February 20, 2012

How are all of you? So I assume Mom and Dad that both of you have made it safely to New Zealand by now, hopefully. :D Hopefully you're getting lots of rest from all that flying. Well, this week for me... actually first off, we just found out that 2 days after my birthday, we get to go to a special meeting where L. Tom Perry will be speaking at it!!!! Anyway, that will be way exciting! The other day I was hoping for something like this since last year Elder Christofferson came. Anyway, this last week: I've been catching a cold, getting sick or something. But I'm going to be better. My voice just sounds funny and my nose is being funny, but besides that, all is well. :D Valentine's Day. How was everyone's Valentine's Day? For lunch we had a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. The Webbs gave us a gift card from there. And that was nice. We had dinner with some members - they were great. It was a good Valentine's, especially since when we went home and we both had a vase of red and white tulips from Brother Webb! That was sweet. (Sister Webb is out of town with a new born grandson.) Anyway, I love the Webbs. They are so great to us. We are kind of struggling to meeting with all of our investigators. They either get sick, or something happens, or they're making excuses. But we were able to meet with our one investigator (whose baptismal date is in June.) She's the only one we really meet with regularly. But she's doing well, not making any leaps or bounds yet, but I know with time she will come around. I just know it. Anyway, we met with a few of the less actives we are working with. And with our recent converts. Yesterday, we had dinner with some members. The wife, she lately has been frustrated with missionary work - it seems to me that she doesn't have enough faith in herself, that she's forgetting a few vital things, which I shall describe in a moment. The way she was talking reminded me of me in college, when I would get frustrated with my classes, with my tests, and then fail. I now realize it’s because I didn't have the right attitude towards those classes and I didn't believe in myself, didn't believe I could do well, therefore, I would usually do pretty poorly on those tests. What could have fixed my grades, what could fix that members frustration in missionary work, I have concluded, comes down to 3 questions, the 3 ABC's that President Monson talked about last month in the Ensign (-thanks Mom for pointing them out to me!) First, we need to have a positive attitude. If you have a positive Attitude about something, you will most indefinitely, yes, succeed in it. Also - in dealing with people - we need to have an attitude of love. If we are doing something out of love, miracles will certainly happen. If we don't, if we focus on the negative, nothing happens, if anything, misery will happen. So focus on the positive. Second, we need to Believe in ourselves. If we believe in ourselves, really, we can do anything. Don't doubt yourself, like I did in my classes, because then you will definitely not succeed. Having a belief that something can happen, that's when miracles happen. Anything can happen, if you only believe. Third is have the Courage. We cannot fear. So often in life I have feared. I feared those tests, I fear speaking out - nothing happens with fear. Miracles can happen when you have the courage to take them through. Courage takes you a long way. I love these 3 ABC's, I am going to make them into my motto of life. I will constantly ask myself, what is my attitude? Do I believe? Do I have the courage? I will hope that my answers will be. Yes! I am positive! I love this! Yes! I believe! Yes! I have the courage! Yes! This is the way!