Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Email - August 11, 2010

Hello all! I love hearing from you!!! My week has been just fantastic, I got a letter from Jeff Watkins which lit up my whole mission. What a joy it is to hear from friends progressing in the work! The Lord truly sees to everyone, we all have blessings in our life that we take for granted - not daily, but by the second. All we have to do is open our eyes, open our ears, and the Lord will fill them!

A first great blessing was a lift in my Spanish. I feel like I’m doing fine, I’m not feeling down about it, just wish I were fluent... you know? haha, but we had a meeting and from my teachers I was recommended to bump up to an ALL LATINO DISTRICT these next three weeks. They felt I had good enough Spanish to understand and be in a class where we don’t learn the language, simply learn the work. That was a huge compliment to me in knowing my TEACHERS thought I had good enough abilities to make it with the Latinos alright. I didn’t take the opportunity, I’d like to have more language learning, but what a lift to my spirits!

Also, I had the weirdest dream in the world this week! So Allie and I were out running at the corner of 400 East and 1600 North to the cemetery and WZHOAMMM! someone came zooming by us! Turns out this crazy person was Aunt Renae on a shopping cart being pulled by a HUGE yellow lab!

Today we are heading out to Lima Central for a tour and to see the beach! We have new companions, but no new missionaries here. Every year they take the old missionaries out to Lima Central for buying stuff and seeing the city. I’m stoked! Oh and now I’m not District Leader, they switch it up every 3 weeks. Now I’ve got all the time in the world cause I was just called to be a Zone Leader! Haha it’ll be great. I’m excited to serve because the Lord blesses those who are in his service. What an opportunity! The joke now is that I will be called as the AP as I step off the airplane here in a few weeks!


Well, I love the scriptures. The Lord has blessed me so much in my life, it is ridiculous! I love this work, it brings a joy to my face every night when I can get on my knees and know that even if I didn’t accomplish a thing, I gave my all. The Lord doesn’t require us to run faster than we have strength, but he does require us to run. I’m running and at times I feel inadequate, not good enough, or that I could never finish, yet as promised in 2N 25:23, we are saved by grace after all we can do! The Lord NEVER overlooks an opportunity to bless us, an opportunity to let us stand a little higher. The next time you feel down and like the Lord has abandoned you, DON'T. Turn around, for the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. WE are the ones that change, we are the ones that turn, and the Lord is always there for the ones who try. 'Stick to your task till it sticks to you, beginners are many, but enders are few. Honor, power, place, and praise will always come to the one who stays. Stick to your task till it sticks to you, bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too. For after the bend and the sweat and the smile, comes life's victories after awhile!´

I got another spiritual smack in the face, a humility check, haha (I’m good at receiving those) but what a life lesson! In proselyting this week I just got mad. I have issues with the language, I freeze up talking to natives, and more than half the stuff I don’t understand. I always find myself having the same testimony and the same words about relying on our Savior, and sadly I wanted something more. Then I found a quote from Pres Uchtdorf saying NEVER tire from the first principles of the Gospel. I am called to tell the world of Christ, our gospel revolves around Christ, without Christ we would be nothing! I am doing the Lord’s work right here by testifying continually of our savior and his hand in my life. Though I freeze up, all I need to tell the world is of the Savior. What a blessing, the Lord is having me do just as he would with my language barrier. I am working to have patience with myself! I love this work with all my heart! The Lord smacks me a lot to snap me to my senses. Yeah I can’t do a lot right now, but without him I could do nothing. Realize that, the Lord is our Lord, we are nothing without him for he created us. Realize it, accept it, and enjoy it!

Elder Griffin McGinn

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