Elder Tyler Monson: Week 8: Be a Phineas, not a Ferb

Monday, September 16, 2013

Week 8: Be a Phineas, not a Ferb

Things weren´t exactly picture perfect this week. For the first few days I felt like Bilbo Baggins, who all he could think about was his hobbit hole and how far away he was from the Shire. Mr. Baggins felt tired, useless and scared and was ready to turn back...when things started happening.

For the first few days of the week I was left to my thoughts. I can´t really contribute much to the lessons because I frankly, have no idea what´s going on. So I spend a lot of time with my thoughts, smiling and looking intently at the investigators on the outside, but in my head I´m coming up with the premise of a T.V. show and plotting yet another book I probably won´t ever write. It leaves a lot of time to hold a pity party with my thoughts and finally on Wednesday it came to a head. I got sick, my stomach was nauseous and all I really wanted was to throw in the towel and give up.

It was then that I got down on my knees and prayed harder than I ever have in my life.

And I kept that prayer in my heart as the week progressed, every time I felt discouraged, words of motivation would pop up in my mind, the most prominent of which is from the hymn ¨Come, Come ye Saints.¨

¨Girt up your loins, fresh courage take, our God will never us forsake, and soon we´ll have this tale to tell, All is well, All is well.¨

¨Forget yourself and go to work!¨ I told myself, ¨Stop dwelling on your feelings and focus on others! Be a Phineas, not a Ferb, start talking!¨

That´s been one of the biggest trials this week. I would gather up the courage to go out and start contacting everyone and when I did....they would just sort of nod and smile at me, their faces blank and their spirits unmoved....they didn´t understand a word I said.

But I wasn´t about to be discouraged, not when I had come so far to teach this message! But yet, doubts began to flood my mind and began to slip back into sorrow...It was Friday night and I was getting really discouraged. Tired and without understanding anything anyone was telling me, I prayed to my God again, ¨Heavenly Father, I need to understand this language...I need to speak it! Please fill my mouth with words!¨ And he did. The next lesson we taught, Elder Hernandez took a back seat and had me teach the entire lesson...on the spot. It was with a member family, so it was less terrifying than it might have been....but the words came to my mouth, and I was able to teach about how we need to have both hands on the Iron Rod and feast upon the words of Christ.

To cap it all off, I had my first baptism yesterday.

His name is Esau and he´s 11 years old. His mom is a convert and his dad isn´t a member but he was really excited to be baptized! I had the opportunity to baptize him and Elder Hernandez was able to baptize his 8 year old brother.