Week 5- The World's Perfectionist Treadmill
Aloha minasan!
This week flew by and the longer I'm here at the MTC the more the days seem to blend together. It's kinda scary. But plenty stuff happened this week so probably a long email.
Spiritual Thought:
So Elder Gong came to the MTC for the Tuesday devotional. If you don't know who that is, he's a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. So small kine big deal. He had an amazing talk that really could apply to everyone everywhere. Although I feel like he made the talk for us missionaries I felt urged to share this with all of you. Elder Gong talked about a lot of different topics but the one that stood out to me was The World's Perfectionist Treadmill. Now if any of you have ever had the displeasure of running on a treadmill you'd know that it won't ever stop unless you willingly press stop or hop off of it. Elder Gong correlated a treadmill to the never ending cycle for the need for perfection that the world requires of us. Everywhere around the world every single person has compared themself to another in some way shape or form. The world makes it easy for us to do that today as well. With social media and the internet people all over the world are posting the most perfect versions of themselves for others to see.
The biggest game of who can be the most perfect ever. Elder Gong beautifully said that we should not be participating in this game. Although it is natural to feel inadequate or compare yourself to others when we focus on those inadequacies and imperfections the more inadequate and imperfect we will feel. He urges us to find perfection in Jesus Christ instead of those around us or those we see online. To press stop on the treadmill and simply get off. No one needs to be running on the Perfectionist Treadmill. As we come unto Jesus Christ and look unto him as an example we can be perfected through him. We must be more forgiving of ourselves and not judge those who are around us. After hearing this I felt mind blown. It felt like everything I was ever thinking about or pondering was put into a talk. Since starting a mission for the first few weeks all I could do was compare myself to others. Whether it be about Japanese, someone's testimony and faith being seemingly stronger than my own, someone's experience and knowledge or even looks. I was running a full sprint on the treadmill without even knowing it. Please reflect if you yourself are on this treadmill right now. If you are, hop off. Although it may not be easy the less we focus on what we may not have, the more we will realize how far we have come. And once you have hopped off the treadmill I encourage you to help others do so as well. We can do this by being kind and empathetic,rather than being judgemental or spiteful. Although this is definitely something I am still working on I encourage you all to work on this with me. Become more forgiving of yourself and less judgemental of others. I promise that if you are able to work on this and commit to becoming perfect through Christ you will find much greater joy in your life than you have seen before!!
(I'll put my notes of the devotional for those who want to read it. Especially any missionaries. If you don't wanna you can skip to the highlights of the week.)
NOTES!
Tuesday Quorum of the Twelve: Elder Gong
Sister Gong:
-God knows you and loves you.
-You don't need to be a different person. He wants every aspect of you
-Your mission will make your heart grow bigger
-God has infinite love and he wants us to become like him
-Bring your whole mind to your mission
-Use the talents the lord has given you to share the gospel
-The effort you put in will not be wasted if you put faith in the lord
Elder Gong:
-We are a gospel of joy
-President Nelson assures that in all of eternity no one will ever know you or care more about you than God does
-Let your MTC become everything you want it to be as you prepare to serve the lord
-If you share with the language of the spirit the spirit will guide you
-Our history witnesses Jesus Christ and the restoration of the Church
-We as missionaries fulfill the prophecy that Moroni shared with Joseph Smith
-Put your finger on your nose
-Wherever you serve trust in the lord
-Seek perfection in Jesus Christ not the perfection of the world
-It is natural to feel inadequate or imperfect
-The more we focus we focus on our inadequacy or imperfections the more imperfect or inadequate we feel
-No one needs to be on the world's perfectionist treadmill
-If we come unto Christ we may be perfected in him
-Be more forgiving of ourselves and judge others not around us
-Find success in the PMG and following the doctrine of Christ
-Invite all to come unto Jesus Christ
-Invitation: Would you please come worship the lord and Jesus Christ with us this sunday
Promise: The lord will bless your life through the ordinance of sacrament
-Do not bash, no good comes from contention
-Do not be afraid to share the gospel
-Invite others to come unto Christ and be kind, loving, and courteous
-Rejoice in uniting families for eternity in the temple
-We can offer the blessings of the temple to everyone we teach
-Everything we believe comes through God and the temple
-Jesus christ is the good shepherd and also the lamb of God
-Who better to lead the lambs than the good shepherd and who else is better to he the good shepard than the lamb of God
-If one has 100 sheep and one get lost, one should leave the 99 in the wilderness to go back and get what was lost (referring to investigators and us as missionaries)
-Jesus Christ makes happy and forever possible
-Through the atonement we can heal our most important relationships
-"Dear to the heart of the Shepherd"
Highlights of the week!
-Ayo Mini-fridge?!?!
-No longer a trio
-The pink hydro
-Solar Eclipse?
Mini-fridge???
So I have a Mini-fridge. In the MTC. Yep you heard that right. The Mandarin speaking Elders in our building were all leaving this week. I was so sad because I got to know them super well since I got here. They're all soooo funny and I know they're going to be great missionaries. But because they're leaving they gave me a Mini-fridge!!! So yeah basically living like a king in here. This paired with the fact that I got a supply drop from my parents full of protein shakes (I love you guys so much) I'm as happy as I can be in here. Honestly not much more I could ask for.
No longer a trio
The pink hydro
So another thing I got from the Mandarin elders was a pink hydro that's basically a Stanley cup that almost all the girls have.
I got it from Elder Logan who's actually from Hawaii too. He was such a cool guy and he was super stoked to get outta the MTC after being here for so long but he'll definitely be missed here. The funny thing about the hydro though is that I absolutely love it. I never really got the hype about it until I got the pink one. I drink so much water now it's crazy, but I always have to go to the bathroom. What made me laugh though was that Elder Medeiros was like: "You know Elder Ellis it's so funny to see a huge guy like you walking around sipping on a pastel pink cup." I didn't really think about that until he said it but I think it just adds to my slay factor LOL.
Solar Eclipse
So I was literally just going to use the bathroom during our break for class and all of a sudden it got pretty dark and people were all tryna look through the window with special glasses. Little did I know that there was literally a solar eclipse.
I learned that real fast after looking out the window as well and absolutely toasting my eyes. But it was so cool to see, so many people had glasses and I was able to see the solar eclipse at its halo peak. I just thought it was so cool but I wish I could have gotten a sick photo through the glasses but it was basically impossible with these androids. Nevertheless it was a sick experience!
Japanese word of the week:
さま- so sama is just an honorific you out at the end of someone's name. Like おさま (king) かみさま (God) ねこさま (Cat God) it's generally used for kings and God(s) but our teacher jokingly said that we should refer to him with the さま honorific. So we did exactly that. When his superior came in to observe the class we called him sandy さま instead of せんせい. We all thought it was funny but apparently his superior did not. Luckily he didn't get into any trouble but it was still hilarious. 愛してますサンディさま！！！
Das all tho
愛してますみなさん！！
Shoots!
エリスちょうろう
TheRisingSon
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