Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Cheese, Harrison Smith, and Other Stuff



Greetings!

Another week has come and gone. The days are flying by. 

We had zone conference this past week. We watched a little cartoon based off the popular book: “Who stole my cheese?” The video has a depiction of two men who leave their houses everyday to a big mountain of cheese. Every day they eat this cheese. Then one day they find the mountain of cheese is gone. One of the men becomes angry and wants to know who is to blame. He wants to know who did this to him. The other suggests that they can go looking for other cheese but he says he doesn't want new cheese - he wants the old cheese. The other takes proactive steps. He goes searching for new cheese. The difference is that this man visualizes success. He is willing to take a risk, think positively, celebrate little successes, and can adapt and enjoy the taste of the new cheese. 


I like the idea that our reaction to certain situations is the key to our state of being. As missionaries, it is easy to live in the past and want the old cheese and forget to enjoy changes and a new challenge. It can also be easy to be negative and search for someone to blame when things don’t go right. I am feeling ready for a new challenge in a new area. I have absolutely loved it here in Gazcue but am ready for a change. I feel that I have done what I can do here. While I was watching the video I was reminded that I need to be adaptive and make the most of what I have because where we work is out of our control. 

Someone shared a spiritual thought this past week that I really liked. She talked about how Laman and Lemuel were actually quite obedient in the quest to go retrieve the plates. They did what they were told but with a bad attitude. They complained and said, "it is a hard thing which is required of them." It is interesting how much of a difference their attitude made. Our obedience isn’t beneficial if it is done with a heavy heart. 

At zone conference a missionary was showing us pictures of his family. I saw a picture of him at his baptism with the two missionaries that taught him. One of the missionaries resembled Harrison Smith. I asked him the missionaries name and sure enough he said: Elder Smith. I told him “no way, he married one of my best friends.” It’s a small world in the church. 


We got to go through the temple this past week because robert went to do baptisms for the first time. That was wonderful. Also, my companion is working on her English. We practice as we are walking in the streets. My companion lives 20 minutes away so she often runs into family and friends in the street or in the market.  It would be very different to serve so close to home.

I got a dear elder from uncle Robb. Thank you Robb! He has such a funny sense of humor. 
Also, I straightened my companion’s hair this past week. She showed me how to do it. I gasped and told her she was going to fry her hair. She told me, "hermana calm down. My hair is very different than yours." Ain’t that the truth. Mine would fall out if I straightened it like she does. 


peace and blessings, 
meg

"Write your fears, grief, and the things that offend you in the sand and the things that make you happy in a stone. For the words in the sand will be erased by the tide but the words in the stone will last."

"Is man what he seems to the astronomer, a tiny lump of impure carbon and water impotently crawling on a small and unimportant planet? Or is he what he seems to Hamlet?"
                                                                        - Bertand Russel 




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