Patience

There are so many things I could talk about this week. A lot of them are little things, but things I find noteworthy. I’ll try to give you the highlights.

We weren't able to see our investigator again this week, but the good news is she’s back on her feet and wants to meet with us again.

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I ended up having a short Word of Wisdom discussion with my English class on Saturday. We still had a few minutes before class and the students were asking me a little about myself. They asked if I cooked, baked, made coffee and tea. Thus our discussion began! We had to keep it short as we had to begin English, but it’s interesting how an ordinary moment can become a teaching moment.

As a mission we’ve added another number to the list that we report at the end of each week to help us reach goals. We now count the number of hours we spend proselyting, having lessons, and doing English classes and how many Book of Mormons we hand out. We’ve only done it for two weeks so far, but it’s really cool. It helps us realize that we really are doing work, or if we need to be doing more work!

There are a couple of things I’ve been thinking about this week. The first thing is patience, more specifically how learning takes patience, and how we need to exercise patience with ourselves as well as with others. I was able to set aside some time to practice the piano this week to prepare to play for Sunday if our regular pianist would still be out of town (she was so it’s a good thing I practiced!) I played the same four songs over and over again. I really wanted to get them down. Also, there were some moments where I had to play the same measure or two chords over and over until my fingers could get it right. As I thought about it later, it occurred to me that learning takes patience and a real desire. If you don’t have those two things, the moment something hard happens, you’ll just give up. You’ll never reach your potential. When I actually played the hymns on Sunday, that one measure that was driving me crazy, that I practiced countless times, was probably the measure I played best! It pays off! Work! Have patience! And have hope!

My thoughts on patience were continued when I was asked to give a talk for church yesterday. I decided to speak on President Uchtdorf’s talk from the priesthood session of General Conference in April called “Four Titles.” One of my favorite parts is when he compares us to a child learning to walk; 

„We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. He takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents.

Now, brethren, compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and, dear brethren, that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.

I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a Heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, He urges us not to be discouraged—never to give up or flee our allotted field of service—but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying.”

Heavenly Father knows that we won’t be perfect in an instant. It takes time. But He knows we can improve, learn, and become like Him. The best thing is that we don’t have to go through that process alone. He’s always there and willing to help. And though our trials may seem hard, they will help refine us and teach us and help us to recognize the sweet from the bitter.

Don’t be too hard on yourselves. Continue making even the smallest steps in the right direction. And if you stumble and fall, take comfort in the fact that there is someone to pick you up again.

Thanks for all of your support! You are all amazing. I hope you know that.

Cu mare drag,

                                Sora Adams