good stuff today. we had a really great pday, we carved pumpkins, ate big macs, I drank mtn dew for the first time in a year, and we just had a great time together as friends. Happy Halloween! dont want to think about next years halloween. spoooooky
So usually I try to be super positive in my letters home. Today Im going to take a kind of different perspective though. Mission life is amazing, but at the same time really hard and humbling. Im going to stray to the humbling side this letter.
So we live in a pretty cramped apartment with 6 dudes in total. Sometimes it gets a little stressful trying to keep it clean and things done with so much distraction. Its 4 gringos, (me, my comp, and the assistants) and 2 latinos from Bolivia (other secretaries). I got really frustrated one night because things just werent going well that day, with everything. I said a few harsh words to the other secretaries and they shot a few back. I felt justified, but there was a really bad spirit that entered the apartment. As I said my prayer that night, I got the strong impression to go say Im sorry, and to please forgive me. That was the opposite of what I wanted to do, and sometimes the Spirit tells us to do hard things like that. After a few minutes of internal struggle, I got up, knocked on their door and just kind of explained my feelings to them and said I was sorry, and to please forgive me. They didnt really say anything, but that bad feeling went away. I felt Gods assurance telling me I did the right thing.
I was pretty humbled that night, to do something I didnt really want to but was so worth it in the end. I was also humbled as we entered the field one night. We hadnt had really planned very well, and we walked around a good 2 hours trying to find, and enter into a house. Nothing worked. I went home that night feeling discouraged. I promised the Lord I would do better. A quote by the prophet comes to my mind, thinking about that, "Sometimes courage is the little voice that says, try again tomorrow". Thats probably not the exact quote, but thats how I feel it.
We also had district meeting today. I was thinking a real lot about the talk that Thomas S. Monson gave a few days ago, about being an example and a light. When I got here, I read a list of my duties. One of them was to be the example to the whole mission. That really struck me. We are pretty much in the spotlight of the mission, the face. I spoke to my district about how we can accomplish that, throw away that dang contention, throw away the attitude, put our heads down and just work and have that look in our eyes, that says, as it says in 1st Timothy 4:12, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an exampleof the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
When we are an example in that way, people will notice the difference and we will be a light in dark times. We lit candles and talked about it for awhile outside, it was real spiritual and its little moments like those that really make me love what I do.
Love what you do this week. Have a good one.
Elder Caldwell.
pics
the candles.
pumpkin head
a picture on my bulletin board
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