That's what happened last week. And that's a pretty good sum up of what is
going to happen this week. The whole mission is on fire because of Elder James
and Elder Bautista's example in teaching 40+ lessons a couple weeks ago, and now
that's the standard; that's the goal!
We had mission leader council
this week again, and it was amazing! For the first half, president Castro
focused on teaching us about how to achieve God's unity. He taught us so much
about how to become one and how we're going to have to establish our eternal
companionship some day. It was pretty cool, because the night before, Elder Lee
and I had been talking about all the things we learned in our missions that will
help our marriages! He showed us a cool diagram: and I'm going to try to
represent it here with my limited resources. Hopefully this
works!
The World's Way of Finding Unity:
___________________________
| \
|
| / |
|
Party / Party || / |
| A / B |
| | |
| \ |
|_____________\_____________|
| \ |
|_____________\_____________|
God's Way of Finding Unity:
GOD
^
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
A /_____________________________\B
The world's way doesn't work. It's all a bunch of compromises, and "if you
scratch my back I'll scratch yours" But how united does it really look? It
looks more like a war between Party A and Party B. If that's the way
relationships usually work; no WONDER divorce is so rampant.
But the Lord's way is perfect. If both Party A and Party B work TOWARDS
God, they can't help but grow closer together, and eventually be completely
united. It's awesome.
The work this week was amazing. The second part of MLC was geared towards
raising our vision and helping us work harder and more effectively. Last week,
our goal as a mission was to teach over 25 lessons in each companionship, which
is over the standard of excellence! But this week, the entire mission will be
pushing for teaching 40 lessons! It's going to be awesome!
I also did some scary math this week; during an exchange with Elder
Trujillo. I calculated that if you waste just one minute every day of your
mission: you wind up wasting an entire day. BUT if you waste just one hour
every day of your mission: you waste an entire month! It was a good wake-up
call to the both of us to work more effectively. I also (out of dread
curiosity) calculated that if you waste just one hour every day of a 90 year
life, you wind up wasting 3 and a half years. It really makes you think about
how precious time really is, and how important it is to use it wisely. Also,
though, it means a lot of good too. One hour a day, every day, of reading the
Book of Mormon means three and a half years of no sleep, no break, study of
it!
I love you all, hope you all keep having a good week! We'll do our best
out here, and let you know where the Lord calls us to work next!
Love,
Elder Matthew David Clough
