Things have been going great. Pres. Maynes conducted a special training for us on Thursday. It was fantastic. This mission is definitely going to grow a lot in the next few years under his leadership. I love this mission. It's the most rewarding work in the world. The thrill or participating in the salvation of God's children is immeasurable.
Yet how quick we are to forget that feeling of that success. It's hard to keep in mind the baptisms, the reactivations, and the subsequent joy of the work while you're rejected at every turn by non-members and less-actives. But as long as we can keep those joys in mind and "remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men" (Moro. 10: 3), then nothing can keep us from spreading our fire to the rest of the world.
I've learned that it's all about desire. When a desire for something becomes strong enough, we invariably act on it. Our choices are determined by what we desire most. Many less-actives and investigators we work with have somewhat of a testimony, and a desire to repent and receive the blessings of activity in the Church, but when 9:00 Am Sunday morning rolls around, they discover that their desire to attend Church is superseded by their desires to watch TV, sleep in, take a trip, run errands, or even lounge about in laziness. Their desires for the eternal joy of Gospel faithfulness are superseded by their desires for the fleeting pleasures of the world.
For almost two years of my mission, I have been educating, instructing, and teaching pure doctrine-- giving others the" know-how" of achieving eternal life, but for some reason, it never has seemed to work. Now I know it is not a problem of simply education; rather, many do not act because they do not have a sufficient desire. Instead of simply teaching lessons and refreshing doctrinal understanding, we need help strengthen their desires to receive blessings.
On a personal level, my desire has changed on my mission. I started out with simply the desire to "be an obedient, hard-working missionary and to do my work and gain my reward." Now I have a desire to "invite others to come unto Christ" and share the blessings to eternal life. How tragic that it's taken almost two years to realize that! Luckily, I still have a few moments left. We can get a few more investigators. We can help a few more less-actives. Maybe we can have a few more baptisms.
But one thing's for sure-- we can touch a few more lives.
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