This week, as you can see, Sister Samurai left! If you didn't know her, she was one of the sisters in my district, but her real mission call was to California, so she was just here waiting for her Visa, but she got it, and she left today after going to the temple! She is going to be a fantastic missionary in California. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to learn for her this last transfer. In her place a new sister, Sister Neff, will be joining the district for the last week and a half before transfer day! That's insane! It's already transfer day! I can't believe it. I swear we just had transfers.
This week was pretty intense. We were running all over the place! There was so many things to do! The sisters had another baptism, so there was preparations made for that, and then we have a music night this Saturday that we are preparing for that I have to play the drum set for, so that will be exciting as well! There is a ton of preparation going into this music night, so I think it will turn out fantastic.
This week I also had the opportunity to go on splits with our Zone Leaders, so that was a lot of fun. Those two are fantastic missionaries. I respect each of them so much. They do so much for this zone, it's incredible. We had to end our splits a little bit early though, because we had zone meeting that day, and Elder Brown and I were giving a training.
Recently, I have been studying the books of Samuel in the Old Testament. I have learned quite a bit from it. Recently I read the story of David and Goliath. There is so much in that story that I had never recognized before. I really tried to make myself David. I tried to feel as he would feel, and think like he would think in thi situation. And I was terrified. Goliath comes in and demands a duel, because in ancient times, in order to avoid a gratuitous amount of casualties, opposing forces would pick champions, someone to represent their side, and they would pit their champions against each other, and whichever team's champion came out victorious was declared the winner.
So the Philistines chose Goliath and demanded a duel, and so for four days Israel searched for a champion, but to no avail. They couldn't find a single man who would be able to give Goliath a run for his money. King Saul was stuck. Around this time, David's mother sent him off to the war camp to give his brothers some food. David, upon seeing the situation decided to fight Goliath. Saul, who by this point was out of options, decided that there is no other way. He chose David as his champion.
He starts to place armor upon David, but David says that since the armor has not yet been proved, he cannot wear it. This was really interesting to me. After much thought, I came to the conclusion that maybe the armor had not been approved. God had not approved the armor. Sometimes, God asks us to do things that seem ridiculous, or maybe even impossible, like to take the 10ft tall Goliath on in hand-to-hand combat alone, with no visible means of protection, and in David's case, a weapon that seems pretty ill-fitted for the task at hand. So David, with a sling in one hand, and a staff in the other, accepts the challenge laid by Goliath. Now we have to realize that if he loses, that it doesn't only affect him, but his entire country looses their freedom. So David, with this burden on his shoulders, approaches Goliath. And we all know how the story ends.
I'm out of time, but what I'm trying to say is that no matter how impossible a situation may seem, or no matter how unprepared you may feel, the Lord will always be there with you. The Lord will prepare you. He will qualify you for his work.
I love you. Keep pressing forward. Don't be afraid of failure, because you will miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Keep living, and journey on.
Elder Tolen
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| Cleaning the Baptism Font |
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| On Splits with Elder Christensen at a Member's House |
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