday, and for some reason, he just wasn't in the mood to give the closing prayer. Unfortunately for him, Resli gave the opening prayer, which meant she got to pick who gave the closing prayer and she picked him. We got down to pray and he turned to me and said "Ikaw lang, ako sa deson" (You just do it, I'll do it next time). To this I responded "indi, ikaw and ginpili, ako so deson" (no, you were the one picked, I'll pray next time). I folded my arms, closed my eyes and waited for him to pray. We sat in silence for a bit when suddenly Brother Agsunod said "Kun hindi ikaw magpray, hindi kayo umuwi" (If you don't pray, you can't go home). This statement was so unexpected, we all burst out laughing. We continued to discuss the issue for a while when Loui, the youngest, decided he would just pray. We decided that we would both have to pray next time since we already both said we would.
I've learned something really interesting this week, something that I've really needed to learn. I was reading through the January issue of the Liahona (an international magazine published by the church). The article I read was titled "Leadership the Lord's way." This article really was a much needed answer to a prayer. For the past several weeks, I've felt like I'm not doing well enough and I've had trouble recognizing and measuring my progress as a missionary. I knew that I hadn't been given any high leadership position, we have no special awards to help us know if we are excelling at anything compared to others. I only could compare myself with what I was seeing in others, which we all know is not the most effective or uplifting method of determining individual progression. I was having trouble measuring myself, not knowing how to do it and as a result, not seeing any progress. This was causing me to feel that I really hadn't progressed much. As I read this article, I came to discover why I was struggling. In life, progress is measured by what we are given. If we work hard and study and improve in school, we are given a good grade at the end of the semester. If we are diligent and effective in the work place, we have a pay raise or a promotion. If we are persistent in our exercise program we are able to measure our increased running speed or decreased weight. In general, as we progress in life, we have easy to see results. This is how we come to determine if we are progressing. When it comes to spiritual progression, however, there is no grade, no pay raise, no weight loss. The lack of these physical measurements makes it difficult to recognize one's personal progression. I discovered that this really was my problem. I was feeling like I hadn't progressed because no one gave me an A+ in life. What I needed to realize is that there is no A+ to earn. I don't need an A+ to be doing well. I also realized that I'm measuring my progress as a missionary while I'm still a missionary. I compare today to yesterday and expect to see great changes when this isn't really reasonable. When I go home, when I'm no longer a missionary, I'll be able to better remember who I was when I left and be able to compare me-after-the-mission to me-before-the-mission, a difference of 18 months. Progress over 18 months is much easier to see than progress in 24 hours. It's like watching a tree grow, I can't expect to notice how much thicker the trunk is tomorrow, but I can next year.
Amat-amat lang ang kabuhi.
Palangga ko Kamo!
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