This past week has been way busy. There are many changes in the mission going on this month, maybe the rest of my time here--I'm not sure. First things first, no more contact with anyone outside of the family. Anyone can email me, but I cannot respond. (Starting last Tuesday) No fast food. No music inside the apartments. We work from 10 am to 9 pm, no coming inside the apartments for lunch or dinner, and so we must pack our food. These guidelines are quite difficult I must say, however, I'm sure it is for the better. I think it might have to do with the goal which the mission set for the month of March, but I'm not sure. (Update: It is "Miracle March" and the missionaries are all sacrificing some of their favorite things in order to make miracles happen in the Jacksonville Mission this month...so don't feel too sorry for Elder Robbs!)
So far we have had little luck with finding new investigators. Many of the people we contact shut the door before we can even say hello. My guess is that most of these people have had so many different people come knocking on their door that they simply do not care who it is that is trying to talk to them unless, of course, it is family or friends. Yesterday we had some guy threaten us with his giant, fat dog. I laughed about it afterwards, yet it seems interesting to me that we seem so scary! The dog was certainly growling at us, but I didn't care too much. I looked at the guy, smiled at him, then walked quietly away. This area is proving to be the most difficult I have experienced. I'm sure there will be plenty of harder ones, so there is no use worrying too much about it. Aside from all that fun stuff--I have decided the lesson I am supposed to learn in this area is gratitude. Because let me tell you, there is plenty of things I could waste my time complaining about...it takes a lot of effort to control your thoughts when everything around you seems to be negative. But it is ok, I will be able to figure it out soon enough.
I had Elder Olsen give me a blessing yesterday. In it, I was reminded that the earth is a time for testing and trials, and that one day I would be able to look back with much gratitude for all the things I have gone and will go through in my life. These trials help us to become like our Heavenly Father, so it is absolutely necessary that each of us go through them. As long as we remain faithful to the end, all will work out the way it is supposed to.
Grandpa sent me a letter, and he wrote about the "refiner's fire". I thought it was really neat. As he said, silver in its pure form can perform things that silver with the least degree of impurities cannot perform. It takes all levels of heat, different fluxes which force out impurities, and time. The stress of the refining development causes much agitation with the silver; yet, when it is all said and done--it is perfect. I figure we all get to go through it, and sometimes the flames are hotter than at other times, however we are all still in the process of becoming who we are meant to become. I'm sure the sting of the added "flux" makes all of us cringe. But in the end, it won't matter.
Brigham Young said that after we we had returned to live with Heavenly Father and had gained salvation, we would look back millions and millions of years past on the small moment that was our life on earth and exclaim, "What of all of that?!". He goes on further, but the point of it is that what we go through here on earth really is small in comparison to how long we will exist with our Father in Heaven. If we can make it through this little blip on the eternal spectrum of our lives, it will all be worth it in the end.
Anyhow, I love each of you and I'm thankful to be in our family, and to have the friends I have. We've got a good group :)
Talk to you next week!
Love,
Austin
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