February 6, 2023

From Ben - Moment Mastery

Immediately, both Elder Mercado and I's brains began to rationalize. 

"You know, what's 10 minutes? You can easily make phone calls while watching, there's no way it's too loud, come on, you've had such a long walk! Why not take a short break...?"

We looked at eachother, gave the head nod, then entered the gymnasium.

The basketball game lasted for 50 minutes, and we watched the entirety of it, making few phone calls, and being almost wholly unproductive. 

I must confess, we dropped the ball. 

With some guilt in shirking our duty, we vowed to be more cautious in our proximity to the Mohawk college gym, filled with all manner of entertaining temptation. 

Volleyball games, basketball games, and many other games, intended to pull away the focus of young missionaries. 

My capacity to rationalize and justify convenient habits and behaviors is astounding. 

A thousand small justifications produces a massive loss of time and opportunity. 

On the flip, a thousand small success produces an amazing difference. 

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity" 

Guess we gotta be the champion of day to day moments. 

During an exchange with one, Elder Remillard (this Elder can bench 300 lbs, small shout out in his direction) we went into the mall to see if we could find some people. 

Within two minutes, a man approaches us, offers his hand, peeks at the tags and says 

"Elder Remillard! Elder Smith! What a pleasure! 

I was just talking to a friend about Jesus who said he met two Mormon missionaries the other day! Are you two the ones he was talking about?"

We were in fact, the two missionaries he was talking about. 

"Myself, my wife, and my friend are just here in the mall praying for people. I've never met Mormon missionaries before. You open to talk for a second?"

We also, did in fact, have a second. 

The wife and the friend were quite pleasant, but the man who hailed us had a somewhat sour opinion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which actually made sense from some of the misconceptions he had about our doctrine. 

(I'm never only using google to decide my perspectives and opinions. Ever) 

We did our best to clarify some of the misconceptions and the Spirit came to our aid. 

My natural self felt the call of war and doctrinal bloodshed. 

But the Spirit helped keep us keep cool. 

Because of such aid, it was really easy to tackle some of the challenging concerns in a way that was mutually beneficial and uplifting. 

At the end, I had a better opinion of our friend, and he, of us. 

It was actually really fun. 

Elder Remillard might change the world. He has a character that possesses that capacity. 

(Actually, we all do, but we often forget or choose not to believe) 

Finally, I got to go on an exchange with Elder Wilkerson. 

This Elder really made a difference to me. 

He's somewhat quieter, and has really unique personality. 

For whatever reason, I felt perfectly comfortable explaining to this Elder some of the inner thoughts of my brain, and he, through the gift of genuine listening, helped me sort and organize some of the abstract soup that remains in my brain often. 

From our conversations, I found a lot of rest and clarity. 

Bless Elder Wilkerson too. Wow. 

What a gnarly adventure. I love it. 

What a beautiful world of relationships. 

Jesus Christ. What a name. What a truth  

By Him, both joy and sadness is refined into something more pure, authentic. 

Amen! 

Love you each!

- Elder Smith

1) Weekly Planning. Not even sure how Elder Mercado snapped this shot. My inner wrath showing us colours

2) The rough draft of my hopes and vision

3) Night time, we make calls. 

4) McMaster phone calls

5) With the cave post 9, just enjoying eachothers company. 

6) Elder Pehrson. A hero indeed.