Changing it up...

7.4.11
Fleming Island, FL


Dear Family & Friends~

It sounds like the flooding in Utah has been fairly exciting! We haven't had any wild floods, that I know of, but we have had a few major rainstorms...but nothing too extraordinary. I'm kind of hoping I'll be able to see a large hurricane or tornado or something fun like that before I leave Florida. We have a member who says he prays for disasters...he works for [a large insurance company's disaster clean-up program]. His wife also made the note that every career he has had up to this point he has made a living at the cost of other's pain (EMT, insurance, etc...). It was a funny discussion to say the least, haha!

Elder Kiracofe is going to be getting transferred for the first time. I think he is a little apprehensive, but at the same time he is excited to move on and to see what awaits him. I will be staying in Fleming Island and it is likely I will finish out here in this area. But it is certainly possible I could be moved my last transfer also.

I am ready for this upcoming transfer, however. I finally have an idea of what I need to do to do the right work here in Fleming Island. I have felt a loss since I have been here as to what I needed to accomplish. And it has been rough. I feel like I've been walking in circles for the last four and a half months. I've been told this quote several times since I've been here: "the definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over again while yet expecting a different result". I've been doing the same different things over and again and have been driven to insanity over and over again. It is odd how life is full of patterns that repeat themselves. I think to some degree or another the object of the game is to recognize the pattern, and then to snap out of it, and to find a better pattern, or even to improve on the good pattern you've already found. I read the other day that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a pattern of living that becomes increasingly rewarding over time. Anyhow, back to the beginning point--I've discovered that the object of the game isn't so much to take everything upon myself to find every possible investigator, but to strive to help each person center their lives in the gospel pattern of living. As a missionary, we can see where people can apply the gospel more powerfully in their lives, especially in members--I'm sure it has to do with the fact that we are around them more. Nevertheless, we are called and set apart as teachers, and we are here to lift and to teach people a better way, a happier way for living, even the way of eternal life. We are so engrossed in the gospel that to some greater degree, we can see more clearly the way God intends for us to live the gospel (not that others cannot, and not that every missionary can see it either). I'm changing my focus from "how can I find people to teach?" to "how can I help members and non-members alike to better apply the restored gospel in their lives?" This way I can spend my time focusing on giving, rather than taking. And when I say taking, I mean this: what must I do to "get" this person to listen to me so I can teach them? That is a perspective that doesn't work. It will be better to look at in the sense that I will be striving to find what I can give to help people better themselves with what they are already doing that is good. I can't "get" anybody to do anything. But I can at least give them something helpful and rewarding. If they like it, they will decide to act upon it. If not, they will turn the gift away.

Hopefully that paragraph made sense.

So the focus is "how can I help?" or "what can I give?" or even "what can I give more?" No longer is it "how can I get more (investigators, lessons, baptisms, etc...)". When the focus is on forgetting what I want to receive, but on what I'm going to give, everything else will come. I hope that this is a true concept! I'm going to give it a go either way. Do you have any thoughts or experiences that might apply to these things that you would be willing to share? (the option is open to everyone!).

I've gotta get going, but I love each of you and hope all of you are well! I wish you each a good week and will talk to you soon. :)

Love~
Austin