Called to train!

Just 'hangin' out!

     Hello everyone!  So first, I am training!! I am so scared but so excited to see what the Lord has in store for this area and for me in this responsibility. I am ready for the Lord to shape me!

     This week was awesome. It was my last week as a trainee missionary! That reminds me how much time I still have in my mission and I cherish every day I can say I still have so much time. But it also reminds me how fast this work is going! 

     We had a funny experience last week where we went and visited one last less active for the night and as he opened the door and saw us he slammed it in our face. I was on splits with my District Leader and as we walked back to our bikes a little discouraged, he told me he felt we should try one last house. We knocked and no one came but we heard noise so we waited. He opened the door and saw us and knew who we were. He just apologizes for taking so long. He tells us he drinks A LOT and he was basically passed out on the floor undressed so it took him a while to find clothes and then he just says, but I am not interested thank you and closes the door. We did not even say a word.  It was so fast.  My District Leader looks at me and says, "Elder.. I think I felt prompted to knock on that door because God wanted us to have a good laugh tonight." I died! 

     Then this week we had a primetime awkward moment. We saw a teenager walking our way so we stopped and talked to him and he actually spoke very good English. We told him who we were and that our only desire was to help people. In English he responds, "Oh no thank you I am ok. I receive plenty of help from the devil." Haha I literally did not know what to say so I just said Sugoi! Douyatte? Which just means awesome! What? I choked ok I was under pressure.  I shared with him Moroni 7:13-14 because I thought it was pretty fitting. Anyway that was a good one. 

     We then visited a less active and her dog would not leave my side and I was missing my dog Sassy pretty bad right then. I showed her, sister Sato, Sassy and she just died she was so excited. In here broken English she says "She is a Maltese??" I was just so excited I understood her! I love this work. Truly it is hard not to be happy when you are serving the people you love. Which leads me to what I wanted to talk about this week. 

     My focus of my blog this week came to me after I was looking back on my farewell talk after my personal study the other day. In my talk I said how sisters in this church should not be pressured into serving missions and elders should not be pressured to leave at the age of 18 because there are so many ways to be righteous and it is your decision. I stand 100 percent with what I said that day, but when I read that I realized I did not clarify so I need you also to know this.

This mission is the best decision I have ever made and easily the best time of my life!!! I would plead with everyone that is of age to sincerely seek to know if this is your path and when you should go. Anyone who says that they are putting their lives on hold to serve a mission... I stand stronger and taller than ever with Ammon in Alma 26 when I say that, "this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation!" The exclamation point is my insertion because there is no other way to say that than to say wholeheartedly bearing my witness before God that this is my life and there is no other place that I would rather be. From endless witnesses from my peers and testimonies from past missionaries, I still could have never grasped the fullness of the blessings I would receive if I had not come out here and served myself. For me and my fellow missionaries serving around the world I would ask them, "for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla (Our homes) that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?" (Alma 36:1) "Behold I will answer for you... This is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work!" (Alma36:3) Brothers and sisters I LOVE THIS WORK!! If anyone is thinking of serving, please find that witness for yourself IF you should go and then go! And as members of this church we should be praying every day in every way to be an instrument in the Lord's hands! The endless blessings I have received in doing so will forever change my life. I am His humble servant and I will not turn from my Lord ever again. I can hardly imagine where I would be right now if I had not served. President Uchtdorf talks about being off by a few degrees, but the change and blessings I have received would put me at roughly 180 degrees in the other direction I am pretty sure haha. I often ask myself this question and find this answer when I think of my life without this mission. I am truly humbled to my knees. "For if we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla (my home) these our dearly beloved brethren... would also have been strangers to God." (Verse 9) The thought of not coming to these people who are as strangers to their Father, sickens me truly. How could that thought even cross someone's mind who has received the witness that they must serve? IF you have the witness... go!! That witness though is so crucial. Do not go out for the wrong reasons. You turn over your time to God when you accept that calling so do not waste it. If and when you receive that witness you need to accept it and trust in God's will. I promised the Lord long before this life to serve him and serve this mission. Who does that make me if I break an eternal promise such as that?  I hold close attention to that verse nine to the "would ALSO have been strangers to God." I would have been just as much a stranger to my Father as these people. I am just starting to truly humble myself to the depths where I can see my Father and my Savior's endless love for me and for all of us. It is just like filling a measuring cup with water. You can closely guess from your high point of view the amount, but you will never truly see the exact until you lower yourself down to eye level. The Lord is filling our lives with untold blessings, but until you lose yourself in humility, "and lower yourself to eye level," you will not be able to truly see how much. 

     If we are desperate to serve and become closer to the Lord, we will drop our excuses and we will give our all and we will see progress.  So please ask yourself as in conference this week, "What lack I yet?" Then ask yourself how desperate are you to actually make the change? I think of these latter days and I find myself getting more and more desperate as I love my Father in Heaven more and more. My joy is full and my heart is "brim with joy." He loves us endlessly. I will praise Him forever because he has saved my life. I am the best version of myself because of this work. I ask you all to please come unto our Father and glorify in Him more than you are now no matter what point you are at, because "Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?" (Verse 16) Please join in me in trying to do as the people of Ammon did in burying our weapons of war. Let us bury our pride every day one.. weapon.. at a time. I love this work. I love my Savior. I love all of you and pray for your safety every night. This I write to you as my humble witness of the Father and our Savior and I close again, standing with Ammon's testimony. "Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen" 

     Keep your hands on the rod, your feet on the path, and keep your eyes on Christ.

Love,

Elder Trevor Aiken