Monday June 13th, 2011

I guess I should apologize about the negativity of my last letter? Unfortunately that’s just mission life. This week has probably been one of the most trying weeks of my mission, possibly even harder than the last one. I literally stopped writing in my journal for like a week because I didn’t want to look back in years to come and just read my pathetic complaints. Before Saturday, we had appointments with every one of our investigators only to discover that one by one, they all cancelled. It was just one of those weeks. So many times as I walked away from a house where we were supposedly going to have an enthralling discussion about the Restored Gospel did I just want to break down and pound the pavement in frustration with the rudeness of people. As I see it, people we find think that we’re a couple of indoctrinated boys, hunting vulnerable prey for religious statistics. They then place us at the bottom of their To-Do list, when in reality this may just be the most important thing happening in their lives. So what if you have a recreational plans? So what if you’re feeling sick? So what if you’re having family troubles? Are these not times for our amazing message?

It wasn’t until we really started to change our tactics on Saturday that we really started to teach a lot more and frankly, a lot better. We had planned to teach a young family about 20 miles north of Bedford near New Paris, PA. But worried about the solidity of the appointment to travel so far, we prayed to Heavenly Father whether this was indeed what we needed to do. My companion got a prompting to go to Rainsburg instead. Now this was quite the test of faith; to completely chuck our entire day’s plan to follow the Spirit to a place where we had nothing set up. We decided to heed the prompting and in so doing, we were able to teach a couple of our investigators down there. And although some of our investigators weren’t impressed with the spontaneity of our visits, I think that we made some perceptible progress, truly following-up with their innate potential prepared by the Lord. Elder Zaleski’s vision of converting the entire borough of Rainsburg is starting to become a reality as we take down those religious barriers one at a time.

I know that my faith is definitely susceptible to wavering and it’s something I’m really working on, but I’ve been pondering the idea of faith for a while now. As often as permits, my companion and I listen to entries from Wilford Woodruff’s mission journal in the car and it’s amazing the things that happened to him on his mission. He went forth from household to household preaching for an hour and then baptizing multitudes right afterward. How did he do it? (I’m going to wave the requirement of having the investigator attend church three times and assume that all of his converts stayed active) But how did he, a convert of like, a year, have the faith to trudge through swamps, lay siege to apostates and stare death in the face while baptizing congregations? Why is my faith so weak? I was thinking the other day how the faith we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is kind of helped along. Because we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and we feel it’s testifying, are we still walking by faith? It’s almost a result of faith. After all, in our testimony meetings we say that we know that the Church is true rather than we believe it is. Once one feels that witness and continues to feel it, how can one doubt?

Anyways, I feel like I haven’t really addressed any of the letter you sent me. The Low household sounds like it’s doing great. And I can only offer my wishes of being there to experience these times with you. I wish my friends all the best as I can’t respond to everyone’s letters with the length that I wish I could.

Elder Low

P.S. Calm your storm, Mother. You need not tear the house apart just yet. I got my package. It was one of the highlights of my day. I finally felt the pain/eagerness of seeing that “We Missed You” sign on my door from the UPS man. My companion was quite awestruck from the amount of music you sent.

P.P.S. For the first time in my life I saw fireflies. It was awesome.

P.P.P.S. Which investigators did you have in your Sunday School class Mom? Just being a missionary out here, makes me really curious about the work back in Chestermere.

P.P.P.P.S. Dad, thank you so much for your experiences in the Church. They always uplift and inspire me. I think that despite my thick-headedness, I’m starting to grasp the concept that the words of a Priesthood blessing are not as important as the worthiness of the one giving and the faith of the one receiving.