Strap it On!

I recently was able to get a new knee brace while I was home for the holidays.  It isn’t a pair of P.F. Flyers, but I feel I am running faster and jumping higher.  Interestingly, I found while wearing it, the value it has seems unnoticeable.  While I have it on my leg feels fine and feels it doesn’t need any support.  But that changes when I take the brace off.  My knee feels unstable, and walking down stairs again becomes a scary prospective.  It occurred to me this morning how the brace acts as a living analogy in my life.  It is easy to overlook the value of something used often in our lives.

Just before the break I was able to take a walk up around the Temple here in Provo.  While crossing the street near the temple I noticed a car coming to the intersection.  I was talking with my sister Beth on the phone, and jokingly asked her if she thought the car was going to stop.  At that moment, the thought came to me that no, the car was not going to stop. 

Focus . . . Focus . . . On What?

I had an amazing Sunday today!  With the recent snow we got, rather than driving the distance to the deaf ward.  We stayed nearby, and we went to the Seventh Ward which is right next to where we work.    We found out when we got there that it was actually the Ward Conference for the congregation.  (This is just a time when the stake leaders come and talk for part of sacrament, and then in the Sunday school and other auxiliaries).  The focus of the meetings today was what things do we seek for in our lives?   I have found there are many different things we can seek after.  Some are small, like maybe just a better picture with the snow.  The things we seek for in our lives and the things we spend our time on is what controls what we will become in the future. 

We have Jesus Christ to show us the way, He is the perfect example we can follow.  We also have our friends, our families, and those around us to give us support as we help them—just as Elder Albright was able to help me come up with a better picture of the snow (see below). In Sunday school today, we were given a little evaluation we can look at in our own lives.  I was surprised to find that many times what I want to focus on, and what I am focusing on are always not the same things.  When was the last time you were able to look at your own life?  Are you aware of what things you are working on in your life?  Are you spending your time on things which help you, or on things which you don’t really need or don’t really help you?  Take a minute to look at the self-evaluation below and think of ways you can improve in your life.

The Little Tree—It Looks so Green, Yet is so Dead

I have at my desk a little tree.  It is still very green, as you can see in the picture.  I acquired it about a month or two ago.  Some of the seeds from a Maple Tree here at the MTC had sprouted early for some reason, and there were several little trees growing in the ground.  Being the middle of winter, I figured the trees wouldn’t last long, and they would soon be dead.  I had also thought it would be nice to have a plant here with me in the MTC.  How cool would it be to have a tree which I had found on my mission, and then nurtured and grown myself?  I could plant it somewhere, and then come and see it years later.  It could be a land mark for generations.  I could see it in my mind, posterity telling little wide-eyed generations of children “that is the tree which great-grandpa Spencer saved on his mission.”  I can imagine many other such things, most definitely involving a tire-swing of some kind.  But, I won’t bore you with those.  Don’t be fooled, while the tree still if very green, it is about as crispy as a twig in a furnace, completely dehydrated and certainly overcooked.  I haven’t thrown it out, yet.  I do have faith that it may yet revive.  But it made me think a little about how much life is sometimes like growing a tree.

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.