"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it"

This week has been wild, which makes for some of the best weeks I've learned. First of all, there was a tornado in Arkansas. Our weather radio went off about 12 times between 4 and 6:30am on Wednesday. I've been getting progressively more and more sick each day this week, so the lack of sleep was rough. Because of the storms, our zone meeting was going to be pushed back to next week. Then on Wednesday night at about 7pm we got a text that zone meeting was back on for the next morning. It was my first time instructing as a sister training leader. We felt that we should focus our instruction on attitude. The four pillars of our mission are obedience, work ethics, gospel knowledge, and attitude. Attitude is one that is sometimes overlooked and underrated. We asked everyone to help us come up with the "what", "why", and "how" of a good attitude. It was cool to be able to hear everyone's thoughts on what a missionary with a good attitude is like to be around, and what their attributes are. We talked about why we should have a good attitude, which came down to having the spirit reside in us, which without, we wouldn't be able to minister to investigators, companions, members, etc. My favorite part of the discussion was the "how" of attitude. It was really helpful to be able to hear advice and counsel from missionaries of how to stay positive and keep a good attitude throughout missionary work. We came to the conclusion that the best way to have a good attitude is to forget about yourself entirely. Isn't that just true in life? Don't we find the most joy and fulfillment when it's not all about us? We then read about about an experience that president Gordon B. Hinckley had as a young missionary in England. He says, “I was not well when I arrived. Those first few weeks, because of illness and the opposition which we felt, I was discouraged. I wrote a letter home to my good father and said that I felt I was wasting my time and his money. He was my father and my stake president, and he was a wise and inspired man. He wrote a very short letter to me which said, ‘Dear Gordon, I have your recent letter. I have only one suggestion: forget yourself and go to work.’ Earlier that morning in our scripture class my companion and I had read these words of the Lord: ‘Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.’ (Mark 8:35.) Those words of the Master, followed by my father’s letter with his counsel to forget myself and go to work, went into my very being. With my father’s letter in hand, I went into our bedroom in the house at 15 Wadham Road, where we lived, and got on my knees and made a pledge with the Lord. I covenanted that I would try to forget myself and lose myself in His service. That July day in 1933 was my day of decision. A new light came into my life and a new joy into my heart. The fog of England seemed to lift, and I saw the sunlight. I had a rich and wonderful mission experience, for which I shall ever be grateful” (“Taking the Gospel to Britain: A Declaration of Vision, Faith, Courage, and Truth,” Ensign, July 1987, 7). I just love that story. President Hinckley says, "the fog of England seemed to life, and I saw the sunlight". I'm going to guess that every discouragement and trial he was facing at the time didn't immediately disappear. The difference came from his change of attitude in the face of adversity. We asked the members of our zone to raise their hand if they thought missionary work was hard. Every single person raised their hand. Missionary work is hard. According to president Wakolo it's not hard, its harder. If you feel like life is hard (because it is), I invite you to study the following verses of scriptures and consider the faith and optimism of those you read about. We can learn much from them (Alma 14:8-13; 1 Nephi 7:16-21; Mosiah 17:5-10; 1 Nephi 19:9; Alma 7:11-12; JSH 1:11-17). I also got to see Sister Hall and Sister Cook (see pic)!!!!

Sorry this email is probably all over the place, I'm still sick. It's hard being sick as a missionary because you still want to go out and work, but then you just get feeling worse :-) 

The Lord has certainly provided this week as I've been struggling health wise. We have many investigators who are now progressing towards baptism and we have been able to find new people to teach this week. It's great to start to see the fruit of our labors in this area. One night this week we had an appointment fall through. We decided to stay in the area and go where we felt prompted. After a couple of unsuccessful door approaches Sister Decker and I both felt strongly about knocking one house on the street. We knocked it and an elderly lady politely expressed her lack of interest. Just as we were walking away from her door, a car pulled into the garage of the house next door. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much more awkward than ambushing someone in their own garage at night, but ill tell you what IS more awkward; when the person you're ambushing is also on the phone. But alas, we did what all missionaries are called to do and took advantage of the uncomfortable circumstance. The man we met ended up inviting us right in to talk to him and his wife about the gospel. They were very strong in their faith but were really open to hearing our message of the restoration and the Book of Mormon. They thanked us for sharing with them. As we were about to leave I felt prompted to talk to them about the temple, family history, and eternal marriage. Something about all of that really struck a cord with them and they became a lot more interested. So cool. Another experience we had this week was with our investigator Briana. We went over to her house for a lesson and her kids were really acting up. We tried to invite her husband to join us but she asked him to watch the kids instead. We were going to be teaching her about the plan of salvation, but she hadn't read from the Book of Mormon sense the last time we saw her. So, we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with her. As we read, we could feel the spirit really strong and she could feel it too. All of the sudden she stopped us and said, "Mark, I want you to come in here and read this with us". We were shocked. The spirit totally worked with her right before our eyes. We ended up having an amazing lesson with them. 

On Saturday we got to clean the temple!!!!!! My heart was so full of joy just BEING IN THE TEMPLE, even to clean toilets. The temple is the house of the Lord, there's no doubt about it. It was so funny, Sister Kent, the sweetest Hawaiian woman in our ward who works in the temple, told us "we clean the temple because it is the house of the Lord. We don't know which toilet Jesus will want to use when he comes to visit the temple while we are all gone". I love her haha. After we cleaned the temple she took us to Taco Bell. She had us order what we wanted, and then as we were finishing up she made us go back up to order more food to take home. Sister Decker warned me of this tradition, so I ordered a couple of tacos to go. Then Sister Kent ordered us more and more and more food to take home. It felt like she ordered one of everything on the menu. She would point to something on the menu and say, "yes, what is that, yes they want that, and two of those, and those, and...." I'm not kidding (see picture below). The people here are amazing. I love it here. 

I'm thankful to have been called as a sister training leader. I'm thankful to know that the Lord trusts me to minister to His missionaries and His children in Tennessee. I'm thankful for the opportunity I've been given to "forget myself and go to work".