Leadership is Lonely and other musings......

Mother,

Your email about the people that have helped pay for my mission brought tears to my eyes. Literally. I wish I could pay them back but I know that the only way I can truly do that is to continue serving like I am. 

This last week was phenomenal. We were able to get the bikes out and bike a little bit. We had a baptism on Saturday and that went great! Rachael is so awesome! She bore her testimony at her baptism and that was special. I will send you pictures here in a second.

 

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. Felt the spirit so strongly. There is this guy named Wes and he was in a skiing accident a couple years ago and he broke his neck. They thought he wouldn't make it but he's here today and he's still recovering VERY well. He's so great, he has so much faith and optimism. He blessed the sacrament. Once again, it brought tears to my eyes seeing someone exert all of the energy and will power that they had to bless the sacrament and hand the trays. I was reminded of my Savior more so than ever before during sacrament. The sacrifice that he has gone through to give us the atonement and the sacrament each week. I'm thankful for Wes and his testimony that carries him when days seem dark. We have another lady on baptismal date. We will have one for sure in April, hopefully one in May, and one in June. We had 2 total baptisms in March in the University ward. We had almost all of our zones baptisms. Mike is working towards getting the priesthood! (: He's so great. We teach him at the institute directors house, brother heap. Brother Heap is a phenomenal teacher! He's so great! He will make a great mission president, and I'm glad the Lord has called him to Texas (: Even better. 

We are seeing Miracle after Miracle.

I wrote a letter to President Danielson today! I sent a post card to Aubrey and hopefully I'll be able to get some other letters out. I think I want to write one to Patriarch Coleman. 

Things are going great! I refuse to speak down on my zone or any missionaries but there are a few issues. I wish that there was a way to teach the importance of not evil speaking against your leaders without having to endure the things that are being said. Evil speaking is a sin worth confessing too. It's major. A part of me says "You know what?! Who cares, let em talk." But I know that it can't continue. For if it goes on in the mission it's likely to happen after the mission. Sometimes I feel a little bit like Nephi and the prophets of old contained in the book of mormon. We're doing great though! Relying on the Lord for his help, his guidance, grace, mercy, and comfort. Leadership is lonely. But it's not the cloak of comfort, it's the robe of responsibility. Sorry I'm just blabbering. Things are going well.

This is what I will share with Elder Packham next time I write him:

Leadership

 

Position or leadership will come to those who the Lord feels can do the work or to those who need a particular calling. Each calling you receive prepares you for additional service and for a future calling. Every calling prepares you for the next one—you just don’t know what it will be.

As missionaries, each one of you is a leader. Even though you must work under the direction of the bishops and ward mission leader, even though you are cautioned not to get too pushy with members, even though you are reminded that you are here to assist the members in their missionary work—nevertheless, you must gently persuade, remind, guide, and move the work along. Surprisingly, the members expect this of you. The bishops expect this of you, and the ward mission leaders expect this of you. If you sit back and do nothing, they soon lose confidence in you. If things are not going well in a ward, you cannot sit back and blame the bishop or ward mission leader. As missionaries (leaders), you must find a way. If the work is going well, you must give credit to others. You must follow the Lord’s counsel:

“Only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile” (D&C 121:41–42).

​1.​Persuasion. It’s not so much what you say that counts; it’s the total impression you convey. Enthusiasm, persistence, awareness, empathy, and patience are all virtues of persuasion. Aggressiveness, impatience, and pressure do not persuade.

​2.​Long-suffering. Work with the members and leaders. Recognize that they do not yet have the commitment to missionary work that you have—that their time and interests are divided among their family, employment, Church callings, and other responsibilities. One of your challenges is to teach them how to include missionary work in their list of top priorities.

​3.​Gentleness. “There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and there is nothing so gentle as real strength,” said St. Francis de Sales (in Favorite Quotations from the Collection of Thomas S. Monson, 210). Gentleness is consideration, tenderness of feeling, and love. Take time to be gentle.

​4.​Meekness. Meekness is the quality of being teachable and open-minded. “Teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; . . . Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart“ (Alma 37: 33–34).

​5.​Love unfeigned. Everyone can sense when a person is not being genuine. As a leader, you must learn to love your fellow Saints and to work closely with them. Unfeigned love is love with genuine concern. You must really care.

​6.​Kindness and pure knowledge. Learn how to build people up, to make them better, to make them happier, to bring them closer to God. An act of kindness is an act of love. When you do something for others, you are generally the one who gains the most. The more you know about God (pure knowledge), the more you become like Him.​