So it's come to my attention that I haven't been very good
about keeping people updated on how things are out here in good 'ole Buffalo Grove.
My sincerest apologies. Two weeks ago I
was just super busy and spaced it entirely. Last week I did have something
written up I wanted to send, but apparently I lost my Internet connection
before the message has a chance to send. Well this week I'm trying to do better
on all aspects of my work, and part of that is doing a better job keeping in
touch with family and friends back home.
This week has been an interesting one for sure. We have had a lot of opportunities
for service lately, so I have gained a much better appreciation for a lot of
simple things in life. Things like knowing I can pay for my next meal, or that
even though my apartment isn't the nicest place I've lived, it's warm and has a
bed. Things like retaining my health to a point that I can still shovel a
driveway, drive, or make it to Church on Sunday. Knowing
that while bad things happen everyday in
the world, I can be comforted by my Savior. Not everybody has those things. In
fact, most of the world is not fortunate enough to have ALL of those things.
They may have food and shelter, but not health. Or health and food, but no relationship with
God. How many things are there in your life that are blessings you look over?
Sometimes the blessings we have aren't the obvious ones. I found this week that
I have been blessed with an increase in stamina. When my body says that I just
can't take another step, somehow I do. When a study topic is just too long and
hard, I always make it through. Things
like this are blessings, but do we really think about them that way? I know I
haven't always.
This week I have become especially grateful for one of my newer, more practiced
blessings of a more even temper. Those of you who have known me for any
considerable amount of time know that I didn't have that a few years ago. I had
a temper, and it wasn't very pretty. When I lost it, I lost friends. And who
could blame them? I wouldn't want to be friends with me when I got angry. But I
worked hard to change that. It was hard, and it took time. I'm still not
perfect, but I like to think I'm doing better. This week we have had several
occasions in different environments where 'old me' would have lost it, and
hard. But to my own surprise, I was fine. It wasn't that the situations didn't
upset me, they still did. But the difference was my reaction. I didn't feel the
need to respond sharply, or to continue an argument if it was being started
with me. And it surprised me how other people reacted. One gentleman told us that our religion was
'just ridiculous' and wondered 'what would possess a person to believe that?!?'
And I was tempted to respond with just how I felt about his words, but instead chose
to calmly and simply bear testimony of the work I was doing, and it took the
fire right out of him. He just looked at me and said, 'Well that's fine, I guess you're sticking
up for what you believe. I'm still not
interested. Have a good day.' What had happened to the angry man we just talked
to? I'm not sure, but I like to think that he learned what I did a long time
ago. Having beliefs and opinions is great, and defending them is noble, but
when you use a sworded tongue, you
mostly just cut up your mouth.
On another occasion, I was grateful for a combination of my developed temperament,
and my ability to phrase things diplomatically. (Thanks Dad!) In a meeting we
had this week, Bro. Johnson (names have been changed for privacy) asked another
participant named Alex what his opinion was on the topic at hand. His response
was that it sucked, and we were doing it all wrong, and it wasn't going to help
anything if we did it that way. Everyone was surprised, and a few people were
even a little offended. I could see that the situation was tense, so I tried to
explain Alex's answer in a softer way, even adding that I agreed with him, but
I thought it could be handled differently. Things were still tense for a minute
or two, but everyone saw that Alex didn't mean offense, he just felt strongly
about the topic.
Now, I just took up quite a chunk of space talking about personality or
behavioral blessings, but I think it's just as important to address temporal
welfare as well. Now most, if not all, of you reading this are pretty well off.
You have things figured out, you can take care of yourself. But being in a good
place isn't enough folks. There is someone out there who isn't. Today I want to
challenge you to find them. Whatever situation they may be in, or wherever they
are, you can find someone, I'm sure. Do something nice for someone else. Shovel
a driveway, bake some cookies, donate some time at a charity, take someone
dinner. The list of possibilities is endless, but each one is simply something
you can do to bring someone else a little bit of light. You all have that light
inside of you. It's a shame to waste it all on yourself. Give someone else of
your light this week, and I can testify to you that you will feel blessed for
it. You won't feel like you were giving up light, in fact, you will feel like
they probably gave you some light. Do something good.
The Church is True.
Your Body is a Temple.
Don't Do Drugs.
All that good stuff.
Love you all!
-Elder Logan Gifford
PS - a few picture
This first one is a shout out to my little brother Landon,
who got called to the best mission in the world for Missionary week back home. Pretty soon I'll be expecting a real call
letter with that same real call coming in a little while here. :)
The second and third ones are what happens when you give missionaries shovels
and hard packed snow. It was really tough to get out, so we figured
if it was going to be hard work, we might as well enjoy
ourselves, right? Snow tunnel for the win folks.
After that we have Brother Lex and I. That man is awesome, and totally missionary
driven. He is also Austrian, born and raised, so this outfit is to celebrate
how well Austria is doing in the Olympics. I have no idea how USA is doing, but
I guess Austria won the event they were hoping for, so it's worthy of celebration!
Have a wonderful week everyone! I love you all!
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