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Memorable F&T meeting |
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Dec. 5 1999:
Okay, yesterday we went to the temple and I kind of wanted to do baptisms because I thought there was a chance that Carrie would be there, but no one else wanted to, so we did an endowment session instead.
At dinner yesterday I came to find out that some other Italian Elders, who did do baptisms, saw her and talked to her...ARGH! So close and yet so far, and she still hasn't written me a letter. I had better get on this tuesday...
Okay today was fast Sunday...fast and testimony meeting was great...I'll write about 2 testimonies that really touched me:
1) An elder that arrived a few weeks ago who has a slight lisp bore his testimony about the love of God, and what touched me is the power that Christ and his Gospel have to change people's lives. This Elder said that he can barely stand to look at himself in the mirror. He can see everyone elses abilities and blessings and sees nothing in himself. He said that he used to stand in the shower and scrub his face with soap until it was bleeding just because he hated himself so much. But he said that every night he prays, he gets a good feeling inside and knows everything will be fine. During the day he gets frustrated again, but he always has the prayer to fall back on. He said he knows, for sure (and I felt the truth of it), that he would be dead now if it wasn't for Christ's love and this Gospel. What power this gospel has to save lives...to know that there is one who loves unconditionally...to pull those flailing in the dark into the light. What awesome truth is the light of this Gospel.
2) The other was from a sister missionary. I liked her testimony because she shared an awesome experience that touched me. This sister has a genetic defect with her knee that makes her have to be very aware of which muscles in her legs are strong and which are weak. She goes to the doctor once a week for a checkup. On Monday she went and got her checkup and that night we had a speaker. The speaker was the president of the primary...she gave an analogy in her talk: She said "look down at your shoes...look at the shoes of the people next to you...what do you notice about them? Probably a lot of differences, but there is one thing that they all have in common...they are all pointing in the same direction...we are all focused on the same goal." The sister missionary then shared that morning the doctor had informed her that, for her legs to be in the best shape possible, she had to keep her toes pointing straight forward. The this is, is that this is difficult for her because they naturally point in different directions. She has to make a very conscientious effort to do what has been told her.
I just thought it was a great example of how important it is to keep on the path and pressing forward, even though it is very difficult.
And now, back to the ABW situation. It's come to my attention that he has a major crush on the sister in our district. He writes her letters and flirts with her a lot. She tried to be nice to him because he was having so much trouble, but he took her affection in the wrong way. This, in combination with the many of situations happening now, have brought the prospect onto the table of him being sent home. It's horrible to imagine that prospect, but it seems to be looking like the best option at this point.
The reasoning is that his problems wil just become more serious in the mission field. It's tough to see my D.L. struggle with this because he doesn't want to believe that it's the right decision, but he knows it.
Personally, I don't know if it's the right thing to do to send him home. There's something that tells me it could work out, but also something that says a short wait with some added wisdom and experience in the future might be best. One thing that I do know for sure...his stay at the MTC has helped him grow and learn more about himself...things I don't think he would have learned anywhere else. |
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