Enduring to the End

          About 8 months into my mission I learned a lesson that still to this day serves me well. I was a senior companion and trainer for the first time. Naturally I wanted to set a great example for this new missionary no matter what. I wanted to show a strong worth ethic, how to effectively teach and bear testimony of the restored gospel, and overall be successful.

                I have said this before but successful people do what the un-successful are unwilling to do. It wasn’t long into this journey that I came down with a serious parasite called Giardia. This particular parasite really attacks your intestines and midsection. After a long first night I woke up so sore it was hard to walk and get out of bed, but none the less the work needed to continue. Most would call it a day and stay home, but I wanted to be successful which means doing what everyone else is unwilling to do.  We prepared just like any other day and set out to work. As the day carried on I struggled to walk but felt the lord carry me from house to house. We found several new families to teach that day and set a baptismal date with a family that we had been working with for a few weeks. The day was shaping up to be one of the best of my mission so far. As we started towards our final appointment of the day, I can still remember this as though it happened yesterday. We were walking and took a short cut across a soccer field when all of the sudden I collapsed and could not get up. After a few minutes I was able to muster enough strength to get up and go to the branch president’s house where he finally took us home.

                After a long day I was bed stuck and laid there thinking while trying to get some rest. I was back at it the next day and with some medicine things slowly started getting better. I didn’t know this at the time but later on that family we set a baptismal date with realized that goal and were baptized, and to top it off one of the new families that we found to teach for the first time that first day I was sick ended up getting baptized as well.

                This was the first time I started to notice a trend. Some days are harder to be obedient than others. Those days that it is harder to get to church or read the scriptures for example are the days that, when obedient, are life changers. Satan doesn’t care as much if I attend church on those normal days, but when he knows something is going to happen that day with eternal ramifications he will do everything he can to stop it. That is why it is so important to always go the extra mile, never settle, and do what everyone else is unwilling to do. I know that if we persevere and never get complacent we will always find ourselves in the right place and full of experiences that will serve us throughout our lives.