D&C 88:124 "Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."
- There's not a specific reason I'm including this scripture, the "anti-teenager-scripture," as my friend Jakon always called it. I suppose it's relevant.
Dear Fellow Captives,
Before arriving back in the states- before even knowing whether or not we would be returning home- I was in quite the state of mind, as one might have expected. I wasted away the days, cooking food, cleaning up, intending to do my studies but never really getting around to them. I don't mean to complain about having some downtime during the mission- some "paid-leave" as I liked to call it, but it was just downright frustrating- especially because our last week of work in Chile had been the most productive and fulfilling week of my mission by quite a ways. Whereas that week had been spent pushing mental and spiritual capacities; the final days had a distinctive air of slothful regression about them. During that time, as one might expect, our success was incredibly limited. Losing contact with many of our investigators so suddenly didn’t leave a lot of time for lessons. And, for that, I all but stopped my studies.
Perhaps this is just me, but the fact that I couldn't even bring myself to do my studies during time is somewhat embarrassing. Yet it is the same pattern that I've seen myself fall into my entire life. Summers have always been the slowest moving part of my years to the point where I would start to go crazy when I realized that there was still a month left until my life could be scheduled again. It's a strange sort of phenomenon that I've experienced many-a-time: where getting exactly what we want, this being time to relax and enjoy ourselves leads to an inevitable collapse of normality in our lives. It's the sort of world that we live in when there is no clear path ahead, and no goal to work towards; unless, of course, we set that goal ourselves. It's a world of slow-moving purpose, without stress or urgency. It's the world I find myself in right now, as I sit here writing a letter that I've restarted 3 times already since the last Monday (it was originally going to be about marine biology and it’s comparisons to the Plan of Salvation… until I realized that Marine Biology is well above my paygrade).
Already I've started to give up on doing my daily language study and last night's scripture study was done at 10:30 at night because I decided earlier in the day that playing the new Animal Crossing was of far more pressing concern to me at that moment- and, to be fair, it is a fantastic video game. I did do my scripture reading. But I did it out of a slightly guilty conscience and obligation than anything else. "Missing one day doesn't mean anything, does it?" I asked myself, knowing full well that such a question was as meaningless as the crushed up, forgotten leaves trapped somewhere in my suit's pocket. For this question was not one that I was willing to give an honest answer.
From a worldly perspective, missing one day of studying is all but meaningless. But I knew, knew, better. For it is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. And it was for a small thing that Joseph Smith prevented from removing the gold plates. And, as we are reminded in Alma 37:41, “miracles were worked by small means (God) did show unto them marvelous works. They were slothful and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey.”
This scriptural warning is very clear: Should we forget to do the small and simple things, then miracles in our life will cease. Should we forget to worship and respect the Lord our God, then the Lord our God will not help us on the final day. But should we do those small and simple things continually, prayerfully, then we can expect those miracles in our life necessary to bring us closer to the Savior and to relieve us from the frightening trials of the world that we so frequently find ourselves in.
Such is my life right now- small and simple. There is unfortunately little I feel I can personally do to further the Lord’s work; at least in comparison to what I was doing mere weeks ago. But with the knowledge of my eventual return to the field, I still have work to do. I still have a reason to study beyond personal growth, because I know that there are still people waiting to be found. I’m not a missionary right now, I’m just a teenager sitting at a computer. But though I no longer bear Christ’s name on my suit coat pocket, though I no longer carry a spare Book of Mormon around, and though my days are spent without speaking a word of Spanish, there is still some work to do. And, thinking of all the people in Chile, whose progress I can no longer visibly see, I find myself immeasurably comforted by the Lord’s promise that His work shall go forth, “ boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”
The Lord's work will go on with or without me, and all the other missionaries, present. I expect that our return will be met with more miracles and more hope than we had ever had previously. Because that's what it means to be the hands of the Lord: to trust Him, and His plan. To work hard, despite the circumstances. And to be humble and faithful enough to understand the honor it is to act in the name of Jesus Christ. Because things haven't changed as much as we think they have. A missionary's job, a member's job, is to invite everyone to come unto Christ and to be an example of the believers at all times and in all places.
I don’t know what’s happening to those I was teaching- Paz, Ruben, Juana, Carlos, Carlos, and Carlos, among others- but I can only hope that they continue to pray each night, continue to study the scriptures, and continue to feel the changing nature of Christ’s Atonement in their lives; even though some of them don’t yet understand what that is. I can only trust in Alma’s profound thought to his son Helaman found in Alma 37:6-7, my favorite verses of scripture (They mentioned that chapter a lot in Conference. I was very happy about it, especially since I wrote the majority of this letter beforehand).
“Now ye may suppose that this is afoolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by bsmall and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by ameans to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very bsmall means the Lord doth cconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.”
I can only hope that they, like me, continue to progress. Not through lessons, or visits, or concentrated and consecrated Missionary efforts, but through the small and simple things. The miracles in their lives. It's more than hope, actually. It's knowledge. Because God loves His children, and He won't let something so eternally trivial as all of the non-natives in South America slow Him down, not for long anyways.
Elder Monson
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| airport pickup |
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| airport pickup |
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| the day after he returned |
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| back to playing with his best friend, Mia |
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| 8 days later... the lego rocket is built |
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