I don't know if this weeks email will be grand or super inspiration or well detailed, so I apologize in advance.
In
remorse, Matt Berninger of the National sings of expectations that he
can't fill, and how he resorts to almost frustration or anger when
others don't understand his state, saying, 'you should have know me
better than that'. Sometimes, it's super super easy to get down on
ourselves when we aren't able to achieve what we truly want, but it's
when we're down on ourselves that we've gotta stand up and fight the
hardest! Like I've said many times in my emails, in our work, there's
always a certain amount of pressure to get done what the Zone Leaders
have set for us, and when we can't achieve it, sometimes, I just wanna
turn my shoulder and be like, 'You know we can't do that! That's WAY too
hard for us to do! This is Maio, not Praia, we can't get those same
numbers!', and some days, it gets in your head and gets you down because
you simply can't achieve those kinds of things, but that doesn't mean
it should make us feel estranged, or frustrated or some word that's big
and descriptive like that. This week, I really learned what it is to
psuh forward and just give it, even when you've got nothing left,
because somedays in Maio, it felt like that.
Elder
Martinez and I were super blessed this week to find success in ways we
never thought it would, but it wasn't without our work. One day,
everything seemed to be going right, we were teaching all over the
place, talking to people, and were just constantly busy, and then the
next two days, found absolutely NOTHING to work with. There were two
days where we had 1 lesson combined between those two, which is really
tough, when the standard or goal is to get 3 every single day. It was
really tough in there for a bit.
However, we
didn't do all of our work for nothing, because on Sunday, we got one of
the best blessings we could receive to finish off the last day of the
transfer: we got one of our investigators to church, the first time it
happened ALL transfer! When we passed by our investigator, Kennedy, 10
minutes before church and he was getting ready to go, we were so pumped,
it was SO awesome. He came with us to ALL 3 hours of church, the
members acceptted him in, sat with him, talked with him, asked him
questions, and became friends with him. It had such an impact on
Kennedy, that he even bore his testimony during testimony meeting! There
was such a happy feeling at church on Sunday, that all the struggle we
went through the days before was all worth it. IT was freaking darn
awesome!
Even though Maio was tough, Elder
Martinez was a super good example to me. One night while we talked on
the roof, he told me, 'y'know, sometimes I feel bad because I feel like I
haven't made a dent in Maio, but then I realize, it's Maio that's made
the dent in me', and having had served there for the past 4 months, I am
so grateful for the opportunities it's given me to learn in grow in SO
many ways.
So, you're probably thinking,
'what? you're not on Maio anymore?' and whether or not you're thinking
that, the answer to that question is 'NO! I am no longer on Maio!' I
have been transfered to the island of Sal, which literally means 'salt'
in Portuguese, due to the high amounts of salt in the islands interior.
However,
therein lies the true reason I picked this song title for today; you
could say that President thought I should go to Sal, so now, I live in
Sal(t). HAH!
Okay, that's about all I've got
for this week, I'll get back next week with updates on Sal and the city
of Santa Maria, which I'm currently working in, with my new companion,
Elder Crooks.
Love you all back home!
Elder Massey
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