The Exemplar

 Large Plates 

Mission tour & Adolfo's baptism!

This week was so good! It started off on an exchange with Sister Stone, one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world. I got to go serve in the Hunters Creek Portuguese area, which is in the same geographical area as my first area. The only difference is that they speak Portuguese and I spoke Spanish. It was really fun to be in familiar territory and to be around Sister Stone! She & I were in the same district for a really long time, so we know each other very well and we had such a fun day together on exchanges! The highlight for sure was our lesson with Adolfo. He got baptized this saturday, so our lesson with him was one of his last before his baptism. The lesson was so fun because we had 2 Brasilians, 2 Americans, and 1 Hispanic all trying to speak each other's languages. It was really good Portuguese practice for me! I had so much fun following & participating in the conversation in 3 different languages haha. Adolfo is really awesome. I've been hearing about him for almost my whole mission, and I finally got to meet him! To make it even better, his daughter Isabela made stroganoff and it was SO GOOD. All in all it was a perfect night. 

The next morning, we had our Mission Leadership Council in preparation for the mission tour! It was incredible. Zone conference was a few days later. Elder Bowen and Elder Morrison are both so inspired. Here's a few of the highlights from both days:

-4 Cs to avoid: comparison, competition, criticizing, and complaining. They all drive away the spirit

-"who had a PhD in complaining? Laman and Lemuel!!" -Elder Morrison, very enthusiastically, and in his cool accent. 

-angels hear you bear your testimony and they rejoice in you. As you bear testimony, the Sanctifier cleanses you. 

-don't be like the cursed fig tree. Don't just make it look like you carry good fruit. Bear the fruits of obedience, diligence, and faith. Don't pretend to be who you want to be. Just be. 

-don't allow yourself to live with false limitations.

-don't be a stupid flea" (ask me if you want to understand the analogy)

-"We have no room for crabs in this group." (Again, ask for the analogy. It's a good one.)

-you're weird. If you get done with your mission and stop being weird--if you fit in in this world, shame on you."

-rise to a new level of commitment 

-you are an astonishing missionary

-he will stretch you & help you grow into something more, something better 

Something else I learned, without anyone really saying it, is the power of speaking intentionally. Elder Bowen is such an incredible example of that for me. In everything he shared with us, he was clear and concise and inspiring. I was blessed to be able to sit by him and his dear wife at lunch at MLC and the way he presented himself in front of the council was the same way that he carries himself in a day-to-day conversation. You can just feel his wisdom in every word. Now, I don't have nearly as much wisdom as he does, but I would like to start living in a more dignified and intentional way. I'm not sure exactly what that is going to look like for me, but I'm going to try my best:)

We taught a lot of awesome lessons this week, but I don't have the time to write about them all, nor do you have the time to read about them all. But, I do want to ask you to pray for Rosalba, Graciela, Juseli, Stefanny, and Hernan! They're all so awesome and growing & learning so much. They just need confirmation from the Holy Ghost about how true and incredible this gospel is!!

Last but not least, we went to Adolfo's baptism! It was so so good!! It was all in Portuguese, but us Spanish speakers understood it well enough. The Creole speaking Elders, on the other hand? They were a little lost, haha. I'm so happy for Adolfo. I've been hearing about him & his progress & his struggles for most of my mission, and then I finally got to participate in one of his lessons this Tuesday. The gospel changes lives, and it's beautiful to see time after time. 

Rosalba came with us to his baptism and she had a really good experience! She saw the temple, which is just across the street from the chapel he was baptized in, so we had a really good conversation about temples and eternal families. She has lost some loved ones in recent years and the concept of baptisms for the dead was really powerful for her! Again, please pray that she can know the church is true!!

Small Plates 

The Exemplar 

I learned so many lessons this week. It's hard to pick just one to share. I already shared many of the principles I was taught throughout the mission tour, so I'm not going to review those again. 

Rather, I'll tell you what a week in the life of a Florida Orlando missionary taught me. It's something the mission has taught me before, and something I'm sure I'll learn again and again. 

I don't know if this is a common pattern for other missionaries, but something I notice in myself after things like zone conferences. I leave the conference feeling so pumped up and motivated and capable, and normally that feeling lasts for a while. 

The day after the zone conference, I was on fire. We went out into the world and I talked to everyone I saw, not caring how they reacted or if they judged us. We had a lot of success! I was on a motivational high all day, trying my best to do the things Elder Bowen taught us to do. Although, I didn't ever use the "are you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?... why not?" Approach. The spirit didn't tell me to, like He told Elder Bowen to this week. Funny story. 

Anyway, I was happy, we were busy, I felt successful. I felt empowered by my efforts to follow the counsel we were given. 

But then, as per this pattern I'm talking about, there's a low. I woke up the next day with way less energy and motivation. It's not that I no longer wanted to do the work, either. This is important to me and every day that passes teaches me that my days are numbered here. 

I tried to make myself feel better by thinking about what I need to change about myself to make this lack of motivation go away. Unsurprisingly, that did not work. 

One thing I had decided to start doing since this last General Conference was take a specific name of Christ upon me every week. Someone talked about that in their talk & I really liked the idea. I was sitting in personal study on this rather unmotivated day and I tried to pick a name for this week. 

Somehow I ended up on Exemplar 

I started reading some Bible dictionary & topical guide things, and read the verses they referred to. I thought to myself: ok Ada. You are supposed to be a leader. You are supposed to be an example. Be an exemplar. 

Then the spirit spoke to me. 

No. He was the Exemplar. 

All he asks is that we follow Him. 

One of the verses I read in my study was this: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

I gained a greater appreciation for this verse as I read it. Christ invites us to follow Him. He invites us to be like Him. He invites us to carry our cross. 

That does not mean we carry His cross. We don't need to put our personal, individual, cross on our backs and then find ways to add more weight to it, until we finally feel like we're carrying what the Savior carried. Because we will never make it there. No, not even close. 

He is the Ultimate Exemplar. His is the example we ought to follow. 

Of course He wants us to become great missionaries and great leaders. He will use us to teach others. But what we teach others will never be as important as what He teaches them. 

So rather than seeing everything He is as everything I'm not, I will give myself grace. His grace. 

Because grace is that enabling power that helps us to become. 

Grace is also a measurement. We grow grace for grace. Line upon line. 

So yes. I recognize just how far away I am from perfection. And I don't like to be this far from it. But that is the purpose of this life, isn't it? To take up the cross we are given, and not pretend that adding more burdens to our backs will magically transform us in a day. Rather, we are to carry this cross for a lifetime. And we allow the circumstances He puts us in change us into who He wants us to be. 

The highs and lows will still come. Understanding grace doesn't just magically erase all feelings of inadequacy. But it does put things in perspective. 

We can become perfected through Him and only through Him. But His perfecting process takes time. We can't expect to be everything we've never been before after 1 day. It takes getting to know our Exemplar. 

If we want to be an exemplar, we ought first to see our Exemplar. 

If we want to understand how to be perfect, we should first understand He who was and is Perfect. 

That's when things fall into place. That's when His power kicks in. That's where you start becoming who He wants you to be.

Thanksgiving P-day in October