Dear Everyone:
This week was full of snow, learning, and excitement!
We had a couple big snow storms this week. Wednesday it snowed all day long, really bad. So our cars were grounded. We had an appointment with a really solid couple though, who had come to church twice already, and we didn't want to cancel. So, we decided to walk! They live about 2 1/2 miles away, not too bad, and it was really fun on the way there. The walk back after the lesson however, was not quite as fun.
We were a little bit cold. However, we survived, and isn't walking a few miles in the snow what missionary work is all about??We also had Zone Conference this week. So all the missionaries in Maine got together for a big meeting. It was really fun - the meeting was in Augusta, so I got to see a few people from the Augusta ward again, which was awesome!
The topic of zone conference this time was a talk called "The Fourth Missionary". It's by Lawrence E. Corbridge, who is a member of the Seventy. He gave the talk while he was serving as a mission president in Chile. (The talk isn't on lds.org... however he did give this talk in General Conference a few years ago, and it talks about a lot of the same kind of things.) "The Fourth Missionary" talks about how we can become the best missionary we can be - how we can make our mission something that impacts our life forever.
Elder Corbridge described 4 kinds of missionaries: the first two are disobedient, not very good. The last two, the third and fourth missionaries, are both good missionaries who do a lot of good and get a lot done. However, the fourth missionary learns a lot more and gets a lot more out of his mission, even though there's only one real difference between the two. The difference? The fourth missionary gives his heart to the Lord.
Sounds like a small difference, but the results are huge! We spent a lot of time talking about what it really means to give your heart to the Lord, and essentially, what I got out of it, is that it comes down to your attitude.
In life we are constantly asked to do things. Things we enjoy, things we despise, we constantly have things to do. But, our attitude has a huge impact on what we learn from those things!
The third missionary doesn't really want to do a lot of things the mission involves, but he does them anyway. He doesn't really enjoy his mission, he mostly accomplishes things and works out of a sense of duty. Since he still works hard, he's still successful - to a degree. However, he doesn't learn as much as he would have if he had a desire to do those things a mission involves.
And that's the key. It applies to every aspect of life as well. If you take a class because it's required for your major and you hate every day of it, you're not going to learn very much. But, if you study because you want to learn and grow, you'll not only do better in the class, you'll learn and retain a lot more information! If you wake up everyday with the perspective that you 'have' to go to work, you'll dread your job. If you have the attitude that it's a privilege to go to work, you'll love your job!
That's the point of the fourth missionary. And that's how it applies to all of us. Elder Corbridge said it best in the fourth missionary talk, and he said it in his talk in general conference. He said: "The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. “There is an opposition in all things,” everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier? . . . Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it."
So that's the question for this week. What way have we chosen? I know I've been thinking about that a lot this week. What my attitude is. Am I choosing to be happy, or am I waiting for others to make me happy? Because there's no reason for me to not be happy, right now, today. If I'm not willing to let the Lord and the gospel change me, it's not going to change me. I have to let Him guide me, and that's how I'll grow. I like simple, so I think I'm gonna choose the Lord's way. That's the only way that really brings happiness, after all.
Speaking of happiness, here's where I'm revealing the big news from this week: we get to go to the temple!!
Previously, missionaries here in the New Hampshire Manchester mission were only allowed to go to the temple at the end of our mission, because the closest one is in Boston, which is outside our mission boundaries. However, President Stoker is the man, and he managed to get the rule changed so that now we get to go every 6 months! We've already found a ride to go, and so we're going next Tuesday! We have to change our P-day, so I'll e-mail next Tuesday instead of Monday, but it's totally worth it.
Well, that's all for this week. It's been pretty good. It's crazy - I get home in exactly 6 months from this week. Time has gone by so fast!! I can't even believe it!
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Lindsey Berg
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