Kiwi & Dog Poop epitomizes how I view the world: that incredibly strange and often nonsensical combinations of people, things, events, and circumstances inevitably inhabit the same space in our lives. Then we are charged with the occasionally challenging, sometimes sad and upsetting but usually hilarious task of making sense of it all.
"I'm just happy it's over." Literally heard those words come out of someone's mouth re 2011 and it seems to be the general sentiment in regards to last year. Amen! I totally understand. Twenty-eleven was a rough and tough one for a lot of us in a lot of ways. But...if we really want 2012 to be better like y'all are posting on Facebook, we should look back and genuinely try to learn from last year before slamming the door and yelling "good riddance!" -yeah, I was tempted... (don't worry, the happy parts of 2011post is coming in a couple hours). So, in the hope that someone will be inspired by my attempt, here is some of what I learned (Before you think me stupid or incredibly shallow, consider that I probably actually knew these things before. This year simply provided me with uniquely personally-tailored experiences to learn them better - experiences which will remain anonymous, for the most part, unless you ask. Then I'm happy to share. I love to talk!):
Just 'cause it seems like a good thing doesn't mean it is (or that it's the right thing for you to be doing).
Despite drowning in an assortment of good and even GREAT advice from people who really care about you and opinions from those that really just want you to make the decision the way they think is right, the making of the decision is eventually all up to you (with God's help). No one can make it for you (pretty dang happy about learning that one a lot better this year!).
Everyone has talents! Maybe you should take time out of centering your life around yourself and figure out what Mr. Iseethatguyaroundbutdon'tknowhimtoowell's are. Maybe it will be a good experience. Maybe you'll learn something new and make another friend.
That thing you can see would be a nice, good, considerate thing for someone to do given the situation and the circumstances but no one seems to be doing it?!! It's cause you're supposed to do it.
People can still care about each other and have a decent relationship despite having BIG differences.
It takes a really long time to mow the lawn around our house and roommates can have really great ideas about how to make it less of a nightmare-like working together and halfsies-ing it, brilliant!
It's possible to be nice and not let people walk all over you simultaneously.
You really can learn something from everyone!
Cooking is really fun.
Your financial status does not define you.
Your employment status and career field do not define you.
The way you carry yourself through difficult times and the way you treat others does define you.
Little brothers can say very profound things.
You can spearhead a project, and you can achieve your goals.
Family (and time spent with them) is so ridiculously precious (pictures added on this last one because this really is the crux of it all folks, for serious).
Hmm...
Not quite
That's it!
Let's make 2012 better because we learn from 2011!
Almost 6 months into his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Santiago, Chile, I have finally seen pictures of my CUTE wittle brother in a suit with a name tag! Not because he sent them, because our family stalked his mission blog. :) Behold:
My brother is in the front, second from the left!
Dead center, front row
view of Santiago and the Andes
For details on why he is in Chile and what he is doing there, see here. However, as I spent 18 months in Romania teaching the same things, I can tell you the basics. He was called by a prophet of God (President Thomas S. Monson) to tell people that the church established by Jesus Christ when he lived on the earth began to fade away after His death. Members faced severe persecution and all but one of the apostles were martyred. This is a period called the Great Apostasy, when there was a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3) from the gospel Christ organized. The authority to bestow priesthood keys and to receive revelation for the Church was lost along with many precious teachings. This website, run by the LDS Church, explains things better than I can.
My brother is telling people about Joseph Smith, a teenage boy in 1820, in upstate New York, during a time of religious excitement. Joseph was confused about which church he should join and asked God through prayer. The answer he received was that none of them were true. He (through the power of God) was instrumental in restoring the true church of Jesus Christ to the earth again.
Recently, there has been a lot of media, political, and other attention focused on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormon Church). I am generally happy about the attention regardless of whether it is positive or negative because it means more people with become at least a little familiar with the church I belong to! Once in a while, however, I feel it is necessary to clarify; even if the offender could be classified as psychologically insane and even if no one is listening to me :)
Anderson Cooper interviews Dr. Robert Jeffress (a baptist pastor who believes there should be an evangelical president in the White House and called Mormonism a cult):
Now...even if "cult" can be theologically defined as a religion/religious group with a founder other than Jesus Christ, Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) doesn't qualify. Why? Because Joseph Smith did not found said church. Jesus Christ did. Joseph Smith restored it. If you have questions about that, see my linked websites, comment here, or get in touch with me and I will put you in touch with people like my brother who are in your area. People called of God to explain it.
Okay, so I promise this blog won't become a shrine to my brother's missionary service in Chile. But he survived his first week in-country and I'm so proud of him!! Posting his FIRST email from Santiago, well, pieces. The parts that remind me of my mission :) Say some prayers he will be protected and led to speak with those who are ready to hear his simple but TRUE message! Thanks.
Hola Familia!
Well, I´m not as stressed out as I was at first but it´s totally crazy! Because I can´t understand what people are saying! Oh, and interesting fact for you all...I´m not learning Spanish!!! I´m learning something called Castallano (I think that´s how it´s spelled), which is a dialect of Spanish!!!
It is SO different here!!! Apparently Santiago is the second greatest civilized city in South America...they even have a McDonald´s and a KFC!!!
There´s more dogs than smokers - and in a week I can´t count how many smokers I´ve seen. I´ll probably come back to the States addicted to secondhand smoking! (Hopefully not)
They drive really crazy here. The one thing I continuously pray in my heart for besides people who want to hear the gospel, is for all the cars that are here to have their breaks working.
P-day was good today! Happy 4th of July! We played soccer and had churipans! Oh and the mayo here is top of the line! Churipans are slightly thicker mini hot dogs wrapped in bread with any condiment of choice. It´s pretty good!
The main meal here is lunch - in fact, it´s such a big meal that there have been a few days here where I have had only lunch and I have been COMPLETELY fine. It´s weird sometimes having only one meal a day but I´m getting accustomed to it.
Most schools here are on strike! Chairs are backed up to the gates with students patrolling with metal pipes and bats. Something about wanting better education.
(Something else I forgot to mention): Every place...EVERY PLACE...has a gate or fence of some sort here! I can´t think of a place I´ve seen here without one! So that´s pretty weird.
And it´s COLD here in the mornings! No snow, not really any wind...it´s just cold!!! It´s like the air itself is the essence of cold! But that is just the mornings. Once it gets about to 9am it´s not so bad and it doesn´t get cold until the next morning when I wake up...so it´s not Too bad - it´s just freakin cold in the mornings!
Church was really good! There was a baby blessing and the Primary kids made me short little welcome cards! They are all so wonderful!!! When I introduced myself, I was blessed not to forget all my Spanish and was even able to get a laugh out of them! So it´s not too bad. I just can´t understand what they say back to me. So that part is bad. But other than that life is pretty good!
President and Sister Laycock are just about the greatest people I could have for mission presidents!!! It was so cool! We each had a short interview with the President and Wow! Every time I learn more and keeping the commandments I realize again and again, with more surety that this Church is the True Church! There is NO way it´s NOT true! And all the members are just one big family! Sacrament meeting and the other meetings don´t change...except they´re in spanish!!!
We had a Public Presentation two days ago (where we go do something in the plaza) and we shined people´s shoes while we talked of the gospel...it was the coolest thing ever!! It was pretty funny too!! Me and Elder Gordon were trying to talk to this one man and after we left, Elder Gordon told me a few of the things he said...1 - How come you don´t ever have any African American (what he said was nigger) missionaries? 2 - You are all spies sent to check on the situation in Chile 3 - A few other things that aren´t very nice that Elder Gordon refused to share with me.
To all those types of people with crazy ideas...I just want to tell them...PICK ANY OF OUR CHURCH HOUSES - IN THE WORLD, Then go to any other of our church houses (in the world) and tell me if it´s really all that different!!!! Because it´s NOT! The church is the same all over and it´s true. And you will realize - huh they don´t seem like spies to me...if nothing else they´ll know that what we are teaching is what really happens!!!! It´s just frustrating to have to think that there are even people in the world that exist with such strange ideas!!!! You can´t battle craziness!!!! You just have to share your testimony and walk on by!!!! I just want to tell them that I chose to come on a mission and no one like the government sent me because I like being warm in the mornings!!!! Yep, you can´t battle craziness!!!
But the Gospel is still true! All things done under God´s power can´t be undone without it being His will! Just because someone goes apostate doesn´t make the church which God restored (through a prophet) it doesn´t make the church untrue! And that´s that!
Well...I think that´s that (at least until next week). I´m trying to think of more to write -OH...We had two baptisms this last sunday...an elderly couple Jacob y Luisa. They are great...(almost everyone here calls us some relation) and they call me their nieto or grandson.
Oh, and Chileans say PO like Canadians say EH. It´s pretty funny...I´ll have to try to get that down.
Surprisingly - they play a lot of popular american songs in english here (in fact I´m listening right now to We are the Champions)! Being american, or being able to go to america or other stuff like that makes you pretty cool for some reason around here...something like that.
I´ve also found that it sucks when appointments for teaching fall through! You just want to yell to the world...WHAT WE ARE TEACHING IS GOING TO MAKE YOU THE HAPPIEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN... PLEASE DON´T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF PASSING THIS UP! But...it happens.
Disclaimer: There is no picture with this post because after 8 1/2 weeks in the MTC, we have received ZERO pictures from our dear missionary. We stopped receiving letters a few weeks in. Apparently we should have been sending stamps instead of cookies. After two long (believe me Elder Kimball, I understand) but valuable months at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, Elder William Kimball flew to Chile (Santiago East) yesterday to begin the remaining 22 months of his 2 year LDS Mission. Young men and women spend anywhere from 3-12 weeks at the MTC learning how to teach the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and usually studying another language. From personal experience, I know the work they are called to do all over the world is the most sacred, inspired, important work and the best thing they could possibly be doing with their time! Not only are they humbly inviting people to learn more about their Savior Jesus Christ, about a book called the Book of Mormon and about a boy who was called to be a prophet named Joseph Smith, but they are (frequently obliviously) learning more about themselves, the Latter-day Saint Church, religion, culture, psychology, sociology, cooking, cleaning, motivation and leadership in a 2-year time period than they have learned in their entire life up to that point!
As evidenced in emails he has been sending us, it is clear Elder Kimball has already learned a lot (starting with week 1 up through last week):
I miss you all loads, but the grand thing is is that there's so much to do I don't have time to be distraught about it. THE MTC IS LIKE YOUR BEST FRIEND(S)! Take EFY and "multiply it by six!.............." I will be sending part of a written letter later, because there is some info I would like you guys to have. If you could please send my regards to everyone and tell them I am reading their letters, I just can't respond to everything...My first meal was steak and potatoes and yes I ate everything on my plate(s) :)
There's something here called the free box! Any elder puts anything in there it's yours for the taking (I have a box of Nerf Guns!)
I'm in a great district...It's almost liked we planned it in the pre-existence!
I'm pretty sure every missionary here feels like the prophet Mormon..."not even a hundredth part can I write." And it's so true. We have the coolest teachers here and we have the best district and zone. We have just about the best everything! I miss you all and love you all and Can't wait for the second coming so I can remember and tell everything to you all.
Well...it's been 5 weeks!! Certainly hasn't felt that long. It honestly still seems like I just got here yesterday...and if things go according to regular schedule for the MTC, then I'll be a Hosting Missionary this Wednesday!!! The "homework" here has been bumped up a notch since we got Hermano Ellot to be our teacher! He is way cool. He's also more "you can do this, (at least with the Lord's help), so do it! It's good practice for the field, I guess.
MTC is really spelled G - R - E - A - T - !
I know the Gospel is True! I know that we will be blessed if we are obedient!!! I know we can be happy also if we are obedient!
Things going on here: I finished reading the Miracle of Forgiveness! It's pretty powerful - I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!
Teaching is going great (except for it could still be better). But it's been getting better!
We should be leaving for Chile in about 2 weeks! I can't wait to get out, meet my trainer and mission president and get to work!
Well...Oh yeah! We got a really great lesson the other day from Hermano Jensen...HOLY SMOKES! He is a great teacher! And he gave us some study work and we'll also be having another great lesson Saturday evening from him.
I'm not sure there is too much to tell...most of it is small stuff...eating, sleeping, and studying...All what's left that's cool that I can say is that MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! I remember a saying, "If the church were not true, the 19 year old boys that go out on missions would have sunk the church, years ago"...and so very true! The Gospel is real and it blesses the faithful young men and women who go out and serve missions. The church will grow! But, as President Hinckley said, "Activity is the genius of God's church." I believe there will most certainly come a time when it IS every member a missionary because either you'll be for God, and will be able to stand the trials that will come your way, or we'll not be as hardworking as we should be in the church, in inviting and teaching, and because of our lax nature, we'll lose our testimonies and our good standing with God, and we will be left to ourselves to deal with our problems. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "As we come closer to Christ, the path of discipleship becomes narrower and narrower..." keeping the commandments probably will take more faith and sacrifice in being obedient. I know the President, his Counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve are Special Witnesses and receive guidance to direct the church. THE HEAD OF THIS CHURCH IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST - the prophets just speak His words. So listen.
Give my love to ALL the family, everywhere - learn from your own and others mistakes so you don't have to make them as well
