The week started out
pretty normally, a lot of miracles though. :) I am sincerely enjoying
having Elder Mieville for a companion. His little thickly-accented
french voice filling my days with uplifting sentances such as "Freaking
old people" and "look! Blacks! contactthemcontactthem!" In french it is
actually politically correct to say "Blacks". No one gets offended about
that, it's just a descriptive term. That's gonna be a tough habit to
break when I come home.
But in all seriousness, Elder Mieville is a great
missionary. He's taught me a lot in the transfer we've been together. I
think the most profound thing he ever told me was about service. We were
talking at the beginning of the transfer about what made the best
leaders we'd ever had in the mission, trying to improve ourselves, and
he said "I think that if you want to be a good leader, you need to serve
the missionaries." It was very simple. It made me think "yeah, duh."
But as I was reflecting on it, and reflecting on myself, and the way I
interact with other people, I found myself wondering. Do I really serve
these people? Am I more focused on loving and serving those around me,
or on bettering myself? They both sound like worthwhile things to do,
but there's this really small, sort of stillish kind of voice in my head
that keeps telling me that I shouldn't matter as much as those around
me do.
Food for thought.
Anyways,
back to the week. Monday through thursday was normal, friday was where
the fun started. We spent all day Friday and most of Saturday.......
shopping. For an apartments. I may have mentioned this before, but we're
getting a LOT of new sisters in the next two transfers, so we have to
go find places for them to live.
Still not a fan of shopping, but we did finally get a nice one picked out and set aside.
Saturday
night, the world fell over. As we were going through our usual nightly
routine we got a call from Sherbrooke! That's the area where my dear
friend and MTC companion Elder Bangerter is working! So I cheerfully
answered the phone (it was his companion Elder Hansen), and started
chatting away. He asked how we'd feel if He and Elder Bangerter came to
blitz our area on Sunday. "Well, I'd feel great! But, why?" Sherbrooke
is about three hours away from La val. I had a right to ask. "....Elder
Bangerter's Dad died this morning. We're in Montreal right now."
Oh.
Elder Bangerter flew
home this morning to go to the funeral and help out his family a bit,
but he's coming back on Thursday to finish his mission. That man is such
an inspiration to me. They ended up coming over on Sunday and I spent
the whole day with him. That was good. He's actually doing really well,
all things considered. Throughout his whole mission he's been studying
faith. He told me yesterday, "I don't want to have the faith to move
mountains, or make water come out of a rock. I just want to have the
faith to not be moved. I want to be in 'the Lord's rest', where I know
that He will protect me. I want to be able to stand in the Lions den and
know that the Lord will take care of me, and that it'll be alright."
From what I saw yesterday, I think he's already
there. In the MTC I knew a nervous kid that wasn't sure why he was doing
what he was. Yesterday I saw a man, calmly facing the trials he had in
his life with the surety that he was where he needed to be, that The
Lord was by his side, and that he didn't need to fear.
Elder Bangerter is an incredible man, a better
missionary, and an even better friend. I'd like to ask all of you to
keep him and his family in your prayers for me.
May
we all strive to develop our faith in the Lord, so that we as well may
enter into the Lord's Rest, and be therefore able to overcome any trial
through which we might be called to pass.
Elder Christensen
No comments:
Post a Comment