April 29, 2024 THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER LXXX

soooo looks like i'm a philosopher now.. or i just have a lot of random ideas that i wrote down... we walk into the mall.. it's friday, so not a normal day of going to the mall, but my comp wasn't able to pull out money on monday, because the ATM didn't wanna let him.. so as we walk in, i see this lady who looks kinda like someone we are teaching.. (now, keep this in mind also, i've only been here for a week, and i've only talked to the lady that i thiNk it is once).. so i kinda glance at this lady, and i decide it's not her.. but then she looks at me like she recognizes me.. and then i'm like waitttt isss that her?.. nope it's not her.. but she's still looking at me like that.. ok maybe she's someone eLse that we've been to.. uhhh no, she doesn't look like anyone else i know.. oHhh maybe she knew some other elders before, and she thinks i'm one of them (cuzzz yk, all gringos look the same).. but the she's like "mIsHiOnArY!" in english.. and i'm like "hi?!" and then she comes over and is like *gasp* "whEre's your tAg?" and i look down like ahhhh great.. first time that's ever happened in the entire mission field since the MTC, and it hasss to be right now.. soo, we start talking to her and her brother who's there too, and they speak perfect english, so my comp is like "where'd you learn english?" and they're like "oh, our dad taught us since we were kids".. and the brother talked to me for a sec, and was like "where are you from?", and we talked about utah for a min, and how he has visited orem, and is going back in a couple months.. but basically they're from here, and live in our stake.. but this girl just kept bringing up the fact that i had no tag on, and giving me dirty looks.. and then she was like "yah, i just saw you, and i saw you were a missionary, but then you had no tag on, and you were just looking at me like you wanted to kill me.. sooo apparently when i'm trying to decifer if i know a certain person or not, and where i know them from, i become murderously faced.. add that to the no tag thing, and i could tell this girl just immediately didn't like me very much.. especially when i told her i've been a missionary for like a year and a half (so oBviously i shouldn't ever forget my tag or look at people like i want to kill them).. soooo anyways, i was thinking about this a lot after.. while waiting in the line to get to the ATM, while my comp pulled out money, on the walk home.. and i was just trying to disect what had happened.. and at first i just felt really bad.. because i hadn't triEd to do anything wrong, they weren't even conscious mistakes.. it was just on accident.. and it's kinda whiny to say, but this random lady just judged me super fast, for things that shouldn't really matter (the tag thing shouldn't really matter, that was just an accident.. i can probably try harder to not look like i'm about to kill someone).. and then i thought about some videos i've seen that i think are titled something like "don't judge" where basically some situation is created, where it looks bad to someone looking from the outside, but is actually completely innocent.. for example, one of them starts out with some guy making dinner for his wife before she gets home from work, the dinner includes some type of red sauce, and while he is cutting the onions, his cat knocks the pan of sauce all over the place.. the man picks up the cat, and at that very moment, the wife walks in.. the first thing she sees, is blood everywhere (the sauce) and her husband with the bloody cat holding a knife... you get the point.. so i was thinking about that, and the importance of not judging.. it made me feel bad, and blah blah whine whine.. it doesn't actually matter.. but i bring that up, because while i was feeling sorry for myself, i realized i had just built up a resentment towards a random lady who i met in a store, and talked to for like 3 min.. and then while thinking about this, i thought about what she must have been thinking.. she was out with her brother, shopping for something, and then suddenly she sees a missionary.. (another thing is that here at least, missionaries are a huge deal to members, like we're a big part of their lives, we see them usually multiple times a week, and they know us pretty well.. it's not so much like the states (or at least utah) where the missionaries are cool, and they maybe come to our house, but we might not know much about them, or like in my stake, there are only 2 missionaries for the entire stake)) bUttt that means that they've experienced really cool missionaries, and really bad ones too.. and this missionary that she randomly sees, for some reason is looking at her kinda weird.. and then she sees that he's not even wearing his tag, he's probably not a very good missionary.. he probably doesn't take his calling very seriously.. he probably is like that one elder that came thru her ward, and caused a bunch of problems, and everyone was just waiting for him to leave (this is hypothetical, idk if there was some bad missionary who went thru her ward).. sooo basically my point is that she judged me a little, and i judged her a little.. but neither of us know anything about the other.. we have no idea what's going on in the other's life, or annnything.. and i realized that that's something that i need to work on a lot.. the amount of times that i see some random person and i just judge them.. issss.. well.. honestly all the time.. i mean it's something our brains just dO, it's part of us.. it's natural.. and that's why it's called the natural man.. i judge and compare a lot more than i would like to.. and i think we all do.. it's very difficult to escape.. comparing is part of our society.. we have to compare things to weigh options, and know what's right or wrong, or what's better or worse.. the problem, is that i often apply that to comparing myself with others.. particularly in missionary work.. i want to be a good missionary.. i want to work hard, and have success, and see miracles, and have crazy stories.. but i a lot of times get stuck measuring my success as a missionary, based off of what other missionaries are or aren't doing.. maybe i see someone who didn't get up at 6:30, so i think "we'll, i'm doing better than them at least, cuz iii got up and 6:30".. orrr on the other side, maybe i see a companionship who found 30 people in a week and baptized 2 people on saturday, and i think, "dang, that guy's a better missionary than i am".. and the thing that's difficult about that, is that it's usually based off of truth.. that's how satan works.. he takes truth, and twists it.. sooo there are lots of good missionaries, and there are many missionaries that are better than i am.. but that doesn't mean that i'm doing a bad job.. and some people like to say that we're all equal, and that's true in some ways.. we're all God's children, we all came to earth.. but some people are more righteous than others.. for example Jesus Christ is a better person than i am.. and that's true, but it doesn't even necessarily matter.. we're all different, we come from different places, infinitely different situations, and so some people are maybe farther along the covenant path, or are kinder, or are more humble.. but there's a talk by a guy called elder gilbert (i think from the 70) that talks about slOpe.. you can take two different people, and if we draw their lives as a line graph, then maybe someone starts out with a goodness value of 678, and another person starts out with a goodness value of 893.. so according to the graph, the second person is better than the first.. but then it talks about slope.. because maybe person one starts at a lower value, but maybe they change their value thru their life at a faster rate than person 2.. and maybe person 2 is growing a little slower, but they're still doing better than person one.. so person 2 has the higher life value, but person 1 is changing faster and becoming better faster.. and the other thing, is that the whole point of God's plan, is that we are meant to continue progressing.. meaning our slope doesn't have an end.. that's why people say it doesn't matter where you've been, it doesn't even necessarily matter where you are right now, what really matters is where you're going.. so maybe there are better people, and worse people, and better missionaries and worse missionaries, and better parents and worse parents, and better friends and worse friends, and so on and so on and so on.. but the point is, that just because there might be a better person, IT DOESN'T MATTER.. because the point of life isn't to become the best person compared to other people.. the point is to become the best person compared to who we were before, and compared to who we are now... sooo i'll be working on that.. anyways that was my random flood of thoughts.. other than that we had a pretty good week, just taught some people.. the usual.. we'll see how many people we have come to church today.. many have told is they're coming sooo we're praying... yahhh we had 2 people come for the 1st time, and one who has been a ton.. soooo things are looking good here.. anyways, that's all for the week.. have a great week, love you guys! mosiah 5:2-5 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things. And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy. And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God. Response from Bishop Steve Seamons: Jackson, I love this thought. As I was reading it and thinking about the slope that you were discussing and our infinite and eternal progression. Did you know that all lines that approach infinity are exactly the same slope. It is kind of weird. In math the slope of any line that approaches infinity is the same as long as the slope is greater than 0. We can take any two points on that line and define a slope and they will be different, but since they are infinite they all are the same slope. In-fact the differences between lines can be infinite but in totality from 0-infinity the slopes are the same. Here is the simple equation x X infinity = infinity x=the slope, where x is greater than 1 So in short. We are all on a different slope right now. But when it is all said and done we all infinite and eternal and we can only get there through the infinite and eternal atonement of Jesus Christ. So the equation in this terms is this. Me X Christ = infinity Me=my slope, where (me) is greater than zero (and have made and tried keep covenants) Proud of you and love hearing from you. Bishop Seamons