Ironing shirts is a good thing. Good things are not always easy.

Ok, so it is not that I dislike ironing, or that I find it painful and overly burdensome.  I think it has more to do with being a diligent missionary— 

As I work as an online missionary, the majority of my day is spent over at the referral center at the Missionary Training Center (MTC); although I do sleep off campus with my companion in a side room at a member’s house.  The MTC is designed to be a closed campus to facilitate and manage the many missionaries who come through here.  Because of that, I am able to do almost everything I need here at the MTC, including laundry.  However, I do not keep my clothes here, and I do still need to transport them back and forth from the MTC and the house.  For this I simply use a large laundry bag that I cleverly stuff everything in; hence the need to iron all of my white shirts. 

The conflict for me comes in taking the time to iron my shirts.  When I return in the evenings I feel too tired and worn out from what I have done that day and all I really want to do is go right to bed.  Then in the mornings when I get up it seems I am already in hurry and that I have more than enough to do without ironing.  And getting up earlier is not an option worth consideringJ.

I think we all have many choices like this in our lives.  Where we have something we really should do; but we don’t really have to do, or want to do.  I don’t think anyone would care if I were to wear a wrinkly shirt.  Most everyone I talk to is over the online chat or phone anyway, and I never see them.  However, I have found that taking the time to do the “little things” is something which can spill over into everything we do.  It helps us to have more confidence in ourselves and in everything we do.  I feel people are able to realize they are talking to someone who takes pride in who they are, and what they are doing.  I am very proud and grateful to be here as a missionary.  Taking the time to attend to the menial matters is something which I have found extends far beyond having a pressed shirt.