Called to Serve. Paris, France: Repentance is Just Another Word for Change

Hey everybody!

I don't have a ton of time this week, so I'm gonna have to keep this pretty short. Fortunately, in this case, it was a pretty quick, kind of uneventful week.

Things mainly started to pick up around Thursday when we had district meeting in Quimper. My new haircut was well approved. :) After the meeting and waiting for trains (the usual), we went on exchanges to Brest. Elder Lloyd was with Elder Stucki, and I was with Elder Moffitt. If that sounds familiar, it's cause he's the same Elder Moffitt that was in the MTC with me. That made for a pretty good exchange. It was a really cool experience mostly because I was able to see how much he had grown. Knowing him from the beginning of the mission, there was a pretty evident change in him. He's still the same guy, that's for sure, but at the same time, he's much different. It's kind of hard to explain, a really subtle, but really apparent change.

As missionaries, we talk a lot about change. Repentance is just another word for change, the Atonement allows us to change, we go to church to change, etc. We talk about how much we want to change, how to change, what we want to have changed when we go home, stuff like that. The Gospel, after all, is a Gospel of change. So, for me, it's always a powerful experience to see someone change. Whether that's through being taught by the missionaries or being a missionary, doesn't matter. My exchange with Elder Moffitt was a reminder of some goals I set at the beginning of my mission for how I wanted to change, and a reminder of how I haven't quite accomplished those goals yet.

Mount Timpanogos from Adam's Window

When I think of change and progression, I often picture the view of Mount Timpanogos I have outside my window at home. It's not a smooth, upward climb to the summit. Sometimes, it evens slopes back down and you end up having to hike even higher to make it back up. But, in the end, what's important, if we really want to make it to the top, is that we keep going. Ups and downs mean nothing as long as we end up higher than where we started. Elder Moffitt has definitely made it higher, and he inspired me this week to do better on my hike to the top. I've only got 10 months or so left out here, so I've gotta push. :)

For everyone else, well, we never really know how much longer we have left. So, why not start pushing today? Get on the uphill slope, and starting climbing to the summit, start climbing home to our Heavenly Father. I know that we will all be blessed as we push ourselves to climb higher.

Until next week,