Missions Change Lives!

And here is more evidence of the mighty miracles that happen in the lives of our missionaries. This comes from a Zone Leader who will be going home in 3 weeks:

"Yesterday was a big day for me. I ate a sandwich that had lettuce and tomato on it. I never thought or dreamed I could do that. I'm starting to eat vegetables. Maybe I am growing up out here."

August 10, 2009 Update Note: I have received a number of negative comments on this posting from critics and skeptics who fail to use a grain of salt on their BLTs as well as in their blog reading. This particular missionary was exceptionally diligent, hard working, intelligent and witty. He experienced spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth as a result of his sacrifice and service. He also learned to eat tomatoes. He had a very dry sense of humor -- so dry that the critics of this blog failed to see the fun!

Sports Activity Day

This past week we had "Sports Activity Day" for our zones. We traveled throughout the mission to accomplish this. Each day we met in a nice park located within the boundaries of that particular zone. A zone has about 24-30 missionaries. We started the day with calisthenics. Then we had soccer games and kickball games. These were followed by relay races and tug-of-wars. A fantastic lunch of barbecued burgers, chips, watermelon and big cupcakes was served. And we finished off the day with an old-fashioned egg toss. A few sun burns and one slightly sprained ankle were the only causalities.

The primary purpose of this event was to give our wonderful missionaries a "day off". Missionary work is difficult -- and like most of us, our missionaries need time to refresh, have fun and "smell the roses". It was a great week!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Giving, Not Receiving -- A Key to Happiness

One of the greatest lessons a missionary can learn is that true happiness comes when we give -- and not when we receive. Our culture encourages self-absorption. Missionary work encourages self-sacrifice. The transformation from selfish teenager to self-less follower of Christ is remarkable!

When one is assigned to be a leader, he often learns great lessons about giving. Missions have an organizational structure that requires us to assign missionaries to the roles of District Leaders and Zone Leaders. A District Leader is responsible for 4-8 missionaries in his district. He conducts District Meetings every Monday at 10:30AM. He trains his missionaries, encourages them, inspires them and helps in any way he can. Along the way he gains valuable hands-on experience about leadership. And his perspective changes about people and progress. Zone Leaders are responsible for 2-4 District Leaders and their districts. They typically have 18-26 missionaries under their responsibility. They train the District Leaders and help the entire zone achieve their goals. In addition to their regular responsibilities, they spend many additional hours helping new missionaries become proficient and confident.

Personal growth comes quickly when a 19 or 20 year old is thrust into a leadership role with significant responsibilities. It is in these assignments that they often learn that giving is much more important than receiving. And their happiness quotient hits an all-time high! Here is an email from one such missionary who was recently assigned to be a District Leader:

"President Murray,

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as a district leader. My testimony has already been strengthened so very much that as I focus on the needs of others. God will help me more with my needs, which in some way seem to resolve themselves. Our district is doing the best it has in months. Serving as a district leader has helped me learn much better time management skills.

I have felt greater charity fill me as I have sought to serve the other missionaries in this area. This is a very humbling assignment as there are several missionaries here that would seem to be more qualified- one in particular. The district is doing very well: Elder "A", a brand new missionary, seems to be doing pretty good. Elder "B" is a great trainer. The Sister missionaryies are doing well too I believe.

I now have a much stronger testimony - that I will be writing down in my journal - that serving and focusing on others is the very best way to receive blessings, and mostly to be happy and come closer to Christ myself. This strengthened testimony of service will be with me, and change the ways I choose to live, for the rest of my eternal life.

I am the happiest right now that I have been my whole mission, and I attribute that to the opportunity to serve and focus on others."

Turtle

This afternoon a large angry snapping turtle found itself stuck in the middle of the culdesac by our house. Our neighbor Angela rang our doorbell so that we could see it. All the neighborhood kids and their dads were looking at it. The turtle wasn't budging. And it didn't want to be bothered. The stream behind our house flooded this week and the high water must have push the turtle onto the land. And then he got disoriented and hiked up to the street. Nobody knew what to do because the turtle was aggressive and angry. We know a man who lost part of a finger to an angry snapping turtle.

Then little Eva, Angela's 2 year old said, "Put a blanket on it". This suddenly became a great idea. I went into our garage and found an old quilt and also picked up our blue ice chest. Then I went back to the culdesac and put the quilt, doubled up, on top of the turtle. And then I reach down and picked him up. He was amazingly strong and wiggly. But I held firm and placed him into the ice chest. Our neighbor Chris put the lid quickly on the ice chest and he and all the kids raced down to the stream that is behind the mission home. He open up the ice chest and the turtle crawled out. Instantly the turtle could sense that the stream was about 5-6 feet away and he turned in the right direction and quickly waddled into the stream and floated away. It was amazing!




Photos courtesy of Angela Golub.

Think Pink

Pink - it's everywhere this time of year.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Mission President Training - Washington DC

A couple weeks ago all the Mission Presidents in the Northeast gathered in Washington DC for a weekend of training. Elder Jay Jensen, from the Presidency of the Seventy, was our presiding instructor. Seated with me is my friend Chris Eyre. Chris is a partner with another friend, Russ Hall, in Legacy Venture located in Palo Alto, CA (www.legacyventure.com). Chris is now serving as the new mission president in the Canada Toronto East Mission.

I was able to attend a session at the Washington DC Temple prior to our training. This was a rare treat for me. I love attending the temple.

Daniel Boone Slept Here

For the past 20+ months, while driving to Reading, PA, I pass by sign that points to: "Daniel Boone Homestead". Finally I succumbed and found this beautiful setting.