There's always a reason

I don´t know if you all realize it, but new years day I turn six months in the mission!

Wow. Six months away from home. One fourth of the way done. Next week I´ll have to have my "Best of Buenos Aires, Memorable moments from the first six months and what I learned" email. A lot of crazy things have changed back home. I´ve thought about it a lot, and I don´t know if the family will change as much for anyone on their missions as for me. I suppose that goes for everyone.

Some of the shocking news highlights

BYU beating a number 3 ranked Oklahoma team
Scott and Camille having their baby
Jennifer pregnant

...

But amidst the stormy sea of changing and rearranging, there was an unchanging north star. A constant unbreakable source of comfort. The same yesterday, today, and for what I thought would be forever. But now I know that nothing is certain. EVERYTHING is going to change. And how do I know that?

Because Ryan got a girlfriend

That´s right. Ryan got a girlfriend.

Is the sky falling? Is the second coming near? I knew I would see signs and wonders in the heavens, but this.... this indeed has caused me to be "exceedingly astonished."

Nay, "astonished beyond all measure."

Well... congrats cuz.

Anyone got anything else to tell me? At this point anything is possible.

Anyways, this week has been one of the best weeks of my mission. Hands down the best week in Avellaneda. It´s easy for missionaries to get down and trunky during Christmas. Luckily we worked straight through it. And we´ve seen undeniable success as a result.

I really have learned principles of work here. One of the many things I´ll take away from Avellaneda. The other missionaries telling me what a dead area it was. It would have been easy to get discouraged. Actually I did get discouraged. Very discouraged at times. But I found, those feelings usually only existed at the end of the day, or in the morning when we were prepping. When out on the street and contacting and talking to people I always felt better. I was never depressed.

Work is a blessing. With Avellaneda, there was only one way to get this area back up, and that was work. More importantly diligence. I was impressed by what Elder Uchtdorf said about work in the priesthood session of last conference. How while we´re working, it may not seem like things are getting better, but slowly and surely they will. I´ve seen that here.

Ok, so Avellaneda 2 isn´t the highest baptizing area in Buenos Aires, far from it. But we´ve seen miracles this week. We´ve been led to people in fantastic ways. Sometimes it felt like we were just wasting time here. Sometimes when we were wandering, we were too afraid to talk to people, and we would end up going for miles. But the point is we kept going. We were outside the Pension to the end of the day every day. We never threw in the towel. And even though we aren´t the best of missionaries, not even close, we´ve seen miracles here. We´ve been led to the people that the Lord has prepared.

For example:

Saturday night we wanted to go out to Villa Dominico, but knew if we ended up eating late with the ward members, we wouldn´t have time to get back to our appointment close to the Pension. Elder Valerin insisted on heading out there, but I wanted to make a backup plan for Serandi, the area back close to the Pension. Elder Valerin convinced me not to worry about it, and I agreed.

So the next day, we end up eating late with the members, and we don´t have time to head out to villa Dominico. My first impulse was to get on my self righteous high horse and say "I told you so!" Instead we just did contacts in the area we were in. After touching doors in that area for the better portion of an hour and a half with little success, we ended up running into an Hermana from the ward at the end of the street, who happened to be passing by and happened to have a reference for us. It was a woman who had recently lost her husband. We proceeded to the house as directed and were able to do a powerful contact about the plan of salvation. It was exactly what she needed and she let us right in. We left a Book of Mormon with Alma 40 for her to read and a solid return appointment.

As we left, I thought about all the little things that happened in every one of our contacts that led us to the point where we ran into that Hermana at that time. Just a few seconds different, and we would have missed her. Coincidence? Good luck?

No, it´s a lot more than that.

There were literally hundreds of little things that happened over the course of two weeks, from the point the member family set up a lunch appointment with us, to put us on that street corner to receive that reference and find that person at that time.

My friends, there is no such thing as coincidence. God is directing His work, and His work gets done.

Allow me to share a bit more about that experience from another perspective.

A contact on that street, a middle aged argentine woman came out to greet us. She said "I´m not interested in anything you have to say to me, because all of it´s a lie! I´m angry with God right now. He took my spouse and my Mom!"

We tried to explain to her that she could live with her loved ones for all of eternity, but she was persistent. "Liars!" She shouted at us.

Calming her down a bit, we explained if she would listen to us, we could show her how she could ask God herself, that she didn´t have to believe in us, but she was insistent. "Liars," She cried again.

"Look,” I started, "We´re here to bring you a message of happiness. Do you want to be happy in your life?"

"No." She replied, "God took my Mom and I´ll never be happy again."

Despite all methods of persuasion, she was beyond persuasion. She was filled with her own cynical pride and didn´t want anything to come in between her grudge with God.

Contrast that with our finding appointment from the reference of the woman who recently lost her spouse (her name is Sylvina).

In the appointment we asked, "Do you believe that God answers prayers?"

She responded, "Yes, I believe it. I´ve had some very hard times lately, but God has always been there for me. I think sometimes we just can´t see the reason in the moment. But if we wait, we will see."

I bore my testimony that that was exactly right. There´s always a reason to the madness. Even if it takes us a while to see it.

The common thread of the aforementioned stories is circumstance, and the way we choose to deal with it. We can be angry that things aren´t happening the way we think they should, or we can just let go. Fall away from our preconceived notions of life as we know them and let God do His work. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, we have the choice. We can decide to give our lives to God and let him do his work, or we can metaphorically bite the hand that feeds us. Our father in Heaven knows what we need, better than we do. Are we humble enough to accept what He wants for us? Or do we want to do things our way? Have peace and serenity in this world and the world to come, or be plagued with bitterness and regrets through all eternity.

Because you see, the real choice we have in this life isn´t so much between good and evil as it is between happiness and misery. Sometimes it takes a little faith to let go of the things that we think give us joy, but every time we do we realize what we really wanted all along. The choice is ours. Are we humble enough to make it?

Just remember the words of Sylvina. "There´s always a reason. Sometimes we just can´t see it."

Give your life to God. I know he makes more of us than we make of ourselves. At least he´s done that much for me.