Swallowed up in the Joy of Christ

 A former MTC student whom I dearly love responded to an email, said that he was ten months out on his mission, and asked what advice I might have. After thinking for a minute, an answer clearly came to me. I wrote it up, and as I did so, I realized it applies so much to my life now and really to everyone, each day we are still here in mortality: I love your drive to work hard! The advice I would have given myself at 10 months (or really any time in the middle of the mission) is to not wait. In the back of my mind I had thoughts like, "Well, once I become a senior companion I'll start doing this" or "Once I get a new companion, then I'll really be able to work the way I want" or "Once I get transferred out of this dang area, then I'll start to teach more." Unfortunately, there's always going to be something less than ideal about your circumstances, and if you play this waiting game, it really holds you back from what you might have done. So...

  I wrote this as an email to all of the English-speaking missionaries I taught at the MTC from May 2022-April 2023. A couple of years ago, I was working as a Korean teacher at the MTC when my supervisor left. I actually was one of the people who had worked in the area the longest and my Korean was really, really good. In addition, I had really strong relationships with the other teachers. My supervisor who was leaving said he recommended me to his boss as a replacement and felt pretty sure I would do well. I thought for sure I would be chosen and I think a lot of the other teachers thought so as well, but the manager who was relatively new actually didn't even hold interviews and called another teacher and offered her the job. I was a little surprised, but I figured it just wasn't my time yet and was grateful to keep teaching. In the middle of last summer, the new supervisor also announced she was leaving. This time, they actually had a thorough interview process. At the time,...