Elder Tolen's Adventures in the Japan, Tokyo South Mission: Week 62 [71]: Baptisms, and President Whiting

Monday, February 8, 2016

This week has been crazy busy. The sister here in Fuchu have been working remarkably hard, and this week, they had two baptisms! It was crazy! I've never been so busy in my entire life! We are busy from the second we wake up until the the second we hit the bed. I'm exhausted, but I've never felt more satisfied in my life.

We have been able to see so many miracles this past week. This week, we had a conference with the area president, President Whiting of the seventy. That was an amazing experience. I learned so much from him. I was able to receive a lot of personal revelation in order to help me progress. I learned that I should not be afraid of finding my limits. I shouldn't fear reaching the edge of my capabilities, because that's when we let the Lord take over. It's only once we reach the edge of our boundaries that we can progress forward. In order to improve, we need to push to that edge, then rely only the Lord. I've realized that over my mission I've been so scared of pushing myself because I've been terrified of finding out that my best wasn't enough, and at the conference I realized that I was completely wrong. It when we do our best, that the Lord can help us obtain our full potential, because in all honesty, from an eternal perspective, our best will not ever help us obtain salvation. At least, not on its own. It is through the power of Christ that we can progress,and it's through our faith in him that we grow.

Today while studying in the Old Testament, I was reading the book of Nehemiah (which I had forgotten was a book in the bible until this morning), and I was able to read chapters 1-8. In these chapters, it covers Nehemiah leading the construction of a wall. I was pondering it, and I was trying to figure out why this wall was so important. I then began to liken the wall to faith, and the thing the wall was protecting was our testimony. We have to continually have our guards round about protecting our faith from things seeking to destroy it, but simultaneously constructing the wall, because even the best of guards get tired, and that wall needs to be there in order to protect our testimony. And then, once our wall is sure, and our faith is stable, we start to gain more knowledge. We start to increase the substance of our testimony, and we begin to thrive. We begin to grow in ways we can never imagine, but it is only through hard work, and determination. I would highly recommend reading those chapters, because I couldn't cover everything that I wanted to in a small email, and there is just so much great spiritual feasting to be had in those chapters.

Using this revelation, I was able to come up with a theme for our district this transfer. The theme is "Strive." We are going to strive to be our best selves, and reach our full potential as servants of the Lord.

It was a great week. I'm loving every second of the time the Lord has allotted me in this vineyard. There isn't anywhere I would rather be.

I love all of you, and I pray for you all continually.

Elder Tolen