WEEK 42 - Then There Were Two
Our Seal Team 6 apartment is eerily quiet. Throughout the course of the past 3 months I have lived with five people, and then four, and then three, and then two, and now one other person. The apartment’s light has been lost and in its place, a calm serenity resides. It’s just Elder Phan and I against the world now.
But that’s not all. We have expanded Seal Team 6 to have three new members. Our entire district (including the AP’s) is now Seal Team 6. We’ve added two incredible Hermanas, Hermana Lundberg and Knight (who I was in the mtc with) and an equally amazing Elder named Elder Hammond (who I also came out with) to the team. We’ve entered “Phase 2” of Seal Team 6 where we plan on ramping up everything that we have accomplished in the past two transfers but to a greater extent and scale. As I write this, Elder Scott is on his way home and Elder Sanford is AP. This feels like a change that needed to happen, yet it’s hard to forget everything about “Phase 1”.
This week has been crazy (what a surprise). A dance video was filmed. A music video was filmed. And another music video was filmed. We did an Anh cả Năng final tour. We visited everyone and their mother this week. Some notable moments were visiting one of our progressing friends, cô Hiền who said that the next time we meet she wants to decide a date to be baptized, chú Loi, my favorite member of the Vietnamese branch who told us so many stories involving his time as a deputy sheriff on Galveston and single-handedly taking down gangs and druglords, fighting against the KKK, as well as ending a civil wars in 1980s Sunny Side.
I got my mission call a year ago on October 10, 2023. I cannot believe it has been a year. And two years since I first submitted my papers. I would be done with my mission if I hadn’t had an amazing year of necessary growth whilst waiting for my call. A takeaway from Conference that has been ever-present in my mind has been the prophetic call-to-action to “rededicate [my]self to Christ”. As I’ve been studying this topic, the idea of “coming unto Christ” has become a thing I am infatuated with. Coming unto Christ is not something that can be achieved overnight, it’s not something that you can check a box and say you’ve done it, you’ve come unto Him so you don’t need to keep walking, it’s a daily process. Just as repentance is a daily process, coming unto our Savior, Jesus Christ, is a process that is never-ending. Everyone wonders whether or not they have fully repented of their sins, if they’ve been truly forgiven, but not enough people wonder if they are inches away from our Savior or miles away. If they are walking with Him or away from Him like chapter 6 in the Gospel according to St. John. I invite you each to think about the distance you are from the Savior and whether or not you are running towards Him or strolling towards Him, if you are actively returning to Him who has given us the ability to walk for eternity, or if you have lost the stamina. It is not a race, it is not a competition, but it is the determinant of where we want to go and who we want to be in this life but also the next. So, as I continue to study this topic, I encourage you all to reflect on your own journey and to take it to the Lord because He wants so desperately for you to return to Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will literally tell you what you can do. I promise He will because He has told me.
I’m doing incredible. I’m living the best life I have ever lived, and I’m excited to start this new transfer. New transfer, new me, fr fr.
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM:
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WEEK 42:
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