Focus Through the Storm Keep your eye on the ball. Focus on your purpose. Begin with the end in mind. Visualize. We´re given so many words of counsel regarding the importance of FOCUS. In a world of so much change and so little predictability, we need something, ANYTHING to guide us. For that, I am eternally grateful for a loving Father in Heaven, and His gift to us, the guidance of the Holy Ghost in learning to render TRUE service - a lighthouse in a stormy sea of confusion and disarray. THAT is the lesson that I learned this week above all.True service means following the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, especially when we don´t want to. As we taught a 50 year old man named Callo this week, he was READY and WILLING to read and pray, and attend church, to find out if what we had shared was True. After the lesson, and the commitments, he told us that he would want to study it all out VERY well, and that, therefore, the 5th of February was a date a little TOO soon for his 
Baptism. I wanted to tell him that he didn´t have to know everything and that, at some point, he´d have to take a leap of faith, and...a million important things that I KNOW in my heart to be True. But, the Spirit told me to say the simple words, ¨Don´t worry, it´s just a goal. Is it ok if we help you prepare towards the goal of being baptized for that day.¨ He consented and with every visit more, he is more willing and excited to TAKE that leap of Faith...a leap that he seemed to have discovered and chosen for himself!True service means loving more than anything else. Especially through the barriers of communication and differences in cultural understandings of how relationships work, it is AMAZING how much good it does for a companionship to simply say the words ¨I love you,¨ or to give a simple compliment, or to express how HAPPY I am to be in this area, at this time, with this companion. I feel like no number of shovels full of sand, or lawns cut, or packages of food delivered (all though those things are important) can brighten the spirit as much as a little bit of love and sincere interest.On the goofier side of the missionary life, I´ve begun drawing ONE picture in my journal (usually with Stick Figures) for the most exciting, interesting, or funny event of the day. This week I drew my Companion and I walking home after a day of work, imitating the different accents of missionaries or investigators, Latino or American alike. We laughed and enjoyed the friendship and brotherhood that is so EASILY found in this most holy and uplifting of works. I drew a picture of a man whose barbecue grill we pass every day, where one day, we passed and he threw on some meet JUST as we told him we didn´t have time to wait. Another day, we ordered up 2 Asaditos (as they call the chunks of meet grilled and seasoned to perfection on a Kabaab-like stick), before realizing we were fasting (DOH!). The third time (and the picture I drew), was of when we finally got to actually TRY the meet, and of how he told us with a smile as we walked up to him in his Paraguayan rocking chair, ¨I´m not going to get up unless you
actually plan on buying something.¨I drew us playing a game of volley ball (you´d be AMAZED at how popular the sport is down here - there are as many, if not more, volley ball courts than soccer fields). Or camping out under a flapping tarp of a corner Convenience Tent, where the tarp as well as our chairs eventually blew away and we had to go running after them. I drew the umbrell-impics, which included seeing how many rotations I could throw the umbrella and then catch it while walking from appointment to appointment, or hitting wetted trees to try to make the watter fall on my companion (hey, he started it). I drew a 3 year old boy who speaks ONLY Guarani and LOVES me but hates my companion. He always runs up and hugs me, and then hits Elder Agudelo. We have no idea why, but it´s funny. I drew myself teaching a lesson with visual aids drawn in the sand, and later in a Family Home Evening to a family of 6 daughters all under the age of 11. The Missionary Life is wonderful and I´m loving every minute of it. Nowhere else in the world will I find this many experiences in so little time!I love you all, and can never express with words my gratitude for your support and love. I apologize if I haven´t written to you personally: each of you deserve a personal letter every week. But, I know you will understand. Let´s plan on making up for lost time some day :-).With all my
Love,Elder McCarty
Picture commentary:
1.Do not try this at home. I was eating a Chupetin (or a lolli-pop, thanks to a package from my cherished and way TOO awesome loved ones at home) while running across pipes for the local plumbing system.
2. Before the Family home evening with the Villalba Family (with 6 little girls) we played a little on their old, classic swing set (kids at hear).
3. Half of our zone on a Collective, or bus, on the way to eat lunch down town after district meetings!
No comments:
Post a Comment