Snow Day!

     It is interesting the things you can find to do as you go about work as a missionary.  For instance, today we moved a grill and now they are going to take us out to eat.  Or, another time we helped someone clean out their garage and they gave us a crock pot that we then gave to someone moving in as a way to introduce them to the church.  You pick some scenario of us missionaries doing some type of service, just anything underneath the sun, and because of such these people are now interested in hearing what we have to say, when before, they would not have even given us the time of day.  You see, serving people opens up their hearts and touches them in such a way that you couldn't have imagined in the first place.  Please let me share an experience I had just a few weeks prior.

     To start off, the night before we were all laughing and having just a wonderful time being engaged in doing the Lord's work here in the Bowie Ward of the Washington DC North mission.  Then everything changed when the snow started to fall... and fall... and fall.  When we got a call to stay in for the next day, we were not surprised, but planned on helping one of our investigators out by shoveling some snow for her the next day.  She lived about 2-ish miles away, and we were just planning on going to her home, shoveling, then returning to our apartment to spend the rest of our snow day doing some organizational stuff. However, as we embarked on our journey, we first met some officers of the local police department finishing up shoveling the Town Hall driveway.  So, we made our first stop to help them out and they then proceeded to invite us back to talk with them sometime at their work about the message we share.

     After our brief intermission, we proceeded back along our path to get to our intended goal, when we again stopped in order to help a family shovel their driveway.  A different response was had.  "Go and shovel this ladies home, she is a bit elderly and would appreciate it more that us."  We shrugged our shoulders and went to work shoveling her driveway.  First we knocked on her door so that we did not scare her while we were working.  She almost broke down in tears at our selfless service.  You see, her husband was in the hospital and she could not go and visit him because of the snow on her driveway.  We arrived at precisely the right time to help her in her time of need.  

     But wait, there's more!  As we started shoveling the sidewalk around her home, one of her neighbors opens her door and invites an exchange of $20 for the rest of her driveway shoveled.  We laughed and said that we can't accept money, although she did try.  We brushed it off and continued to shovel the rest of her driveway and some more sidewalk up to another home where the owners were in the process of shoveling their driveway.  All in all, we helped shovel 5 driveways while still on the way to our original destination.  Yet all the while we did not think to stop, but kept on going, because we were just so happy being in the service of our fellow man.  It's because "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)  That one statement brings such happiness because of the truth that is in it.  I am my happiest when I am serving others unselfishly like I did this day.  While we were yet traveling some more until we got home, we helped at least another 3 or 4 people free their cars from plowed snow and another couple of people in shoveling their sidewalks.  When we got home, we were absolutely exhausted and were sore for the next couple of days, but that did not matter because we did what the Savior would have done and provided a simple act of service that brought such great joy to those we served.
     I know that when we are in the service of our neighbors, friends, or even our supposed enemies, we are only in the service of our God.  These will be the moments we remember throughout the years because of the joy we received from doing this.  It will be part of the same joy I have already received from serving a mission and helping all the people I meet in the small and simple way I can.  
     

iPads!!!

Well, I have learned by sad experience that maintaining a blog is actually hard work.  I realized this first when I was trying to update it on a biweekly basis so I could keep progressing the work in the wonderful Washington DC North mission.  I also realized this when we got our iPads recently!  As a condition of us receiving iPads to work with, we are not allowed to access or update our blogs sadly, so the time I have to work on the blog has diminished greatly.  But do not fear, I shall continue to press on and write til the day I leave for Brazil!

So first off, I would like to tell all of you that iPads are a wonderful tool and a gift to help.  The iPad can also be one of our biggest time-wasters as a missionary.  As many are aware, apple products are known for the plenitude of apps that are available to just whisk the time away.  Luckily as a missionary, we don't have access to most of them, but of the apps we do have it comes down to a decision on what's good, better, or best.  For instance, said picture which was taken from my iPad.

One of the apps we are allowed to access is the Church's Gospel Library app.  With this app we can browse essentially all of the Church's talks, material for teaching, and scriptures right at the palms of our hands.  While it is good for us to read through all this wonderful doctrine to learn and connect scriptures with ideas, it can be a big distraction in how we spend our time.

But one of the best things that has come from the iPads, is that all the records we keep and numbers we keep track of are now done digitally, with no more confusion in deciphering how to do things.  Now this may not mean a whole lot to lots of people, but this means a lot to us as missionaries.  Because we as missionaries keep records of all the work we do in our areas, when we leave/get transfered away, lots of infomation can be lost and people we were once working with drop off the radar.  But no more!  Everything is now online and will always be there to look back on and we will not lose this precious information anymore.  Or, at least that is the theory for now, but it seems to be working out okay so far.

Here's to the start of hopefully something very wonderful for the missionary work in the area.  I will have a cool story about using the iPad next time I update (which in theory should be next week some time).