Getting The Hang Of It

"And we would ask that Elder Donohue bear his testimony, and we'll proceed from that point."

...


"Wait, what?"

:]

I bear my testimony, those things I believe and know of a spiritual nature, quite a bit as a missionary. Where before it may not have felt natural to just say whats on my mind or my heart, I now can't honestly see myself going a day without even the smallest declaration of the hope that is within me. (1 Peter 3:15)

That being said, doing so on the fly with just a tiny bit of heads up publicly in church is still not one of my strengths.

As I took the few minutes available to try to think about what I wanted to say and how I would say it, I started to psych myself out just a tiny bit... a precursor to being tongue tied. I do that quite a bit. But then a small voice somewhere within me came and said,

"Just be yourself."

Yes! That's the right answer, perfect! Thats what i'll do, i'll just be myself. Just be me...

...
Well, who the heck am I?!?

Thankfully the voice came again,

"You are a child of God."

And that felt like a pretty good place to start a testimony! And so I bore my testimony starting with that and for the most part feel that I said what I wanted to say and it all went peaches and cream.

The more I reflect on that statement, "You are a child of God", the more I sense a deeper understanding with it. It speaks volume of the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father, it hints at our divine potential, and gives the feeling of peace and comfort knowing that there is someone who loves us and is looking out for us.

Elder L. Tom Perry once said,

"I can think of no greater teaching to our children than that of the power of prayer. We should do it by example, and take our children daily before the Lord and give them the peace and assurance that can come from knowing they are a child of our Father in Heaven."

Awwwwwww :)

I just want to +1 that statement by saying that I know of this truth because of prayer. No spiritual truth can be discovered and understood except through revelation, and the foundational and central truth of our God is always deepened through constant communication through prayer.

And that... is my testimony.

Blessings From Serving a Mission

Life as a missionary is something else. We almost feel like there is no real point in unpacking since we might get shipped off somewhere new every six weeks, we gotta "learn the area" and the geography of the land, we get to talk with brand new people who we've never met before about the gospel, and we always have at least one person in the area we are serving that takes us missionaries under their wing while we are there.

Learning the area is big on my mind right now seeing as how I've only been in Gallatin for about eight days now. I got two way awesome Elders who got it down so we don't get lost, but I'm convinced that the GPS came about to help further missionary work! The quickest it took me to learn an area was about two and a half weeks in Leitchfield Kentucky, but with larger area's you can plan on devoting mucho time to studying maps and such for the first four weeks of the transfer!

Its been an amazing change for me as I've been talking with people also... I never really went out of my comfort zone or anything before I came out on my mission, but now I'm getting to the point where I'm comfortable being uncomfortable. I guess it just naturally happens when you spend about eight solid hours a day talking with people, but it still surprises me that it has come so quickly.

However, the best thing so far has been the change I've seen in people. One of the first nights I came to Tennessee the other Elder and I split up to be more effective for the night, each of us going with another member from the local congregation to visit people. The family we talked to that night was having a really rough time, most likely the lowest point in recent memory for them. I knew next to nothing, I was far from eloquent, but as we talked and comforted each other we all found peace and felt the spirit.

Over the next ten weeks, that family grew immensely in their faith despite continued hardships. They put their trust in god and started coming back to church. Every time we returned, they smiled bigger and laughed deeper. The outside world had no sway over the spirit that was contained in that loving household that we were met with as we continued to talk with them. Though things were far from perfect, they started to bounce back.

Witnessing their growth strengthened my testimony. Their continued gratitude to god despite hardships deepened my love for my heavenly father and reminded me constantly to be grateful. I can honestly say that my life is fuller because of the wonderful example this family provided to me, and it makes me want to be the same thing for other people in life. If all of us start with ourselves and "Let [our] light so shine before men, that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father which art in heaven", I know we can make good things happen in the world starting with us.