Wow, I feel like I just stepped into the twighlight zone.....seeing those pictures of all my old high school friends was a very strange experience. Taylor would grow a beard wouldn't he, haha! That's so awesome to hear about the Mckeevers, to see them all, man it literally feels like a lifetime since I saw them. It felt like looking backwards in time seeing those photos. It's so weird to see how everything's changing so much. I never really knew what to expect with what would happen after high school, but right now I feel such a distinct separation between me and the people who were closest to me just a few years ago. A separation that comes from something more than beeing thousands of miles apart. It really made me see how right now I am in a very spiritually and socially isolated bubble.
I feel like my whole life I had an immediate support system of my family, friends, and church members to whom I could turn for the help and advice I needed. Now I feel like it's just me, the Lord, and my companion. Not to say that I don't get a lot of help and support from you all, these weekly emails are allways a huge spiritual boost for me, and I do get help and support from my other fellow missionaries. I just feel like right now I'm going through a one on one exchange with the Lord that lasts for two years. The type of friendships that I've formed here have such a different flavor than most of those that I made growing up and its kind of a strange thing for me to process right now.
But anyhow, life goes on and you just gotta roll with the waves. That was sooo awesome reading all those messages from Missy, Lyndsay, Erica, and Whitney. I'm so gratefull for the amazing cousins I have!! And unfortunately, I'm not allowed to email them all, so I guess this weekly email will have to suffice. If they want to send me their mailing address I can find some time and send them a letter! But I just want them to know that their words were a big strength to me, and that I love them all very much! I'm glad to hear that Uncle Cris is on the way to getting better. That sounds like a grizzly accident! I just want him to know that I will be keeping him in my prayers.
I'm sorry, I keep forgetting to ask Raul about the journal thing, but I'll be sure to talk to him about it this week. Things are still going well with him, but his grandma Elena said that her husband is against her getting baptized so unfortunately we won't be able to keep teaching her. She still sits in on Raul's lessons though. She's continuing to study the scriptures and the brochures we bring over. Raul is also continuing to progress well, and should be all ready for his baptism on the 24th. He still hasn't been to church, but we're going to keep encouraging Elena to bring him if he's at her house, and also talking to his mom, Cristina, about it. She's been out of the country for the past few weeks so she hasn't been able to take him.
This week's been pretty hard to be honest. This transfer we're putting a lot of focus on working with members and less actives to strengthen the branches and also to encourage members to be more involved in the missionary work. What that means for us here in Brasov though, is that we spend hours every day hunting down people that have been inactive for years trying to find out where they live, who they are, and hopefully to bring them back into activity. This branch is continuing to make slow progress though. I just have to keep telling myself that. It's almost indescernible, but it is progressing. But also with all this less active work means that we have to do a lot of contacting on the go, which is hard for me to do. I'm usually in all out contacting mode or not, and it's hard for me to find a middle ground and that's something I've been working on for a while. Probably it will be something I will be working on my whole mission.
I remember what you said dad a couple weeks ago about how one of the most important things I could teach my boboc is how to pace yourself as a missionary and not burn yourself out. That's something I've been thinking a lot about and It's been kind of hard not to get discouraged when we read all these teaching records that are all about how people have fallen away from the church and no one really knows what's happened to them. Tender mercies get me through each day, and I'm doing my best to keep my head up and have a positive outlook on everything. I know that this city will be even stronger than it once was, and I know that I am in the really important stages of growth that will probably determine a large part of the branch's future and that helps me stay positive and motivated.
Also, this last week I've started writing my first song in Romanian! It just started coming to me during language study several days ago, and I've been using my language study time to work on it. It's slow going partly because I'm trying to write poetry in a foreign language and also because I have do all the music in my head since I have no instrument to play it out on, but this has been an answer to my prayers. I've been thinking and praying a lot to come up with different ways I can use my musical talents for missionary work.
At interviews last transfer I asked President Hill if it would be possible for me to get a guitar, and he said that he would think about it and if I could come up with ways that I could use it as a missionary tool than he would probably allow me to have one. After that, the more I thought about it the more I thought that having a guitar would be more of a distraction than anything else, so I abandoned the idea. But the thought still lingered. I have this God-given gift, there must be some way I can use it to spread His gospel.
Then a couple weeks ago I was on another exchange with Elder Vekony and something he suggested was that I write songs for members and investigators. I had never really thought of that before. I had thought of writing songs in general but I never really could come up with a specific application. On top of that, every time I would try to come up with any kind of song lyrics I would immediately hit this block that told me I needed to be concentrating on other things. Then just this past week, this song just started coming out of me and I knew that it was inspiration. So I'm going to finish it and talk to President Hill about all this and hopefully something will work out.
So, that's probably the most exciting news for now. I'll let you all know what the outcome is in the next couple of weeks! Thanks again everyone for all your beautiful words. Every week I feast on them. I love you!
Elder Myers
No comments:
Post a Comment