It has been a short and relatively uneventful week! Our p-day was moved to Saturday this week, since Monday is Koningsdag (King's Day)! I'll have more to tell you about that next time I'm sure. In the meantime I only have 4 days to report on, so enjoy the following brief update!
The first part of the week was pretty normal, teaching some good lessons and looking up some people. On Thursday we randomly had about 5 hours with no scheduled appointments, which meant looking up people and lots of contacting. However, the weather was lovely that day and we were able to get in contact with a couple people who had been MIA for a while, so that was wonderful! It's funny how just a few minutes of success can make hours of drudgery worth it. :)
A bit of awkwardness from that day: at the end of looking up/contacting all those people our brains were a little fried, so as we were biking home for the night and we saw a pretty airplane contrail next to the rising moon we got a little overenthusiastic about taking a picture of it. That's about when we noticed the guy sitting on his balcony 20 feet away from us... awkward. :P Haha, if nothing else hopefully we added a little humor to his evening! As missionaries we are blessed with an extra measure of strength and the Spirit to do what we need to do. However, it only goes so far! In fact, I've decided that missionaries must really be "good eggs," because by the end of each day we feel whipped, beated, scrambled and fried! :D
Some exciting news from the week: in President's letter this week he mentioned that our mission will be getting iPads sometime in 2015! I imagine it will still be a few months at least before they come, but that will be an interesting change to be a part of. The Lord truly is hastening His work in every way, in every location in its own time!
And now, a little something I've been pondering recently. As a little kid, I always thought missionaries were perfect. As a missionary now, I know that that is very far from the truth! We make so many mistakes, I sometimes wonder how the work ever gets done. I think sometimes in normal life everyone wonders at times if they are really progressing or whether we can still be good, confident people despite our many mistakes. The Book of Mormon has really helped me to understand how we can, in the passage just after King Benjamin finishes his sermon:
"1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had thus spoken to his people, he sent among them, desiring to know of his peopleif they believed the words which he had spoken unto them.
2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of theirsurety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have nomore disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:1-2)
First, it begins with faith. We must believe in what we have been taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the possibility of progression. As we do so, the faith turns into knowledge through the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost. This process produces that "might change of heart."
Second, see how that change is manifested in our thoughts and actions. This is the part where I often got confused. I always thought that having "no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" meant that these people basically became perfect, because they couldn't be tempted anymore. I know think that's not quite right. The word "disposition" doesn't mean that you can only do something a certain way, but that you have a tendency or preference to do it a certain way. In other words, they definitely still had temptation, and probably succumbed to it from time to time - but, overall, their primary desire and tendency was to do good, to choose the right, and to avoid sin. If we also desire these things, if we want to serve God and strive to be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, then it could also be said of us that we "have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continally."
Perhaps many of you already knew all that, but it was a little reminder to me (and I hope it will be to you) that we are not perfect people, but progressing people part of God's perfect plan. So put on a confident smile, savor the beautiful feeling of desiring the ways of God that the Holy Ghost has put into your heart, and go out and "do good continually." :)
-Zuster Jensen
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