Leaving a Legacy

Another week come and gone. The Church here in Lubbock holds a function identical to the "Festival of Nativities" that occurs over in Vancouver every Christmas season. It was almost like being home again for the Christmas season! 

 As missionaries in Lubbock we were asked to always have a presence at the Nativity for the community to see us and ask us questions if they wanted. 

We had also signed up a little over a month ago to provide Music as a missionary Choir. So this week we helped out a lot at the Nativity and we performed live music on Sunday afternoon for all of those viewing the Nativity. I was the piano player and played for our missionary choir as well as a few Elder and Sister solo songs. It was a great experience and a fantastic opportunity to share my talent on the piano. President Heap reminded me to tell my mother yet again - Thanks for making me practice! 

Although the Festival of Nativities here was nice it didn't quite meet the grandeur of the festival I know takes place over in Vancouver. I took a few pictures of the setup and my favorite nativities. One was made in Vietnam and the other was carved in Chile from a toothpick.  That gives you an idea of how small it is.

 

Something I've come to expect as a missionary is people not being at their homes when we have a set lesson with them. For some reason, people NEVER seem to be home when they say they will be. It makes it hard to bring out members to lessons because we don't want them to feel like it's a waste of their time when no one answers the door. Anyone have any suggestions?

Other than that the work is going well. Our ward is very actively engaged in missionary work and has been helping out immensely. Ward missionaries show up to our correlation meetings and we're being given names of Less Actives to go visit. The next step will be receiving names of non-members that we can then go visit and teach as well! Everything seems to be moving in the right direction; patience and hard work is always the answer to increased productivity!

We had zone training this week which went really well. I was able to instruct on "Training your Replacement" and thought it went pretty well. I gave an example of Moses and Joshua leading the children of Israel and tied it into missionary work today and how we're always needing to train a replacement. Leaving a legacy, if you will, in the areas and companions you've served with and in. It's all about leaving the best in the mission and not letting the best leave with you! The great stumbling block to this principle though is pride- that's what will stop missionaries and us from raising people as high or higher than ourselves. Most sins can be tied back to pride and a lack of humility.

After Zone training we were able to go to Red Robin for lunch! I was stoked! But after returning home that evening my stomach was less than pleased. I went to bed feeling awful, wondering if maybe I'd eaten to many steak fries dipped in ranch and thai-chili sauce. I crashed at 9pm and left my companions to plan out our next day hoping that my stomach ache would disappear but at 11 I woke up and made a frantic dash to the bathroom... but didn't make it. Those of you that have weak stomachs, you may not want to read on, but I puked. A lot. It ended up on the floor leading all the way from my bed to the bathroom and continued into the bathroom all the way to the toilet. The range and splash damage of the vomit was quite spectacular. It should've been recorded and sent somewhere for analysis and induction into the book of world records. My companions, tired and battered from a long day of work weren't able to help much and just kind of watched as I emptied my stomach. 

As I finished poor Elder Bench started moaning and I returned and inquired what the problem was. He just pointed to the foot of his bed where a few splash-damage chunks had made it onto his blanket. The poor kid was not even coherent so I cleaned up the mess and sent him back to sleep (He didn't make mention of it in the morning so I think he forgot it ever happened! I don't think I'll remind him either). After I assured my companions I was alright I commenced to cleaning up the trail of desolation I'd left in my wake on the way to the bathroom. The next day consisted of more puking, cleaning, and resting in an effort to get better. But sadly, I STILL don't feel back to normal.

The mission doctor assured me that its probably food poisoning and commanded that I eat nothing but liquids for a few days and rest. Sometimes it just seems like I have the worst luck in the world!

This week during my studies I was pondering opposites in the Gospel and found a scripture to help paint a contrast for you:

"Thus says the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little... for unto him that recieveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, we have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." (2 Nephi 28:30)

If Satan, the opposite of God, would be forced to write a scripture holding just as much truth it would go something like this:

Thus says Lucifer, the son of the morning: I will take from the children of men line from line, and precept from precept, here a little and there a little... for unto him that recieveth me I will always take more.

Where God gives, Lucifer takes. God wants us to be happy, Satan wishes us to be miserable.

Its never to late to start building line upon line and precept upon precept.

I love you all. Hope this email at least made a little bit of sense... I'm not feeling too hot right now. 

Hope you have a good week!

God Bless.

Elder Sork