Hi,
I loved conference and the reminder that it all comes down to the question, "how much am I willing to sacrifice of myself and go to work? As Elder Dube said in his talk, "in the sight of the Lord, it is not so much what we have done or where we have been, but much more, where are we willing to go." I have found this to be true. And this conference had so many underlying truths that were shared to me. First, did you notice how diverse the speakers were? Did you notice that in every talk they mentioned that Heavenly Father loves us? Heavenly Father wants this work to progress and he needs us missionaries, members, leaders, etc. to share the load of the yoke and move forward. I too, loved President Uchtdorf's talk, and we actually shared it with an investigator for the lesson, about two hours ago. It was in Spanish, but it had the same message. The Lord doesn't care what the tongue, race or nation is. Everyone needs to hear the gospel and that is what I must do!
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| I have this goal to keep track of one pen for a long time and be able to use up all of its ink. Before my mission I was always losing things and hopefully this will help me become more responsible. |
I hope you enjoy my story:
So for the past
two weeks, I have really been struggling with riding my bike. It never seems to
pick up momentum and it requires me to do lots of pedaling, just to go a short
distance. It looked like my back (disc) brakes were rubbing, so I thought that
I could just loosen the brakes a little more and be fine. Well, I did it and it
helped a little, but it was not the solution.
On Thursday we
had about an hour bike ride to an appointment, and it was raining. Being determined to come off my mission with
gigantic leg muscles, I kept my gear at the hardest setting and pedaled as hard
as I could. Because it was raining I had my rain suit on, which, by the way,
doesn`t breathe at all, which results in me being more wet than if I didn`t
have my rain suit on. It was so hot, and I was putting in so much effort to
keep the bike moving, but we were late and I couldn`t slow down. Of course the
entire bike ride I was praying, asking from help, asking that I would receive
the strength that I needed to get to where we needed to go. There was many
times that I wanted to decrease the gears to an easier setting, but I didn`t
want to be a wimp so I kept going. There was no extra strength given, no beam
of light shown down to fill me with Heaven`s energy. And once we arrived at the
appointment she said that she couldn`t meet today. Ugghhhh!!! I had biked so
hard to get to this ladies house, I didn`t receive the strength I had asked
for, and I was drenched in sweat, to the point that you could see through my
white shirt! And we still had the entire day ahead of us. We decided to grab
some lunch at a nearby McDonalds before we started proselyting in the
surrounding neighborhoods. I prayed again for what I should do for my bike, the
thought came into my mind, that maybe I shouldn`t try to be so tough and be
responsible and get it fixed. My companion who can speak Japanese way better
than I can, asked the cashier were the nearest bike shop was and after getting
directions we started on our way. I don`t think he really understood the
directions because 30 minutes later we were lost and I was drenched in sweat
again, with crazy cramps in my legs from pedaling so hard. I decided that I was
just going to ask someone myself, so after pulling over a gas station, and was
told in broken English that my bike doesn`t need fuel, and that gas stations
are only for cars (I’m sure he was thinking, “stupid Americans”). I explained
my problem, and after talking to his boss he finally gave me the directions to
the nearby bike shop (to which we promptly went after biking, 20 minutes back in the direction we had just
come from.) After we arrived at the bike shop and had a quick inspection, they
came to the conclusion, which I had already figured, that my bearings were shot, and that my brakes
are gone. They need the bike for two weeks or so, so I get a genuine Nihon bike
for two weeks. I have attached a picture. Some might ask what have I learned
from this experience and I can answer - write things in your journal, because
you will always have trials and mistakes in life, when you think the rough
times will never end. And it may not be funny in the moment, but once you look
back with an open perspective you are able to get a laugh out of most of your
trials and mistakes. And oh how I look forward to the next funny story.
Skyler
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