Worth Waiting For - 06/04/12

This just in from Elder Tyler:

House rules: E L E. Everybody Love Everybody.

It's not always easy. But I'm trying my hardest to love everybody. My trainer says I'm being a little too hard on myself sometimes. I just want to be the best missionary I can be.

Our mission president has set the following standard of excellence that everybody should be striving to achieve:

Weekly:
7 lessons with a member present

4 investigators attending sacrament meeting

140 contacts (OYM)
And 1 baptism per month. 

Only a couple of companionships per week actually hit the goal in all three categories. But last week, Elder G and I got them all except for the OYMs, and the week before that, we got all of them except for the lessons. I probably shouldn't care as much about the numbers as I do, but it's nice to know that I'm reaching for the standards of excellence.

I saw some cool things happen as the result of bearing testimony through text message. Apparently our texts are inspiring enough to pull families out of the former investigators pile and put them back on date for baptism. That was a pretty cool experience. The family seems to be moving in the right direction, after visiting them with a member of the Elder's Quorum presidency.

That's another thing that's been working very well. When we get members involved in the missionary work, amazing things happen. We've been having trouble with a certain part-member family because the mother is always very closed off. Well, a member went over and brought cookies and talked to her for a few hours, and now they're friends. The next time we went over, the mother paid us more attention than she ever has before, and it seems like she's found a place in her heart for the lessons that we missionaries have been trying to teach her.

Preparing lessons has become a bit more effective recently. I really enjoy planning now. My favorite lesson plans this past week: teaching an atheist science teacher about the apostasy and the restoration, followed by teaching an 8-year-old about the law of chastity the same day. I had fun studying that morning!

The theme of the local youth conference was "Worth Waiting For". I got to bear my testimony during part of it about how serving a mission was worth waiting for. I know that I'm enjoying this mission a lot, but I'm also growing a lot and helping the people at least a little bit. There's nowhere else I'd rather be.

A friend of mine wrote me and talked about how being a missionary is kind of like being a surrogate parent to a bunch of wayward children. I definitely spend a lot of time worrying about my investigators and praying and hoping that they make good decisions. I think about them and plan for their lessons all the time - when I'm eating, when we're driving, when I'm in the bathroom... you name it. My greatest joy is in seeing them progress towards baptism and eternal life with their families. Now I try to imagine what it's like to actually be a parent to these people. Seeing them come back to their Savior must be overwhelming.

Serving a mission was worth waiting for. But returning to my Heavenly Father a better person, knowing that I tried my hardest? That's definitely worth waiting for.