Missionary Lingo:
District: a
group of three or more companionships assigned to an Area. For
instance, I am part of the Purvis District, which consists of the Purvis
Sisters, Purvis Elders, and the Spanish Purvis Elders.
Zones: a cluster of districts in an Area. For instance, I belong to the Hattiesburg Zone, which is based around the Hattiesburg stake.
Stake: taken
from terms in the Old Testament, a "stake" is a cluster of wards (which
are just local congregations), which refers to covering God's children
with a "tent" (since you hold down a tent with stakes) so that they can
be brought into the fold of God.
Transfers: when missionaries are moved to a new area every six weeks
Good
morning, fellow citizens! It's a beautiful, cloudy day in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, and the mission is buzzing with the new transfer policies
and changes to the mission. Effective this transfer, the Clinton and
Jackson Zones will be combining into one Zone! The H'burg Zone will also
be absorbing the Meridian district and the Bogalusa elders. Welcome to
the Zone, y'all!
As for transfers, we used to
have our Preparation Day on Tuesdays during transfer week. Those being
transferred would consequently lose their P-Day, as it takes forever to
get anyone anywhere in the MJM. If your area was close (as I have
been lucky to have close areas), then you would have time to grocery
shop and get settled in, but if you're going across the mission, then
that's another story!
President Olson has changed this policy, so now Mondays will always be
our Preparation Day. We will receive transfer calls on Monday morning
instead of Saturday night, so we would then use our P-Day to pack and
get ready to be transferred. We would then be transferred Tuesday
morning. Those companionships who are not being transferred at all will
then have a regular P-Day on Monday and resume regular missionary
activities on Tuesday.
Sister Barney and I are
not being transferred, though! Sadly, we are losing our dear District
Leader, Elder Chase, who will be transferred this week. We won't know
where he's going until he gets there!
The Lord
blesses me with a lesson every week. I'm constantly learning about the
Spirit, the true gospel, and people in general. But, this week, I was
studying a BYU Speech given by Jennifer Paustenbaugh entitled, "When
Your Bow Breaks." She bases the entire speech around the story of Nephi
and the broken bow.
I will tell this story for
those who haven't read it. In the Book of Mormon, we read in 1 Nephi 16
that Nephi, a righteous man and his brothers, Laman and Lemuel have
found themselves hunting in the wilderness for food for their families.
They have a lot of mouths to feed between their parents, Lehi (a prophet
of God) and Sariah, the sons and daughters of their friend Ishmael, and
their wives and children. They have a lot to handle!
So,
equipped with a steel bow and arrows, Nephi goes into the wilderness to
hunt with his brothers, who are armed with slingshots. Things were
going great; the Lord had provided plenty of food, everyone was happy --
until Nephi's bow breaks.
A bow can supply
far more food than a slingshot can. Would you agree? With no way to
obtain food, the families begin to starve, and they then begin to blame
it on Nephi and the Lord. Even Lehi begins to murmur -- that's when you
really know it's bad.
But, despite his
afflictions, worries, and strife, Nephi crafts a new bow out of wood and
makes himself arrows from sticks. He then goes to his father and asks
where he can go to obtain food. Humbled, Lehi prays unto God for
guidance, and Nephi is then able to feed his family again.
It's so much better if you read the
story, but we can learn a lot from Nephi and his response to his
afflictions. When have our bows broken? Lemme tell ya, if I were to make
a score of music for a mission, it would be measures and measures of
endless bow-snapping and strings breaking. Things go wrong all the time;
plans do not go the way we want them to. This isn't much different from
regular life, where what we envision in our brains is not what happens
in reality, much to our dismay. The Lord lovingly hands us trials, and
we are left starving, lost, unsure, and without our bow.
I've
pondered this parable for a while. I thought of our responses to our
trials; I've watched how investigators respond to their trials, how
companions, members, and people we find respond to the things that
completely turn their lives around. As humans, we tend to want to give
in to our "natural man" (Mosiah 3:7) and wallow in self-pity, allow
ourselves to bask in the darkness of worry and depression because
sometimes searching for the light in darkness is simply too hard. We
often want to take the easier route, stay in our comfort zones, when the
Lord has blessed us with an opportunity to learn and grow if we but
choose to respond to our trials in the right way.
In
this BYU Speech, Sister Paustenbaugh mentions the steps we must take to
make it through our trials, such as: praying, asking for help, reading
the scriptures, and -- the one I would like to emphasize -- to have a
positive attitude. President Uchtdorf admonishes us to have an attitude
of gratitude in whatever stage of life we are experiencing. I like to
take a leaf out of Nephi's book after Lehi died. If we read in 2 Nephi
4, we are able to read Nephi's Psalm, where he writes,
"Behold,
my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth
continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
Nevertheless,
notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great
and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am!
Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of
mine iniquities.
I am encompassd about because...of the sins which do so easily beset me.
...nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted."
Nephi
did not ignore the problems he faced, and Nephi had a great many
afflictions, brothers and sisters. Nephi has always been an example of
great faith, diligence, continual prayer and love and reliance on the
Lord, and most of all, honesty. He is honest with himself and with those
of us reading: he aches. Sin, affliction, and trials hurt. The
bow might hit us in the face when it breaks; our fingers might bleed on
the string; we may lose a good arrow. Trials do not hit us lightly. They
were not meant to.
But we have a loving God
who desires our greatest happiness. He asks us to be happy even in times
of trial, for that is the true test: to smile when it hurts, to serve
when you need others, to be more selfless in light of selfishness. You
have a choice to make -- do you become like Laman and Lemuel and sit
around, complain, and curse the Lord for what He's done? Or do you
respond like Nephi -- do you pray, do you study, do you ask for help, do
you try and make more out of what you have and know that the Lord will
pave a way for you? Do you press forward in happiness, knowing He has
your back every step of the way?
We frequently
forget that our Savior has walked these paths before. We are walking
through old footprints. He has walked this path when there were none
before Him, no imprints to follow. He had to press forward with faith,
to be loving, to be selfless, to make the way for those of us whose
crosses are bearing down on our backs and we can't seem to see His
tracks anymore.
He is there when our bow
breaks, brothers and sisters. He is there to help us put it back
together, make a new one, and find what we need. All our Heavenly Father
asks of us is that we rely on our Savior, Jesus Christ, and do our
best; be happy in times of trial, for you will then have a taste of the
eternal, godly happiness to come.
It's been a
good week, brothers and sisters. I'm learning a lot about choices, about
love, about charity. You must love others when you can't seem to see
them as the child of God they are.
Be happy, everyone, and remember Who is there for you.
Love y'all.
Godspeed!
Sincerely,
Sister Rose
We had ZTM this week, and I got to take on last selfie with my beloved Sister Thompson! Have a great mission, girlie! |
Mississippi has its beautiful moments |
That awkward moment when you find a myriad of random potted plants missing their pots in the middle of the wilderness... |
[screams about horses!] |
That awkward moment when you find a myriad of random potted plants missing their pots in the middle of the wilderness... |
Our district before transfers!! (Right to left: ME!!, Sister Barney, Elder Pierre-Louis, Elder Eells, Elder Chase, and Elder Paxton.) |
*tries to take selfie with Elders* *only Elder Pierre-Louis notices* |
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