Dear family and friends,
This week was an exercise in turning 2 different obstacles into advantages and if I dare say so-- I think we succeeded! Let me give you a run down of how it happened:
Obstacle 1: Getting trippled in. Figured out on day 1 that it wasn't actually a new area, just an elders' area that had been turned into a sisters' area; but still. Nothing was organized and there were about 2 investigators. Let's just say we spent a LOT of time on the floor of the study space filing through papers.
Obstacle 2: Picture this. Hermana Lindsey is sitting on the floor with an ice pack on her head and her feet up on one of her suitcases. Her ride to corona leaves in about 15 minutes. Scene.
Nurse calls.
"Sister Lindsey? The medical advisor wants you to take off an entire week of work to make sure your brain completely heals." CUE TEARS. PURE TEARAGE. AN ENTIRE WEEK? In missionary life, a week is like an ETERNITY.
This needs a little back tracking. Hermana Lindsey thought she'd be real real helpful at a service project and decided to move all of the items out of a little tiny closet. Unfortunately in so doing, she happened to stand right up into the door frame of this closet. Two days later when her head still hurt so bad and it was so hard to remember things that she started crying after giving the restoration message at a baptism, her companion made her call the nurse. And thus...the above occurance.
Nevertheless, back to where we were. Basically, right before going to Corona; I got told I'd have to take the whole week off. Now; for the first day I had a TERRIBLE attitude about this. But then, on Tuesday, I remembered that book I had been reading right before I left for my mission-- "The Obstacle is the Way". And in that book, it tells you that you should look to make every obstacle an ADVANTAGE. And so I thought-- how can this situation be advantageous?
And here is what I came up with:
1. WE CAN GET TO KNOW THE MEMBERS REALLY WELL REALLY FAST and
2. WE CAN HAVE LOTS OF MEMBER PRESENTS (lessons in which a non full time missionary is there to teach and testify)
and so off I went to call loads of people so that we would have teamups for nearly every hour of the entire day after lunch. CUE: VERY VERY STRESSED FEELINGS but also A DESIRE TO CONQUER THE WORLD AND TURN MY OBSTACLES INTO ADVANTAGEOUS SITUATIONS.
I called literally 13 different people in our ward that first day before we got somebody to go with us. But when we did, I literally made noises of joy. They must have thought I was very weird. But, MAN WAS THAT SATISFYING! Anyways, and so it continued all week. And we didn't have the greatest/most successful week in the world but CONSIDERING OUR ADVANTAGES we did a pretty AMAZING job. And we went from 2 investigators to SEVEN. So there concussion and getting trippled in in the same week-- TAKE THAT!!!
Spiritual message:
Diligence is very important to our Heavenly Father. We can pray for a way to make something better, but until we act-- nothing happens. Heavenly Father works miracles-- but He does them THROUGH our hands. We have to work if we want miracles to happen. And sometimes that means we have to stretch ourselves to the limit. Cause that's what creates miracles-- DILIGENCE.