"Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood you said it in has left you." George R. Zalucki
One of the Best Nights of My Mission
I read your comment about RM's telling about Christmas lights.
It isn't an over the top one, but it is special to me.
At first, I wasn't looking forward to the Christmas lights, but I eventually got into the mood. And early into the evening, I stopped a group of three people. After talking to them for awhile, I soon found out that they had passed a ton of missionaries, and I was the first to talk to them. And one of them was not a member and seemed kind of interested. So, I made a resolution to talk to everyone that I could. I did my best and the more I talked with people, the happier I became. And that old Christmas spirit that we all talk about, entered into my heart. It was such an amazing night. I will always remember it as one of the best nights of my mission. And the funny thing is, I didn't even receive one referral. It really does come down to how much YOU serve, rather than HOW MANY you receive. I just wish I would have known that during my first Christmas lights in the mission.
Hopefully this story helps.
And by the way, Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Tony AKA Elder Combe
photo by Richard Webb
When I was 14 or 15, I had a teacher that prided himself on being a thinker. We had some enlightening discussions in his classroom. He helped me ask some great questions that led to tremendous answers that still guide me today. We agreed on many things, but were at odds on a few. One of them was religion. I had a lot of respect for this man, but it amazed me that someone who claimed to be open minded was blind to just how closed minded he was when it came to God. He was always challenging my faith. He considered my beliefs to be a sign of my weakness. His claim was that unless it could be acknowledged by the 5 senses, there was no proof that God existed. I struggled as a young person to help him understand that he was limiting his understanding to what he had personally experienced, cutting himself off from other possibilities. The best that I could do was to try and help him understand how I knew; that things of the spirit could only be understood and perceived by the spirit. Years later, I still don't have a better answer to this one fundamental question, but I face the same dilemma. This blog is dedicated to preserving stories and experiences of missionaries in the Arizona Mesa Mission both during and after their formal missions. Some stories are fun and light hearted, but others are of a spiritual nature. The blog forum is so convenient, yet the format is limiting. There is more to these words than letters on a page. To truly understand the messages requires not only an open mind, but a soft heart.
After all, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what's a Heaven for?- Robert Browning"
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