Monday, April 20, 2015

3 Hard and 3 Best Parts of Serving a Mission for Me

How´s it going everybody!

It's been another good week in Alejandro Korn. Actually, honestly, the beginning of the week started off pretty slow. Last week we had to drop practically every single one of our investigators, so this week our teaching pool was very limited. We spent a lot of time knocking on doors and doing contacts in the streets. We found a little bit of success, but its difficult to find people to teach that way. All of that prepared us for a miracle that happened on Saturday. We went to contact one of the people we talked to in the street a few weeks ago. He was still friendly and so we set an appointment on Saturday. We dropped by for the appointment and he let us in. His name is Mariano and we talked about the apostasy and the restoration, and why it was important to him. It was a good lesson, and we invited him to be baptized the 24th of May. The next day, in church, I was getting ready to give a talk, when he walked in with his two daughters. They stayed the whole time, and at the end, his daughters came running up to him with the pictures they colored in Primary. They all loved church. It was a great day.

I´m grateful to be a missionary, it has been the best decision that I have made. I love being a member of this church, and I love sharing what I know to be true with others. Despite all the challenges I can't think of another place where I would rather be.
So this week I've had a little bit of time to think about what the hardest and best parts of the mission are for me.  The main answer is that every missionary has his own challenges that are unique to him and his mission where he is serving. Everybody has a different mission, the Lord knows us personally, and so He gives us challenges and blessings that are very personal to our own lives. The following is some insight into my mission:
3 most difficult things about the mission:
1. It’s exhausting! You work 16 hours a day, and the 8 hours of sleep you do get doesn't seem to be quite be enough. You walk or bike all day, in the sun, heat, rain, snow, cold, and you have to keep doing something. So it’s very physically, mentally, spiritually exhausting.
2. There are more disappointments in the mission than moments of joy. While the moments of joy make the disappointments worth it, they are separated by people not showing up to appointments, not completing commitments, not coming to church, not reading, or just deciding that they don't want to follow Christ. It makes you tired, and really sad at times.
3. Just getting started. The start of the mission is hard. It’s a whole new life style, schedule, wardrobe, and way of life. You miss your family, friends, and if you are learning a language, you can't even communicate with the dogs. I look at the beginning as the hardest part, but that is where I learned the most.
3 Things that make the mission great!
1. You can actually see the gospel work. While there are many disappointments, when people do follow the gospel, you see them change. You can see the evidences of the gospel as they read, pray, and grow. You help them be happy and in turn, it makes you feel incredible. As their testimony grows, yours does too. It makes all the disappointments worth it.
2. You learn so much. I have learned so much about our Father in Heaven, about Christ, about the Gospel. I have learned about the world, and why the commandments are important. I've learned about faith, virtue, hope, and numerous other things. You can learn things in the mission that are impossible to learn at home.
3. It’s just a great experience. Now that I'm near the end, I can speak a new language, I know a new culture, I understand others better, I have  friends from Spain, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, and other countries. Its just a great feeling to be a missionary.
I Hope this helps, it’s hard to explain why its so great and awesome to serve a mission, because It’s just a feeling that I have. Like I said, its really personal, but I know that every missionary is going to have hard things, and awesome things. It’s just part of the package!
Thanks for everything, and for all of your support!

Love

Elder Chipman

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