March 7, 2016
I'd like to start off by stating why
I've come to love the mission so much.
Before my mission I had looked
forward to it with a hope to learn and to progress. I saw it as yet another
learning experience in my life. I thought I would be able to really look inward
and re-invent myself. That after two years I would come back, and be a
completely new and better person thanks to all that I had learned; however,
upon entering I quickly learned that it was kind of hard to focus on me..... I
found that when I focused on what I needed to do and how I could
improve. I often felt completely crushed when I realized how much I really
would have to change to become the person I wanted to be. It seemed so far out
of reach that I contemplated settling on where I was. I saw how well others
were doing, and with my competitive mindset, well, that just meant I wasn't
doing as well as them.
But then I stopped focusing so much
on my problems. I didn't focus on my defects, my flaws....but I didn't focus on
my strengths either.....I just stopped focusing on me.
President Hinkley's motto: "Forget
yourself and go to work", Became personally meaningful. Matthew 16:25
spoke to me with such force that I couldn't do anything but re-read it again
and again.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it"
It doesn't really matter if your
life is good or bad.......In comparison to the life plan God's got laid out for
us.....our plans really aren't that great....
And as I started to realize that
more and more.....I stopped worrying about what I was doing wrong......instead
I just focused on how I could help others.... And what I learned has been
phrased perfectly by Tagore
"I slept and
dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and
behold, service was joy."
I have absolutely loved my mission,
because I have learned firsthand that the best way we can improve, the fastest
way we can change, and the most fulfilling thing we can do. Is serve.
That being said: This has been a
pretty excellent week!
Marcos got baptized this Saturday!!!!
It's been great being able to teach him and share the gospel with him!!!! His
Mom will also be getting baptized this month!!! I look forward to teaching them
for the months to follow.
....then the not so fortunate news.
Zoraida and her kids have postponed
their baptisms......Her ex-husband talked her out of it.....and it looks like
we won't be meeting up with her for a few weeks or so......but oh well. We'll
just keep praying for her!
We've had the opportunity to do a
lot more interchanges this week!!! I got to know some of the Elders in the zone
better! But most importantly I got to serve them.
So that's been fun!!!.....
And yesterday a miracle happened.
We were pretty tired, it was 7:30
and it was still pretty hot out. We had to make some calls to the zone and so
we sat on the curb.....I suppose we looked pretty pathetic, because not long
after we hear
"Hey, you guys want something
to drink"?
We're a little confused (because
he's not a member and usually only members say that).
We accept and He and his wife let us
in....They give us some ham sandwiches and we start talking. They've got a
daughter in Utah (to express the rarity of that I think it's worth noting He
was the ONLY person in my ENTIRE mission to have family in Utah who aren't
members). He said all the people there were trying to convert her. We laugh, we
share some of our beliefs, we pray, they invite us back for dinner Saturday.
I'm probably really downplaying it.
But it's probably one of the most awesome things that's happened in this
sector!!!
So....in short.
It was a pretty good week!!! We'll
be hearing from Elder Lynn G Robbins this week!!! So that should be cool!!!!
I'm doing great and I love you guys!!!!!
-Elder Winn
Picture #1 and #2 Marco's Baptism
#3 The Zone
#4 Selfie (mom requested)
#5 Spike-a-pillars
#6 Peruvian bottle caps
No comments:
Post a Comment