Choose Joy

Hello all:

Hope all is going well all over the world. not a whole lot of time to write today, but that's OK because there's not too much to report today. A lot of tracting and not a lot of success. It's just been one of those weeks, I suppose. The Lord allows us to experience them every so often to remind us that we need Him. All we can do is do our best, and put on a happy smile. Then, no matter what, we can find joy in the journey.

That's really what it's all about, right? "Men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25). So the work may be rough at times, and the weather my not be cooperative, and people may not have the slightest idea how important the message is that we're sharing, but we find the joy, and sometimes the joy comes when life is hardest. We are to have joy-- not have constant ease.

I love serving here. I love the people. I love Pres. Maynes. I love working until I feel like I just can't work anymore. When I come home tired, ragged, and completely void of energy, that's when I know I'm a missionary, and that the Lord has accepted what I have given-- my all. Some this makes missionaries get pretty trunky*, especially in harder areas. They daydream of going home, they find it harder and harder to maintain a cheerful outlook, and they start to strive less and less. Happiness becomes more and more fleeting.

But if there's anything I've learned from serving a year in one of the most difficult jobs on earth, it's that happiness is a choice! We can always choose joy. We can always choose to be pleasant. We can always choose to enjoy life. Without simply choosing happiness, we cannot muster through this life. As I always like to say [as does a certain someone else :) ], "You must be happy, do you understand?"

May we always choose happiness, I pray, even when times get rough, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


*trunky (n., miss. sl.): To be homesick or lazy, referring to packing a trunk or suitcase with the idea of leaving.