The Greatest two years!!: defining success (week 53)

We had ourselves a great week here in SunnySide. We finally decided to drive over to Yakima for p-day last week. Not that great since the drive there is a bit long. We had some meetings and got to talk to a bunch of different people.

On Tuesday we had our Zone Training Meeting. The meeting was focused on involving the members in missionary work. We are going to be trying to get the members more involved by making visits to the families in our units. I shared a little story in the postcard I am sending this week. We also touched on the topic of becoming consecrated missionaries. That topic has become something I have decided to study more this past week. I have been using the talk "The Fourth Missionary". Here are some insights I have pulled out of my studies this past week;

Sacrifice - Doing one thing at the expense of another thing that has equal, or greater, appeal.
Consecration - Giving of one's self to the Lord. Nothing of greater appeal than to do his will.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt 16:25,26)
"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." (Helaman 3:35)

Also while studying that talk I have looked at the idea of success. Sometimes it can be hard to measure if we have been successful, especially as a missionary. We are successful when we can say the following;

"I am doing my best. I have a lot of weaknesses and a lot to learn. But I am withholding nothing from the Lord. I am serving with all of my might, mind, heart and strength. I am faithful and giving it all I have to give."
"I have no regrets; I did my best."

Sometimes we feel that we are not successful because the world likes to measure our success by comparison. But the Lord doesn't use comparison to view our success. It comes down to our desires and if we gave it the 100 percent. Those two quotes got me thinking of a quote from a talk given by Neal A. Maxwell. "Actually, everything depends - initially and finally - on our desires. These shape our thought patterns. Our desires thus precede our deeds and lie at the very cores of our souls, tilting us towards or away from God." (Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father”

Neal A. Maxwell) That then leads back to what it means to be consecrated. Which is to be dedicated to the will of the Lord and have our desires show that dedication. Just some thoughts I thought I would share.

We have been working in our area to find some new people. It seems like all the people we have been working with recently don't have time for us. So we are looking for those that are willing to make time to talk to us. The sisters (Hermanas) actually found us this really great guy who is actually on what he calls a really long vacation. He shares a lot of beliefs with us and seems to be really prepared to receive the gospel. We haven't invited him to church yet (probably should have done that when we meet him) ,but that will be one of the things we try to do this upcoming week. We also have another great investigator, also found by the sisters. He has told us of how he wants to draw himself closer to God again. He told us that he has fallen away from doing the things he know he should and he has noticed something has been missing. We testified to him that drawing himself closer to God again was going to bring happiness and is the thing he has been missing. When we first stopped by to meet him we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and when we came back to teach him he had already read to 3rd Nephi. He is just another person that the Lord has been preparing to receive the gospel.

The bikes are tons of fun when we do get to ride them. We have a huge hill in our area and it is a blast ridding down it. Although it does take a bit of work to bike up it. I don't have any crazy stories with our bike riding. Sorry about that. Right now the bikes are out of commission with the chain being broken on one. Hopefully we can get that fixed soon.

We are looking forward to another great week here in Sunnyside. I hope all is well back home and continues to be so. Espero que disfruten su semana y aprenden mas cosas.

With love,

Elder Boren