Week 15- Uh oh I lost my cool

Aloha 皆さん、

LOL the title is a little over dramatic but it kinda did happen. Nothing absolutely terrible came of it but I was able to have some deep reflection and goal setting because of it. So this past week we were doing an activity with some Elders and words were said due to everyone's naturally competitive nature. Getting a little more specific, some words were said to me and I lost my cool a little bit and clapped back. I was a bit angry and there was a tiny exchange but nothing crazy came out of it. I immediately cooled off and realized that it wasn't even something worth getting into a tiny argument about. But unfortunately the exchange had already happened and we were all going home. I was able to talk with Elders about it and reflect a little bit about it. 

Side note: looking back on it, I almost laugh every time I think about how my parents asked our Stake president to bless me with patience when I was getting set apart. Because I definitely am getting blessed with opportunities to exercise and grow my patience. Heavenly Father never gives us anything too easily. Nevertheless I am grateful because I do think I am becoming a bit better with my patience.

Anyways, I was given some solid advice. One Elder told me that what they try to do is stay “present” during the moment. He takes time to think about the worth of letting his negative emotions consume him and the outcomes of it. His companion advised me to change my mindset. Look at things more positively as if I àcontinue to look at my situations negatively. That's the emotions that will continue to emulate within me. Both things which I have touched on before within my own personal reflection or emails and yet it was a powerful reminder. Something I realized is that I continued to let small things get to me or annoy me as my daily repentance and daily prayers became less of a priority resulting in an even more negative mindset. Don't get me wrong I'm not always negative or angry but I have recently been dwelling on the negatives that have passed recently rather than looking at all the blessings I've received. I've let the small annoyances build up and get to me rather than letting them roll off my back. As I reflected on how much I got annoyed at the small things I realized how much I let it affect my mood and outlook as a whole. And even though I had a small outburst I am grateful as it presented an opportunity to talk to others about it, reflect on it and find my way back to the path of working towards greater patience. It also gave me a chance to reinforce my habits of prayer and repentance and hopefully build a new habit of (hopefully) daily Journaling. Cause I have been awful at Journaling, we will see how that goes next email LOL. You'd think I would be good with my long emails but nope. But I will continue on with my journey of growing patience. I wanted to share my experiences to remind any of you who are currently in a negative mindset or letting the little things get to you or lacking in patience to stop, take time and reflect. 

Romans 5:3-4

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

I love this verse because it's easy to be patient when everything is easy and when life is peaceful. But when life gets rough, when we are in tribulation that is when patience is truly needed. I hope you all are able to take some time to reflect on how you could exercise a little patience in your life. If not don't worry I'll probably talk about patience again soon BAHAHAHA. Goodluck🫡

Highlights:

YERR another fun week where the people are the highlights! 

-Painting nails
-“I had a vision of you Elder Ellis”
-Basketball frenzy
-My sister's hula and my Ipu
-Christmas w the Skinner's 
-Quick lifferth visit
-Christmas Eve Devotional 

Painting nails:

Yessir you heard em right. I got my nails painted by Cali this past week. It was gas I had purple and pink nails with cats on top and she did that while we taught her the restoration. It was super fun and interactive got plenty compliments from other missionaries LOL les goooo. 

“I had a vision of you Elder Ellis”:

Small kine a weird one but we taught Stephen again this week. Unfortunately he didn't get that answer about baptism just yet but we let the spirit do its thing. But we had a lesson about chastity lowkey awkward but still gas as all the lessons with Stephen are. What threw me off is we asked them how their week was and they talked about this Breathwork class they did that was focused on incorporating Christ into it. I had never even heard of breathwork was before this so it was all new to me. But then Stephen said that while he was doing the breathwork he had a vision of me. He said he saw me embodying the light and love of Christ. I was like “uhhhhhhhhhhh thankssssss”. Breathwork seems super interesting though he offered to teach me a Lil bit about it. Anyways I hope I can work on continuing to embody the love of Christ to a better more fuller extent because that's some pretty high standards.

Basketball frenzy: 

Aight it has happened, I've lowkey been getting way into Basketball. Kinda bad because my shooting form is horrendous like I shoot with two hands. Like imagine the normal form but I just push with both hands, it kinda works but I've been going crazy on dribbling and defense. But yeah the mission has been making me get into more sports I didn't really go crazy for like pickleball and basketball but it's all been super fun.

My Sister's hula and my Ipu:

So my sister had a hula performance and my mom told me she used my Ipu (think of a gourd thing you hit with your hand, or js search it up) that I made in 4th grade. My sister said it felt like a part of me was with her because she used it. Man I miss her and she did so good on her performance. Just wanted to let her know that I love her. 

Christmas w the Skinner's:

We got to spend some time with the Skinner family during Christmas today. It was super fun and they gave us so many cool presents. The best was definitely the water bottle that had my tag and mission engraved on it. It was super cool and made some Ramen w Cole and Miles. Yk with all the works, introduced em to spam and everything but it was super fun. Always love and appreciate them.

Quick Lifferth visit:

The Lifferth family visited me fast kine to drop of some presents and get a picture. Got to talk some smack to Zach about the 2 mile bet, I gotta start training fr. But it was awesome to see them all again and talk to them for a bit. I'm super stoked I get to stay in this area for another transfer because I'm still excited for that dinner appointment!

Christmas eve devotional:

So the whole mission went to a devotional for Christmas Eve it was super fun. The speakers and musical acts were super good but got to see some other Elders and they kept making me laugh the entire time. But it was good to be able to feel the spirit and see some people today as well.

Basically GAS week, looking forward to being here another transfer and also looking forward to Japan. Life is good😎

Japanese word of the week:

メリークリスマス = Merry Christmas❤️
I love you all have a wonderful week 

Shoots!
エリス長老
TheRisingSon













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 60- I Should Just BE Better

Image
  Aloha 皆、 Sorry no email last week I don't know why but I didn't feel like it. Also this one is kinda long, and pretty personal so feel free to read 'em, or don't. God gave us agency. Going off of my last email. Talking about growing through trials, one of the main reasons I came out on my mission was extremely selfish. I just wanted/needed to be a better person. I think God has a pretty funny sense of humor because it was like “ok wish granted” and smacked me in the Utah Orem mission. But while I was on my mission in Utah I was obsessed with becoming this better person. Looking back, I think I was so obsessed with being this “better person” because I felt like I had to prove my worth to others that I had hurt. Or who knew these terrible things I had done. I wanted to prove that I belonged and I wanted to feel peace. From those feelings stems the thought that consumed my mind.  “I just NEED to be better” But then the mission got hard. I didn't know what I was doing...
Read more

Week 93- The land of conducting and 20+ minute talks

Image
  Aloha 皆さん、 Brahhhhh this week was stressful. One of the various responsibilities I received as first counselor is to conduct sacrament meetings. Which is something I never thought I'd have to do, much less in Japanese. It would have been fine but I also had the “opportunity” to give a talk. I usually don't mind giving talks but since I'm on the branch presidency I get the lovely “opportunity” to be the last speaker. And in Miyako there's only 2 speakers. And the sacrament portion only takes 15 minutes. Which leaves 45 minutes for talks and closing hymns. So I got to fill up the remaining time. But regardless, everytime I get the opportunity to give a talk it gives me some actual time where I have to sit down and reflect on the topic I'm talking about.  As I reflected, one of the things I thought about was trusting In God's timing and the love of Jesus Christ. In a lot of points in my life and my time as a missionary my lack of trust in God's timing and ove...
Read more

Week 69- Moving backwards or forward

Image
  Aloha 皆さん、 Join da Google photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/2tYzpjfjReZvcoCs7 Recently I've been feeling very stuck. Like I'm not progressing or moving forward just as a person, as a whole. It was a really crappy feeling but I kinda wasn't doing anything about it.  I was too lazy to get in the grinder of working out everyday. Even when I did I let one bad day stop me from working out everyday. I was letting my scripture study be complacent, not focusing and being as diligent as I used to be during personal study. And just overall got into a rhythm of saying the same things in my prayers.  Honestly I don't remember if I read this in a Devotional or heard it from someone but it's about moving forward or backwards. We as disciples of Christ do things everyday/week that helps us come closer to God and Jesus Christ. We can pray, study the scriptures, repent, go to church, be kind to others. Doing these things help us go step by step on the path to Jesus. But if we don...
Read more