During an English class we were teaching this past week, we
reviewed some airport and airplane vocabulary. Suffice it to say that I
miss flying a lot. I haven't been on a plane in almost a year!
We had a nice workout, climbing Mt. Rubidoux again, with
some recent converts from Riverside. It's fun to hang out with
them. It feels like we've created a social club with our members at UCR
because they're all really good friends with each other!
Elder Murray and I were walking in a neighborhood the other
day when this car pulls up and this young guy tells us, "I wouldn't go
down that street if I were you."
"Why not" we ask.
"Because I live there."
So we're just kind of like what?... and he says Jesus
Christ's teachings are bad and he doesn't have time to teach us how to be
smart... Really weird. So he drives off and we keep walking and he pulls
back around and tells us using a lot of expletives to get out. Kind of
weird, but, whatever...
Elder Murray being Elder Murray told him we'd call the cops
and he was like "Do it, I don't care, write down my license plate."
So I obviously thought, hey good idea, so I wrote it down. I don't know
what for, but... it was just a weird interaction with this guy.
At church on Sunday, Elder Murray was translating a talk of
a recently returned missionary (from Guatemala). At the end, she said she
would bear her testimony in Spanish, so Elder Murray just said, sorry she's
about to speak Spanish. Thank you Mr. Capilla from SAS, because I grabbed
the headset and translated it. Not saying my translation was perfect, but
she was using pretty easy Spanish words and I got most of it. It was
cool!
It's always fun talking to our investigators, who, while
they're not baptized yet, they talk about the church using "our
church." So "our church" does this or that. Even defending
it when other people are all like "CULT!!!"
We had a member of the Seventy (church general
authority) come and visit. It was amazing because [he] was just full of
love and humility – [we felt] that he loved us and wanted to help us
succeed. We had a couple of special leadership meetings with him and he
talked about how this training we get now will help us become effective
ministering leaders in the church in the future. He talked about how when
you're on the stand, you should look into the eyes of all your members
(missionaries in our case - he had us sit on the stand for a bit) and discern
their needs/concerns. He said in D&C 43:8-9 when it says act, it's
not how to behave, it's to go out and DO. We are beings that are meant to
act not get acted upon. He said to be quick to observe and quick to
act. He mentioned how enduring to the end is not simply hanging on - it's
acting and continually using the enabling power of the Atonement to become
better
One thing that showed his humility was sharing the
stories that helped him learn a certain principle in his life. For
example, he told us not to wait for someone else to change the mission. "Don't
hope that THEY will change it, THEY means US". He learned that through the
mistake of not taking action with this certain temple building assignment. He
shared his own weaknesses to help us be better.
Something interesting that he mentioned was that
oftentimes, missionaries are not assigned to a mission but to a mission
president - to help him achieve.
He also mentioned Elder Packer's "doctrine of
proximity" – that sometimes you have to go to the place and be with the
people to discern their needs. I loved his phrase "in the LDS church, we
do hard things".
Beautiful Riverside!
Chillin' on a rock
So Chinese
With Elder Murray and David
With Li Tuo in front
of the huge cross
