February 25, 2013

I've learned so much more about life being on a mission than I ever could have anywhere else. When asked how much strength one should have left when one breaks through the finish line, a coach will always reply with "nothing!" So also as we run this race of life, the prize is not to the swift nor the strong but he who endures to the end. It's not enough for us to passively drift through life, looking for the end on the horizon, for if we do so, we'll waste the day in chasing tomorrow and find ourselves with many empty yesterdays.

 

I think I'm starting to realize why missionaries when they approach the end of their mission they start to dread the thought of coming home for fear that there isn't enough time to accomplish all that we feel needs accomplished, leaving many songs unsung. There is a reason that the great missionary section in the Doctrine & Covenants tells us that only an attitude of having an eye single to the glory of God qualifies him for the work, for nothing short of thrusting in your sickle with all your heart, might, mind and strength will bring salvation and peace of consciousness. Serving a mission is like living life. We may choose to waste our days fulfilling selfish desires and wasting the day away dreaming of our mansions in the future, but the only way to peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come is immersing yourself in service and holding nothing back.

 

I have so many goals for the last 4 weeks of my mission that I wish I would have accomplished a long time ago. And now I may not accomplish them without sufficient time.

 

But we should always appreciate what we do have. You asked about those I am teaching and preparing for baptism right now. Currently a young girl named Katlynn (I think I mentioned her a couple letters ago about how she bore her testimony) is preparing for the 9th of March and we have a guy about our age named Aaron preparing for the 23rd of March. Katlynn actually asked me to baptize her, which I am glad to do. It's nice to always be working towards something. And to know that I will have people working towards baptism up until my last Saturday here will help me be all that I can up until the end. For that is where the race analogy fails, for "they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we [for] an incorruptible.

 

"So run - that ye may obtain." (1 Corinthians 9:25, 24)

 

Elder Low