a few weeks ago, i attended a district meeting in fairfield. i know that was a while ago, but i want to write about it, because i want to remember it.
attending district meeting is always a little frightening for me because i never know what they are going to ask me, or how i should be prepared. they usually do some role-playing (practicing) and if they let me be the member, instead of the missionary, i feel a little more comfortable. :) but i really need to practice being a missionary, so i can learn and get better.
***what i have learned...role-playing is
great because you get your really stupid attempts out of the way, and you can keep practicing until you do it right or at least better.
anyway, i digress. i arrived (barely) on time. it is a long drive to fairfield when the traffic is bad. they immediately include me in everything! i love them (our missionaries) and i love being with them! first question...what did you learn in your personal study this morning? well, my personal study was with jon and hailey reading a chapter from the book of mormon before seminary. i didn't have much to offer. :( they then each reported on their investigators and key indicators for the week. always an interesting part of the meeting. next we started some role-playing, following up on things they had practiced the tuesday before. of course, i had a few questions. "what is a cult anyway? how do you respond when someone throws that at you?" they (the missionaries) are really amazing! they make this all look so easy! it
isn't!!!
to conclude the meeting, elder reid asked sister williamson and myself and then himself to share with the group, "why did i come on my mission", and then share our testimony. elder reid and sister williamson were returning home the following tuesday.
why did i come on my mission? this is what i want to remember.
we have told our missionaries on several occasions that the path we took getting here, was different than the path they took. we didn't fill out papers and have a plan of when we would begin. we didn't visit with our bishop and start thinking about if we would serve or not. we got a phone call one day requesting an interview with an Apostle of the Lord. i always believed jon and i would serve a mission one day, when we were older...retired...children married and settled...i don't know, at the
perfect time. our path was not like theirs.
i am grateful for my path though. it has taught me a lot about myself. i would have to say that i am on my mission because of the love i feel for my
eternal Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. my absolute faith and testimony in the great plan of happiness, in our Savior's magnificent atonement, in the restoration of all things in these latter-days, in a living prophet on the earth today, in the ordinances and covenants that bind us to our
eternal Father, and in the absolute necessity of each of His sons and daughters learning, knowing and believing in these things. having the opportunity to hear them taught. i believe that reason is very similar to my fellow young missionaries.
along with my love, faith and testimony, is the understanding that i have gained over my past thirty years or so of life, that if we will accept calls to serve (no matter how untimely, or how scary, or how unsettling, or how hard they may be) the Lord will magnify and lift us to fulfill His purposes. i believe with every fiber of my being that He can make a lot more of me than i can make of myself. He sees with a much purer and broader vision what i can and must become. i trust Him. i believe Him. i don't want to disappoint Him.
as elder hales said in the february ensign, "when is the time to serve? the best answer i can give you is,
when you are asked."
i also came on my mission because i knew how wonderful it would be to serve and love the missionaries we are here with, and the people of northern california. period. is it always easy? no way. do i ever feel like i know what i am doing? once in a while. do i pray for blessings to be upon our children and grandchildren in our absence? every day. president eyring assured us the Lord could do at lot more with our children than we could. he could make a lot more out of them. i believe it! i'm counting on it!
i am so grateful for elder marcus reid. he was an amazing missionary! my first missionary to call himself my missionary son. he understood his purpose. he worked with all of his might to fulfill that purpose. he changed many lives. including mine. i will forever be grateful to him for the opportunity to share why i came on my mission during that district meeting and for the many things i have pondered on since that day in thinking about how i might more perfectly answer that question. "ever grateful, never satisfied."
