Sunday, December 1, 2013

The Works!

Alright ladies and gents, let us touch base a bit on this week.
We have this new member who likes us to come over every Thursday for dinner, right? (Seriously, mana from heaven. THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR.) She (Irene) cooks this fat pot of food and we all just chow. Usually it consists of cabbage, carrots, onions, peanuts, and a huge slab of pork (skin and all). This all comes with a side of rice... Now, I went to town on this stuff. Elder Johnson, however, eats a little slower and a lot less thanI do. She asked me if I was full and I said "Ohhhh feichang bao le" (Really full). (She had about a quarter of the fat pot left and wanted us to finish it). I then said "Hmmm ni yinggai gei Zhang zhanglao zhe ge shuwu-- ta HEN XIHUAN Ni de shuwu. Ta bushi chibaole." (Hmm you should give elder johnson the food-- He LOVES your food. He isnt full)
Needless to say, she made him eat...  not one, not two bowls of food that night.... but SEVEN WHOLE BOWLS. Oh did I mention she gave Elder Johnson and I the largest bowls there? hehehehe. My boy is growing up. (He was a little mad at me afterwards, but I thoguht it was hilarious ahahahah.)

 
We had a mission conference this week. From 8 am to 1pm. Wowzers is right.
 
We had a member of the quorum of the seventy (Elder Teh--an asian-- awesome right? Doesn't speak the Chinese language though. Bummers.)
What did I learn? I ton. Is this stuff applicable to those not currently on missions?
Absolutely.
Since there was SO MUCH we talked about, I will hit on my favorite part!
Elder Teh made a comparison between Finding Nemo's EAC (East Australian Current) and us.
Now, there are three zones: Excellence (Being at the top), the large swirling current (Being in the middle) and the question mark zone (at the bottom). I will attempt to draw this using the email...
                  --------------------------
Excellence:________________
                   /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Current:
(EAC)                  
                   \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
                   ---------------------------
Question     ????????????????
Zone:          ----------------------------

Alright, now that we are done doing the picture, I can get into detail...
People in the top and bottom zones often get swept into the current. (Bottom zone is when one is a red flag on the radar-- "why is he even out here?" "Does he care about his mission at all?" So on and so forth. Most people don't want to be here, so they lay low and get swept into the EAC)
Remember the EAC, with all the turtles? Some of them were new, whereas others had been there for a long time! The EAC gets you to where you want to go-- all you have to do is relax, take it easy, and success will come and go-- get a few baptisms here and there,  some golden investigators, some reactivated converts, no worries! Every mission has an EAC. Isn't stressful. Most of the missionaries are in there. Like the current, you will have highs and lows. Unfortunately, while in the current, our highs and lows get dictated by the current, instead of by us. We follow the standard "on fire, on rest" cycle many missionaries follow.
Why do so many people join the current? Well, It is comfortable! You do the same amount of time on a mission and you still get the honorable full time missionary status, just without all the stress-- awesome, right?
This reminds me of a quote some old geezer told me once (I think it may have been my dad... ;) )
"If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well!" Point? Everything you do should be 100%. What is the point of not giving your all at something? You will never be as good as you could have been, and you will (yes, you WILL) look back and think "What if I worked harder..."
That stinks.

The key word here, in life, in mission, in work, in WHATEVER is ... DILIGENCE.

My mission president's favorite definition for diligence goes like this...
Diligence is doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it because you know you should.

For a missionary, this means being more effective, being more on time, and being more obedient.

What about for you? How can you push yourself? How can you strive for excellence? Is what you are doing every moment of the day important? Is it the best thing you could be doing with your time? Everything we do is molding us or developing in SOME way-- whether it be towards a good, worthy end, or to a not so desirable end. What end are your actions leading you to?
 
This is one of my huge goals this week-- DILIGENCE! I invite you all to think about how you can improve yourselves as well through improved diligence :) STRIVE TO BE GREAT PEOPLE!

Well, I have to get off now! I love you all! Take care :)

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