Week 17: My Favorite Things

Dogs didn't bite, nor did the bees sting....I just kept feeling sad. So it looked like I needed to remember some of my favorite things So I wouldn´t feel so bad....

Also, because there´s a white paper package tied up with tape on the bottom of my dresser with my Christmas presents all stuffed inside and it takes all my willpower not to tear it open and make the holidays come early.

Because, about now, I need a pick-me-up.

So while I was on divisions with a tri-lingual Brazilian (he`s fluent in Spanish, Portuguese AND English....how cool is that?) Elder De Carvalho, we were ready to think outside the box. While my companion`s blueprints for the day was to have us knock on doors all day while he conducted baptismal interviews we changed it up: taking all the pamphlets and Books of Mormon we could scavenge we set up a table on the side of the main road, right next to a popular Tenida (there like a thousand little shops all over everywhere, they`re like tiny little service stations with even lower prices....America needs this) and waited for the golden investigators to come to us....a stark reversal of roles. As a person passed we would contact them and try to set up a visit.

After about an hour of little to no success (would you like to learn more about Jesus and God to give you eternal happiness? ....no? oh...its just your salvation at stake, nothing too important...)

We dropped down to the truly desperate stage: Knocking on doors.

aaaaannnnndddd....we got nothing. Zilch, Zero, Nada, Nope. Although I DID learn some new words in Spanish that I`m never allowed to repeat.

The week continued likewise with failure stalking me like obvious paparazzi. My feet started feeling magnetic against the cobblestone roads, every time I blinked it was a new day...and I had nothing to show for the last one.

¨Raindrops on roses....and whiskers on kittens¨ I began to sing to myself at every downhill slide and failure..¨Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens...¨ another doorstep, the investigator doesn`t want to go to church.

¨Brown paper packages tied up with string...¨ I have a white paper package waiting for me, sent by a family that loves me more than I know. And that`s a blessing that I can enjoy.

¨These are a few of my favorite things.¨

My companion and I sat down last night for a very long time....until around one in the morning...and tried to resolve things. This week had been a bad one between us, and, I know that the Lord`s not going to going to send us the people he`s prepared if we`re fighting and have bad feelings between us. And all I know is....things ought to be getting better from here.

So look for the good in the world. Its there. Even if its hidden behind rainclouds and all those other cliches. Do your best...your very, very best and the Lord will carry you the rest of the way.

Its like what Samwise Gamgee says, 

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. 

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? 

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

So let´s go to war.