This week was great! I have been faced with some interesting challenges this week. But of course, with any challenge in our life... there is always so much God reveals to us during the challenge. But lemme recap really fast before that
This week we received a little bit of a lift from our lockdown instructions. We can now be in people's homes if they are not members or recent converts. I was able to do an exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday to go to Ibiuna and visit Gaby again! It was so sweet!! She is so firm. I really feel like Alma when he says that God gives him joy through the fruit of his labors. Dang Gaby is amazing!! And it was good to be back in Ibiuna for a day. Such a special place full of special feelings for me!
We also were able to have an in person multi zone conference!! And the Horsley's are competitive so there was a good two hours of competitions which was so fun! They have a son who still lives with them, he is 17. It is so interesting, oftentimes Sister Horsley cannot accompany President Horsley because she is at the school helping work out things for her son here or she is taking her son out to go do something because he can not get a driver's license here until 18. Or President Horsely sometimes is unavailable because he takes his son to the courts and plays ball or goes swimming with the family. It is such a special aspect of mission president that I have not been able to see before. President Horsley has his priorities straight, husband first, then father, then mission president. I love seeing his example and learning from it!
Unfortunately one of our district leaders is being a stinker. I do not know if there is another missionary appropriate word for this. He is just a stinker!! He has decided that waking up on time, studying, planning, or trying to work are not necessary for him. Technically since he started his mission in this mission in January he has baptized 7 people already. It is remarkable that someone so disobedient can see so much "success" in the mission field. He served for a year in his other missionary assignment but was sent home due to some struggles and was reassigned to return to our mission. So he is a pretty experienced missionary, but he just believes the rules do not apply to him because he has been able to baptize without following any of them since January. Of course, this week we have been doing our best to help him and in some cases try to help him see his need to correct his approach as the scriptures teach us. As a matter of fact President Boyd K. Packer once said, "When you withhold needed correction from someone, you are only thinking about yourself". Which is a pretty hard quote to swallow because all of us have had times in our lives where we justified not correcting someone for whatever reason. But at the end of the day, we were only thinking about ourselves.
So... we have been trying to help this Elder make the needed changes so he and his companion can better serve the Lord. Of course, with any correction given it HAS to be followed by an increase in love. The love needs to be greater than the correction. And as we have been working with this Elder and trying to help correct him, he has been absolutely terrible haha. The problem, he is a District Leader. He is actually our District Leader. So we really need him to shape up because he has a job to help lift other missionaries and help them be more obedient. But dang it he just does not want anything to do with the rules. He brought up the fact he has been wildly successful baptizing people without following the rules and claimed that obviously he does not need to follow the rules to teach and baptize with the Spirit. This Elder has been tricked by the adversary. As missionaries we do not follow the missionary rules so that we can become better baptizers. We follow the rules so that we can become better disciples. So we can become more converted and more anchored on Christ. It is a privilege that missionaries have that others do not have. We have all kinds of rules and restrictions on what we can do and watch and listen to and all that. But what a privilege! We have 2 years or 18 months to receive so many blessings from being obedient. We have so many ways to be obedient it is amazing. Unfortunately, like this Elder, too many believe following the rules= to help get more baptisms which is not the way this works. Commandments are given to help rivet us in Christ! In every single one!!!
So what have I learned?
1. My Dad taught me that what I can NOT do is ever ever ever lose hope that this Elder can change. And I need to not let him think I have lost hope in him. Because, there is always hope. Any wayward son can return! I am learning my need to be a greater beacon of hope for others.
2. I also have learned the importance of the family and the un-importance of friends. And what do I mean by that... We were not sent here to gain friends. How many times in the scriptures are friends brought up? Or in the doctrinal lay out of the Plan of Salvation? Very, very, rarely. Family is what is talked about so much. Luckily, all of our friends can be a part of our family. Our family is the family in Christ. A family of covenant keepers that will be together forever in the Celestial Kingdom. This is our job. Not to gain more friends, no, our job is to gain more family members. And we do that by inviting all to come and make covenants and keep covenants previously made with Christ. This Elder that has been struggling is a dear friend of mine. We were companions before! I love him. But I realized this week that I need to stop caring about my friendship and start caring more about my potential eternal family relationship with him. Because you will not be with your friends forever, but with your family forever. Your family in Christ. Moral of the story. Friends are un-important because they are not eternal. Family is important because it is eternal AND our job is to invite all to join our family by being baptized and making covenants in the temple!
3. No one will ever be perfect. Do not expect perfection when giving correction. But you can expect effort.
4. Never ever feel bad that oftentimes we will be inviting others to do things that even we are not perfect at. By correcting someone you are just extending the same invitation Christ has extended to all of us. If they have a problem with you extending the invitation because you are not perfect, tell them to take that one up with Christ. The talk, "Be Ye Therefore Perfect- Eventually" by Jeffery R. Holland capitalizes this idea perfectly.
So, I am still learning. We are still trying to help this Elder. But I am so grateful for lessons I have learned by going through this process with him. My new companion is a new Zone Leader and he's so sweet and tender that he has been crying this whole week over the situation. It's so sad because his heart is so big and soft but also so funny. Mid call we are talking and trying to help this Elder and he just walks off to the corner crying. He's got such a big heart! I love him!!
That's all for now.
Love,
Elder Hixon
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