First
of all, Randy is COMMITTED TO BE BAPTIZED! He made a date for himself!
We said sometimes with investigators we make a date with them to work
towards as a goal, not to force anything on him. In this gospel, you
have to do stuff, ya know? Not just think about stuff. So anyway, we
told him that and he surprised us, he goes, "How about April 2? My
birthday? Wait no that's too far away..." And we were
like...wait....WHAAT! Oh my goodness! So we said, "What about March 12
or 19?" And he said, "March 12." The EARLIER date! Haha! So awesome!
Turns out it actually has to be March 19 because we have stake conf
March 12 and so he'd have to wait a week to get the Holy Ghost in
sacrament meeting so that's not so bueno, so we just pushed it a week.
But, wow. The change that we have seen in him is amazing. He comes to
church on his own. He even made comments in sunday school. And in
priesthood meeting, he BORE HIS TESTIMONY on his own! Wow wow wow. He's
doing all these things all on his own (becoming an agent). We are
thrilled. He said with a twinkle in his eye he is excited to be
baptized, but very nervous. There's still a lot he obviously don't know,
but that's the thing, you don't have to know every single thing about
the church to be baptized. It's a life time journey. As long as you are
developing that faith in Christ, knowing that only through Him can you
make it to the celestial kingdom (and baptism is the first step to
that). Soooo yeah! Full steam ahead. We are going to take him to the
Family History Discovery Center this week and walk around the Seattle
Temple grounds!! You can do that once people have a baptismal date. We
are going to get names of his own family he can take to the temple after
he is baptized. So exciting, one step closer to being with his wife for
all eternity, just like he wants. :)
You never know what the Lord is doing to work with people... I tell ya.
So
that was the greatest part of the week. Other than that, the work is
prettyyyy slow. Randy is basically the only person we are working with.
We are striving to work with members to help them be revved up for
missionary work, as well as helping them with the people they are
working with. Tracting in Maple Valley is soooo hard. I'm super humbled,
because I got exactly what I wanted: I came to a rural place with
beauty all around, not a big city!!! But...that makes tracting so
hard... Hahaha. Not a lot of places and it feels like every single door
has been knocked on. But, I need to have faith in the knowledge that the
Lord IS preparing people to receive us. Sometimes putting in the
tracting time is hard, though, we don't always know where to go! We pray
a lot. Prayer is so important... This is HIS work and we need to do it
HIS way!
I struggled a looooooot this week,
though, emotionally/physically. I was sick most the week (weird stomach
thingy, idk) and it really made the work hard because I just wanted to
sleep. I felt so discouraged and didn't know if I could go on. I didn't
know if I could muster up the emotional energy to go out and interact
with people all day. We had a lot of adversity, too, just people rude to
us and a lesson going down hill and super off topic (when a lesson just
goes completely the wrong way digging into unnecessary deep doctrine, I
call that "orbiting kolob"... ha ha... Our lesson thursday night
definitely orbited kolob and was not effective at all), and just overall
feeling overwhelmed. It makes me feel selfish when I am worrying about
myself and my own issues, cause it takes away from the work. But, at the
same time, you gotta take care of yourself, right? The notion of
forgetting yourself and going to work is a lot more complicated than it
initially sounds. But, I made a decision this week, to resist the urge
to go fishing. I got super caught up with things at home and the past
and all that and I was more focused on that than the work, and I figured
out real quick that I can't do that. So, in referring to Jesus Christ
calling his apostles when he asked them to drop their nets and follow, I
will do the same and not look back. We know that a few of them did look
back and went right back to their old life of fishing. But, Christ
asked them to follow Him. So, on a mission, I have dropped my net and am
following Him, but I must also resist the urge to go fishing, whatever
my "fish" may be. It's soooo hard sacrificing your will to the Lord,
especially when you're just physically, mentally, and spiritually
exhausted. Resilience is not always the easiest. But, I know I must do
it. And we all know that sacrifice is a part of living the gospel. We
are asked to sacrifice all to follow Christ, to build up the church, to
serve our fellow men. Essentially, we are asked to sacrifice our own
will; the only sacrifice unique to ourselves that we can give to the
Lord. It's just so stinkin' hard, isn't it?! But, dude, a mission is
like the greatest thing I could be doing with my time! So of course I'd
be willing to do anything for Him! It's just hard when you're tired.
Ah,
life. It's never going to be easy. But, hard things refine us. They
help us become something. I was reading in my old Book of Mormon I
brought (actually it's Jenna's copy) and it's the one I used up at
school when I had a religion class at BYUI and in the margin I had
written something my professor said, "We're not here just to do stuff,
we're here to become something." That simple little statement reminded
me of so much truth. We're sent to this earth to experience adversity,
to give us a chance to choose the better part. We're here to become like
the Savior, to prepare ourselves to become as Heavenly Father. It's not
an easy process becoming as a god, though, is it? It's suuuuper hard.
But we know why we are doing it and why it's hard. When we keep that in
mind, we are more able to keep going and keep trying. But, hey, want to
know the coolest part? Heavenly Father knew it would be hard, and that's
why He sent the Savior. He is our constant support. We need not suppose
that we are to do this whole life thing alone. We literally cannot. We
NEED the Savior. Let me reiterate that. We NEED the Savior. It's not
just a good idea, or something we can recommend a friend that they
should try when they are having a bad day. No, the Savior's Atonement is
essential for salvation. We cannot do it or make it without Him. To
think we can do it on our own is selfish, because then we do not utilize
the incredible gift we have been given. There is no other name under
heaven whereby men can be saved. It is only through Him.
It's
a blessing to be celebrating the Resurrection of Christ this Easter
season. I think it's so cool that my mom was baptized around Easter, so
symbolic. :) May we remember that because He lived again, so will we.
Not only physically, but spiritually. What will you do differently this
Easter season with that in mind?
Take care, friends and fam.
Love,
Sister Eldridge
ps: forgot my camera cord! no pics. :(
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