Hey everyone, guess who's back again? Yep, it's me, the charming, witty, and wonderful Elder Z.S.Weber, reporting in to you live from Erie, Colorado. Sorry this email is coming out later than usual—I promise, I have a reasonable explanation for my lateness. For several of the Elders in our area, this was going to be their last P-Day in the mission, so we decided to have an awesome P-Day and go out for a hike this morning, which we just got back from.
The hike was awesome, especially with watching the sunrise in the distance, and as we were coming home, we stopped by a Denny's and grabbed breakfast. So, all in all, a really great way to start P-Day off.
Now, then, on to the week. To start off, let's go back to Tuesday, where we had interviews with the Mission President. It's always very odd, meeting with President Brown, because for the last twenty-four hours before the interview you're pacing around, wondering what he's going to talk to you about. Then, you sit down with him, and the interview is always very casual and friendly. He always offers great advice to help out, and at the end of the meeting we both feel refreshed and ready to handle whatever we need to take care of. Or, at least, that's how it is for me. From how I've heard other missionaries talk about their interviews, it's almost as if the devil himself were interviewing them!
Then, on Thursday, we had an awesome opportunity with service at EFAA. Apparently, a fraternity at the university was getting new dorm furniture, and decided to send over to EFAA the furniture they didn't need anymore. This included four queen-sized bunk beds, about seven desks, five dressers, and a dozen chairs. Luckily, we had extra hands (Elders Westrup and Anderson) to make the work lighter, as we carried the parts for three of the bunk beds up the stairs to one of the apartments that needed more beds, along with four dressers, and the mattresses that came with the bed. It was a really good work out, except when we were nearly getting killed trying to carry the heavy pieces.
Once we were done with that, we actually still had time left over to go to the back of the building and work on the playground. It's pretty much finished now—the old playground is demolished and tossed, and the new playground is up and ready to be enjoyed. On Tuesday, Elder Hale and I were able to lay down the ground cloth for the playground. It was long and tiresome work, but it was well-worth it, and made the work on Thursday much easier, as all we had to do was spread the pea gravel throughout the playground. While the other Elders shoveled the gravel into the wheel barrow and ferried it over to the ground, it was my job to keep it all level and evenly spread. All in all, it was a great day.
So, yeah, that was the week—or at least the high-lights of it—in a rather rough nutshell. Now, before I close up shop for the week, I'd like to leave you all with a quick spiritual thought.
This last Tuesday, before I went into the interview with President Brown, I was waiting in the High Council room, looking at the pictures of the Apostles hanging on the wall. As usual, my mind was just aimlessly wandering, and I couldn't help but think over something one of the new Apostles—Elder Stevenson, I believe—mentioned in his testimony last conference. He mentioned how, after receiving his call to serve as Apostle, he felt, "a tsunami of indescribable emotion, most of which were feelings of inadequacy,"and how President Monson comforted him by telling him of his own feelings of inadequacy when he had been called over half a century earlier. He then told Elder Stevenson the simple yet profound truth of this church.
"The Lord will qualify those whom He calls.”
Throughout our lives, as we serve in this the Lord's church, we may come across callings that we feel we can't fill. I'm in one right now, and yet I still doubt it'll be the hardest calling in my life. At other times, we might see others who accept incredible callings—Bishop, Stake President, General Authority—and wonder why they were given that calling, and not someone else with more knowledge or experience, or someone more popular or well-known. Much to my surprise, I've heard a lot of those opinions recently, the most surprising ones aimed at our newest Apostles. In spite of this, it is important to remember the sacred truth spoken above.
Whether we feel ourselves to be too inadequate to serve in the callings we now have, or we feel others aren't the right person to fill the vacant callings around us, we must always remind ourselves that the Lord qualifies each of us for his work. He knows each of us by name—wouldn't up make sense that he'd know what callings we can serve best in, and which ones we can't? Which ones will be beneficial for us, and which ones will just drag us down? If you believe that the Lord God of Israel truly is the leader if this church, and not Thomas S. Monson, then stop worrying so much about your own shortcomings, and simply trust in the Lord. I know that if we do, we can succeed. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
—Elder Z.S.Weber
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