More Patience

Well it has been a while since I last posted. But from what I last heard my mission papers have not yet been submitted to Church headquarters. I can't believe its been a month since I was able to complete my mission papers (which in itself took me a great while) and they still haven't been submitted! But I must learn to be patient. I think that is one Christlike attribute that I will really work on during my mission. I know a lot of you probably don't believe that I am an impatient person...but I am! I just don't show my frustration much. I just let most things slide. But this really is frustrating. All I want right now is to know when and to where I am leaving on my mission.

On another note missionary transfers have come again. Two of the missionaries serving here in the Raymondville branch will be moving elsewhere. My favorite Elder in along while, Elder Kapetaua is leaving to Sinton to serve as district leader. Sister Nelson is leaving to the Corpus Christi area. I will miss them tremendously and Kapetaua most of all. I love the guy! :/ But I know and understand this is just a part of missionary work. Transfers are made based on revelation and we shouldn't question it.


A while back at work I was thinking about faith and miracles. I think most of us don't see miracles in our lives because we don't have enough faith. For example if we ask Father in Heaven for a miracle most of us will be suprised when we receive it. That isn't faith! If we have faith we won't be suprised just greatful for the miracle. Does that make sense? It's sort of like Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. We don't read about Moses and the Israelites being suprised when he parted the Red Sea they just merely walked across the dry land without a word. I hope to have that faith someday! :]

I know this Church is true!

Patience

As I was studying the Gospel Principles manual this past week I ran across a checklist that lists Christ's attributes.(pg. 126, Preach My Gospel) We are supposed to go through the checklist and see what we have to work on. I need improvement in all of them but the one that really sticks out for me is patience. I don't think anyone can have the patience Christ had when he was here on earth but we can all improve in that aspect. I am a very impatient person most of the time I don't show my impatience I just keep it to myself but after a while I start getting headaches and moody. I don't like when things don't go my way and when things don't work the way I want them. One example of that would be when I was working on completing my mission papers. As soon as I was told that I needed to have my wisdom teeth taken out I went crazy. I knew that this was going to take money and time. I wanted to finish my mission papers as soon as possible and I needed to save money since I don't have health insurance. Instead of trusting that the Lord would open a way for me to have my wisdom teeth out I was trusting in "the arm of flesh" (myself). Once I realized that things were out of reach (wisdom teeth extractions are pretty expensive) I started to pray and ask the Lord for help. Thankfully I was able to find an inexpensive clinic here in town that did the work for me. It turned out I only needed one wisdom tooth out and he cleared me for the mission! It took me one and half months to complete my mission papers because of this but in the end I learned that I need to be more patient especially when it seems things aren't going my way. (2 Nephi 10:17, Romans 8:25, D&C 121:7)

Waiting is the hard part

Well I FINALLY had my interview with President Mata last Sunday! Things went well he will recommend me to serve a full time mission. He should be submitting my paperwork sometime this week. He told me it would take about two to three weeks for me to receive my mission call and that he would recommend that I be called to serve as soon as possible. I am very excited. I am just going to start counting down the days as soon as he tells me that he has submitted my papers. A lot of people have asked me where it is that I want to serve and my desire is to serve in Utah. I know I would love it there. Well I know every LDS missionary would love serving there just because of the presence the Church has there and because of the work the members do on behalf of the missionaries.

This past Sunday we had approximately 85 people in sacrament meeting which for the Raymondville Branch is a huge blessing and a record of course. My sunday school class though has been getting out of hand though. I have trouble getting them to listen up and starting class. So I was flipping through the manual Teaching:No Great Call which is especially for teachers and I found some great ways to encourage reverence during sunday school and I am looking forward to implement some of them.