Week 98: Eat Your Heart Out Elder Rosenvall

The title of this email is in response to Elder Rosenvall who expressed his disappointment my sparse emails recently.

Also, I felt like you all deserved a more thought out email considering my recent ones have been a bit lacking. So, in honour of me only having five more of these to write, here is the book you've all been waiting for. This, my family and friends, is pontificating at it's finest.

I've been thinking about structure.

A good friend of mine, @David Petersen  (by the way I had no clue you could tag people in emails, that's way cool), once showed me an object lesson I will never forget. Ask me to do it for you some day. It loses it's effect if not experienced in person. Anyways, the point of it was to remind us that all success in life comes from meeting expectations and those expectations are often set with a structure. As a volunteer for the church, right now, my life is extremely structured. Our feelings of success are resultant of meeting those expectations set by ourselves and our organisation. When that expectation is to help other people develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, everyday becomes one rich with meaning and fulfillment. Regardless of your religious inclinations, you must admit that seeing anyone connect with greater hope, peace, happiness and faith brings an incomparable light into their life. Seeing the weight on someone's shoulders lifted fills you more than most any other things. 

Yet. You will not experience these kinds of experiences daily after your mission. At least, not in the same way. Your purpose is different. Your responsibility becomes to take the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the lessons you've learned in the service of the Lord and your fellow men and create your own purpose. You do this within the frames of whatever your moral make-up may be. For me, it is to follow Christ and His teachings and apply them in my daily life. Mine is a journey of becoming. It always has and it always will be. Becoming becomes harder when no one is telling you what to become. This point in your life, and really, any point in your life where you make a major shift, is a culmination. The minute your your circumstances change is not the minute you change. We are often stiff necked, obstinate, and resistant to change. Given this, it can be easy to think we should be changing as quickly as our surroundings are. Yet, this logic is flawed. In actuality, it is our ability to remain the same whilst the world is changing that separates us from all other species. The challenge we have is changing according to our own timetables rather than the worlds'. My relationship with God has a profound influence on my timetable. It would be more accurate to say it's really His timetable.

But yeah, structure. I am in the process of building my structure for when I return home. I wanted to share with you some things I have learned in the process (this has been two years in the making):

1.) Do not be afraid to reevaluate your expectations. We need to learn and distinguish when to persevere and when to change directions.

2.) Be patient with yourself. Change takes time.

3.) You do not have to make a mistake to benefit from the lessons you would learn from it.

4.) Find good friends. Respect them, love them, treasure them, and be a good friend back.

5.) Rely on God. 

6.) Happiness is a choice and comes only when we keep the commandments AND choose to be happy.

7.) You do not have to always be okay. You do have to always believe that you someday will be.

8.) Do not mistake passing cloud coverage for permanent darkness.

9.) Work without vision is a drudgery.

10.) Trust God. That's different than relying on Him. 

and many more. I have enough anecdotes to fill tumblr with the best of them. But these have truly become a part of who I am and how I think. I am excited for the future. I am excited for the present. And thinking of how I have grown in the past makes me excited too. 

This week we was packed with meetings, training, lessons, and portuguese. I have seen God answer my prayers time and time again, so specifically, and so intimately. He is real. I love Him. Life could not be better than it is right now. 

I love you all. Have an amazing week. Enjoy your week and try not to think about me coming home in 5 weeks :-)

Comp Comic: Elder Coelho was kind of boring. jk, but nothing crazy this week

Food of the Week: passion fruit mousse, but this time with jello on the bottom

Scripture of the Week: D&C 6:36

Word of the Week: mind how you go - my mother is convinced british people say this but I have never heard it once. 

Just a last thought, for those of you who think I may be ready to come home. We received the last group of new missionaries before I will go home. I had a moment during the meeting where I realised I will never see the missionaries they will become. I will never get to see the work they do. I broke a bit on the inside. I believe it's the first of many breakings, but I am prepared. I love what I do every day. I will miss this mission so much. God speed. Mind how you go.

Elder McKinley

Chinatown