There is quite a bit that happened this week. I don’t know how I’m going to explain it all. I guess it started with a call… like every good story does. I was talking to the Snohomish Elders (my last area) about what areas could be split. We have so many new missionaries coming in that we have to open at least ten new areas… but that’s another story though let me keep focused here. Elder Gasser brought up an investigator that they taught once who technically doesn’t live in their ward. He’s also a single adult age and wants to get baptized. So… yeah… that’s a bummer for them. But we started teaching this kid, and he’s going to be baptized this Saturday into our ward. So…. I’ll go ahead and stamp a miracle sticker on that one and move on to the next thing.
I got a call from my good friend Elder Bonsteel. He said he just got out of a lesson with someone who moved from Oklahoma and already had all of the lessons. He’s also YSA age and lives in our boundaries... so we need to start teaching him. He has a baptismal date for a couple weeks from now.
Our investigator from WWU might be baptized this week too. We’re still working that out… if not it will happen soon we’re just figuring out the small things now.
You know, it was a good week. We got to do this thing called proselyting…. which happens to be my favorite. We worked…. and found five new investigators this week. Four were at church. Just like… man… I don’t know why all these miracles are happening. Elder Draper and I were talking about it… why are all of these blessings happening to us right now? We talked about it for a good while and somewhat concluded that it’s just happening… it’s not us. It’s them and God… but we still have a part to play. We need to just help them on the journey. Now that they’ve been placed in our hands… we just can’t blow it. We have been trusted with a lot lately. I haven’t even mentioned the four other referrals from missionaries that already accepted a baptismal invitation. Maybe all this won’t turn out to anything… maybe we won’t be able to get a hold of them or something. Maybe all of them will hold strong and follow Christ. I don’t know. I just want to do my part.
Here’s a little story that we love. We went to Burger King because Elder Draper had hecka gift cards. Three of them… with different amounts on each card. We didn’t know how much was on each. But we had no money… just the gift cards. We’re broke. We’ve been eating cashews for breakfast because we haven’t had time or money to shop. We tend to have these fun meetings on P-days that take up our day. Anyways… three gift cards. No money. Pressure is on. The total amount came up $13.69 or something like that. First gift card paid like eight bucks. So she asked for the second. We handed her the next card. She swiped the card and said we still owed $.46… so we hand her the last gift card. Guess how much was on it… 46 cents. You’re dang right we had the exact amount on those gift cards. Not a penny more or less. What’s up miracle! What’s up….
It’s cool being here in the office because every day is different. You just never know what you’re going to do the next day till it hits you in the face. Like we went into the office one day and Elder Cahill, the driving coordinator, asked if we were busy that afternoon. We told him that we were and so he made a few calls and then said get in his car. So we drove down to Seattle to an old car dealership. We pull up to see two brand new Aston-Martins. Not really… they’re the new Ford Fusions… but they look like dang Aston-Martins. Elder Draper and I each got to drive them back to the mission office by ourselves. It was business classy. We pulled out revving the engine with our sunglasses on. Posers. Living the dream.
Well… I’ve had a lot of thoughts in my head this week. For some reason I thought a lot about Adam. I thought about the creation and failure and the beginning. Adam….transgressed. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. He was cast out of God’s presence. He had a lot of consequences because of it. Tons. He used to be able to live forever with God. Now he has sickness and death and pain and sadness. And all that we kind of just say he fell.
So Adam fell… true… but he got right back up again.
He had everything going against him. It’s been done since the beginning of time. It’s done every day. I fall short. Well… I always will. That’s ok. I keep exhausting myself trying to win the race that I’m alone in. I’m not judged where I finish compared to someone else. But if I’m a little bit ahead of where I was yesterday, or last week or month or year… then I’m doing ok. I’m growing and improving.
I don’t even know if this analogy has fully sunk into my mind and heart… but I want it to. I want to stop comparing myself. I know that God doesn’t want me to do that. I wouldn’t want someone I love to feel negative about them. That’s from Satan. He loves tearing me down. He’s all about that. He’s pretty good at it too, but my Father in Heaven is pretty good at what He does too. He’s actually perfect at it. And he loves me perfectly. Right where I am… with all of my imperfections and struggles. He knows my heart. He’s using me to bless other people’s lives. I am so grateful that I can be in His hands to help someone come into them too. I love Him. I know that the scriptures are His words to mankind. They are proof that God speaks to man. He’s not an abstract ball of energy (something I heard again while street contacting this week) or some unknown shadow or mysterious breeze. He is our Father. Who speaks to us and has given us everything we need to understand His purpose for us. It’s simple. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard. It is for me at least. I don’t care though. Obedience is liberty. I can only say that from experience.
No white flag above my door,
Elder Trent Jay Merrill
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