I am sick.
Not fun.
Ah, c'est la vie.
Hey all!
Despite my head cold, the work goes on. This transfer's been weird so far but we're working hard and the adjustment's been alright. I like having a specific objective to prepare for with District Council almost every week. It helps me have a lot more direction in my personal scripture study every day when I've got a specific topic to prepare a lesson on. This week's topic was the Law of Obedience and why obeying the Lord is so key to us "standing in the river of God's love."
I've been feeling under a lot of pressure lately, which is always a mixed bag. Being a new District Leader and training Elder Kemp leaves me absolutely trashed almost every night, so actually journaling and exercise, two tried and true stress relievers, have been far and few between. However, I've found I perform a whole lot better when I have more responsibilities anyways, so I guess it's a good thing in the long run. I should be fine as long as I don't spontaneously combust one day.
What's got me particularly worked up right now is that in just about an hour, I'll be playing the piano in a big meeting of over 50 missionaries and our mission leaders called Zone Conference. It's the kind of thing where I feel like I'd have it down with more time, but with only a week of practice for 30 minutes a day and a jammed finger from basketball yesterday, I'm pretty nervous. The Sister that's putting this all together was cool with just finding someone else, but I decided this is something I really wanted to do.
I've never played an accompaniment before and I just started to get back into piano this summer before I came out, but I kind of look at this whole experience as a chance to take the opportunity God is giving me to improve my musical skills. I want to be better at the piano; very much so. So, God, being the loving Heavenly Father that He is, is giving me a chance to get better at it right here and now. Simple as that. There's a lot of parallells in this opportunity He gave me with the opportunity to serve a mission, but for the sake of time I won't go into that this time.
Update: well, I took too long writing this and Zone Conference is actually already over now. I thought I bombed it pretty badly, but people still told me I did a great job anyways, so at least I was in good company. This whole experience reminded me strongly of a talk called "Christlike Poise" by Elder Mark A. Bragg.
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色んなイベント:
- Brain go fast need exercise. My mind is always going and sometimes when I don't work myself enough both physically and mentally, my frontal lobe just doesn't turn off at night. Some days I just have trouble sleeping regardless. My brain is like a garbage disposal that won't turn off: if I'm not constantly feeding it some big idea to process, it gargles angrily at me until I throw it something new.
*Pause in the conversation at Thanksgiving dinner* "I can't read books" - Elder Kemp
- I keep thinking about my cousins' cabin in Greer. That place is the spot. Shoutout to the Steeles for letting us hang out up there all the time.
- Talked about a book series I loved as a kid, Heroes of Olympus, for the first time in years in a rush of nostalgia with Elder Klingler. Elder Klingler's legendary. "Man, I just wanna be obedient."
Elder Taylor: suffice to say he loves video games. He's 100% completed both of the last two Legend of Zelda games that have come out, so those of you who know what that means you know he's legit. Apparently he's an insanely hardworking missionary, too, but I don't see much of him much, as he and Elder McKee are banished to Grove, Oklahoma, the purgatory of the Bentonville Zone.
- Interviewed someone for baptism for the first time. A nice lady named Heather that the Centerton sister missionaries are teaching is getting baptized tomorrow, and the first thing she said when we met on Monday is that I look like Ryan Gosling's brother. Bonus points for Heather.
- Piano ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
- Elder Kemp's alarm at 6:00 am every morning is the entire "Honey, where's my super-suit?" scene from The Incredibles.
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Thought: 1 Nephi 1:20.
"...the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
I had another hard week. Well, none of them are easy, but this last week was particularly depressing. I'm working hard but struggling with sleep, energy, and motivation, and, for no particular reason I can remember, last Friday was just one of those days.
Well, I was sitting in a training meeting for Elder Kemp at a particular low and I just thought, "Man, I really need to know that God loves me right now." So, I said a prayer and decided I'd endure for the moment to see what happened as I put my trust in the Lord. After a few minutes of not feeling anything in particular, I checked my phone and...huh. Would you look at that. A random text out of the blue from Garrett.
"'There’s surely somewhere a lowly place in earth’s harvest fields so wide where I may labor through life’s short day for Jesus the crucified'
Hymn #270"
I don't think he knew that "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go," Hymn #270, was my favorite hymn. I don't think he knew it's what I listened to on some of my lowest days nor that that particular verse was my favorite, either.
My friend received a spiritual prompting to reach out and he listened to it. Thanks to him, I received my answer from the Lord. It's funny how often my answers come from the inspired actions of other people.
I talked with my parents a couple of days ago and my mom mentioned a talk that was given this past Sunday by someone in our home congregation whom I know really well. She asked the question, "What percent of surety do you need in order to act on a prompting? Twenty percent? Thirty percent? Ninety percent? How much confirmation do you need before you act on an impression?"
I've thought a lot about how many times I've randomly had a friend's name pop into my head and haven't done anything about it. I realize now that I want to lower that threshold for acting on spiritual promptings. I want to become the kind of person who is in-tune enough with the Holy Spirit to give the kind of inspired support that my friend gave me last week.
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Songs of the week are "See You Soon" by Coldplay and "Luv(sic)" by Nujabes. Give 'em a listen for me, they're good.
My album isn't working for some reason so there's nothing new in the way of photos, but, as always, here's the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sk1refRidSszyYk7
That's all for this week, folks. Merry Christmas!
Elder Rigby
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