WEEK 23 - Passing On President

I have had so many opportunities to film this week! Not only am I editing a project with artist Kenneth Turner, I have been able to film a bunch of reels this week as well as edit a project for President and Sister Richards. We had what will probably be our final Zone Conference with the Richards on Thursday and it turned into a Texas Houston South Mission General Conference because every single mission leader talked; it was incredible. Afterwards, Sister Richards asked me if I could edit something for her, to which I said yes (of course). The next day, we drove down to the mission office and met President and Sister Richards as she walked in with her entire Mac in her arms. We then spent the next five hours editing a video to send off the final training group that the Richards will oversee. It was exhilirating. Afterwards, Sister Richards offered for us and President Richards to get dinner together, but because–unfortunately–we are such amazing missionaries we had to pass on President Richards because we had a part-member family meal that we needed to go to. That may or may not have been the biggest fumble of my missionary career because President and Sister Richards are leaving so soon, but we ended up being blessed because of our obedience and had an incredible lesson with the part-member family. Either way, we ended up getting free food and that’s a win in my book. Mosiah 2:41 for real. 

The rest of the week was full of passing. Passing on President Richards, passing our own inhibitions to the guidance of the Spirit, passing through many doorways of people we had just met, and passing away because of the heat (that is allegedly just pre-heating right now). One remarkable experience actually occurred because of this heat. As we were inviting everyone and their mother to church on Saturday, the heat was at an all time high. I felt as if I was going to pass out as we rode our bike from house to house and elected that I needed to go into a gas station otherwise I would not be able to make it. While we were there, trying to pass one of our friends off to some missionaries in the Texas Houston Mission, in walked one of our friends, Vladimir. We had been trying to get in contact with Vladimir for the longest time and were actually going to go to his house but, because of my fear of death, decided to ride past his house and go to the gas station. It turns out, God wanted us to still see Vladimir. We were able to talk to him and catch up as well as set up a lesson as soon as we were done reviving ourselves. Vladimir said “chao” and walked out of the gas station without buying anything. He didn’t even get gas. Why on Earth would he walk into the gas station? The gas station that we happened to be in, after deciding to not go to his house, for only a moment? Some might call it coincidence, but I call that divine orbits, orchestrated by an Heavenly Father, crossing axis. 

We could have not passed by Vladimir’s house to seek refuge in the gas station, just as we could have not passed on President Richards’ dinner invitation, but because we did and because we passed our own moral inhibitions over to spiritual impressions and actions directed by God, we were blessed. It’s confusing because those things that we passed on this week are inherently good, they are the correct decisions to make in most circumstances, but these experiences just go to show that God can help us make even better decisions, with even greater outcomes; especially when we trust in Him to direct our divine orbits.