เฮลโล Hello!
I'm out of quarantine! My mission President let us get out on friday, and we got right back to work. But the work started before we got back outside.
IM A TEXTPERT
I did a lot of Facebook finding this week. But since I'm not restricted to Seattle, I can text people from anywhere in the world. So there's one specific place I targeted. Anybody wanna take a guess? ...yeah, its Thailand. I basically spent the end of my quarantine texting as many Thai people as i could. It was fun! I really miss Thai people, they're all so nice. I texted so much that Facebook Messenger told me to stop. I'd say that's some missionary work. A nice added bonus of that was I got pretty fast at texting in Thai!
A CHOSEN PEOPLE
I got to go on another exchange in West Seattle this week. It was a great time! Lots and lots of walking, some yardwork, and some lessons! The one that stood out the most was one with their friend, Justin. Justin is the coolest. He's Thai, doesn't speak it though, and he LOVES the gospel and pretty much already lives directly according to every single thing that we do in the church. This man already keeps the word of wisdom and fasts EVERY Sunday. Unbelievable. It's always a good time when I get to spend a day up there.
DORA THE DOOR EXPLORER
As a mission, this week we were focusing on knocking as many doors as possible. We are never one to turn down such a challenge. We knocked and knocked. We were sprinting from door to door to knock as many as possible. It's called urgency, look it up. We didn't meet very many people, but I did teach a guy the entire Restoration lesson in like 2 minutes at the doorstep, so that was fun! All those hours studying Preach My Gospel are paying off haha. Also, pro tip: no one wants to talk to missionaries when the Super Bowl is on. Sounds like an exciting event. In the words of Elder Knapp, "can I put super cereal in this super bowl?"
SINCERE SERVICE
I'd like to just talk about the difference between superficial service and sincere service for a moment. I was in a meeting with the other mission language leaders (it's not impressive, I'm just pretty much the only Thai speaker), and one of the missionaries brought up a question. It was along the lines of, "when our English students don't want to learn about the gospel, how do we stop teaching them?" That question made me very upset. In our mission, we teach free english classes as a service for the community. We also offer to teach them about the gospel seeing as we are missionaries, but the most important thing is that we are serving our neighbors by offering these classes. If we don't want to continue serving these people, because they won't give us something back, that is superficial service, and I would argue that we were never serving them out of love in the first place. Sincere service is offered out of charity, which is the pure love of Christ. When offering a service, focus on the person or people that you are serving. How does your service make them feel? Do you feel a connection with this person? Do you feel sincere love for this person? I'd like to challenge you, if you're still reading this, to do a small act of service without the expectation of receiving something in return. Focus on how serving makes you feel. Focus on how it makes the recipient feel. Serve with a real, genuine intent of just making the world a little better, and let that be your reward.
LAST THINGS LAST
- Sitting on a bed all day is not good for your back.
- My abs are not as strong as they were in my cross country days.
- Stop. Hey! What's that sound? I love you!
เอ็ลเดอร์ ช่างส่งข้อความ (Elder Mechanic Message)
Elder Barrett
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