Hello Everyone, sorry it's been a little while since I've last written.
Getting transferred, and settling in a new place can be kind of tough, but it's made easier when you're sent to a great place. I recently got transferred to Liverpool, NY. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump North of Syracuse. This place is great, though the weather is working against us. We recently dropped from lovely weather in the upper 30's and the low 40's to anywhere between 5 and -25, not including the windchill. It got chilly very quick, but this February is better than the last, so we've got that going for us.
Getting transferred, and settling in a new place can be kind of tough, but it's made easier when you're sent to a great place. I recently got transferred to Liverpool, NY. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump North of Syracuse. This place is great, though the weather is working against us. We recently dropped from lovely weather in the upper 30's and the low 40's to anywhere between 5 and -25, not including the windchill. It got chilly very quick, but this February is better than the last, so we've got that going for us.
This week I want to write a little bit about the response we received from our Mission President regarding the cold. We received a text on Saturday informing us of the very poor conditions, to which we responded "No duh, we have icicles INSIDE our house", and informed us that we probably shouldn't just be wandering outside finding all day. Unfortunately that's what we had planned, so our day was kind of sunk, so we did paperwork and kept ourselves busy and as free from Cabin Fever as we could get. Sunday rolls around and we're determined to work, even though it was colder outside. Despite our determination, other missionaries, many of them newer to the mission and unfamiliar with how brutal New York winters can be, began asking if they should stay inside as well. Since a good number of missionaries asked, we decided to ask the Mission President, to which we were referenced to Jacob 6:12 "O be wise; what can I say more". The message was simple and direct, and we passed it along to the Zone.
How simple a phrase, but how grand a concept. We all, to some degree or another, are wise. We have been given the Light of Christ which enlightens and enlivens us and grants unto us the ability to know good from evil. As we choose either side, we gain experience and wisdom. And all of us reach point in our lives where we are simply commanded to "be wise", because we have the experience and foreknowledge to make correct decisions. God trusts us. He knows when we can make a correct choice on our own and oft times this means we may flounder a little bit in the water until we realize that for now we can stay afloat on our own.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in a BYU address in 1981 emphasized this point extremely well: "[Not receiving an answer to prayer] only means that we have prayed about a decision which, for one reason or another, we should make without guidance by revelation. Perhaps we have asked for guidance in choosing between alternatives that are equally acceptable or equally unacceptable. I suggest that there is not a right and wrong to every question."
The Lord wants us to be agents unto ourselves, and I've seen this more clearly manifest on my mission as I decide how to spend my days. There are many honorable ways to do missionary work, and sometimes the Lord simply wants me to learn and make choices on my own. Just as in missionary work, in every other aspect of our lives our Father in Heaven seeks of us to learn and to grow on our own, and has provided us ways to learn knowledge and wisdom so that we can make the correct choices that lead us to him.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Gailey
