Let's Tone it Down a Little!

 So I thought last week was Cray Cray! This week has been nuts! To start out since we have been covering two areas and both of my companions don't like to plan, we have been so disorganized! Elder Jackson would set up an appointment at5:30 and then Elder Dalmas would schedule our dinner with a member at 5:00! So lots of back and forth and rearranging and annoyed Elder Herrins! Besides that we also have a new stake coming in! So that means new Ward boundaries! So we had to go to all of our investigators and less actives and recent converts to let them know! Took a little bit of convincing that it wasn't the end of the world for some of them. But that's not all! "Oh really Billy Mayes tell me more!" Elder Dalmas and I received our transfer information on Saturday! Neither Dalmas nor I ever thought this would happen... Are you ready... Are you sure?...ok... Both Elder Dalmas and I are leaving! Freakin Crap! That means all of our investigators, less actives, and recent converts are going to be left out to dry! We can leave notes but we can't control the new Elders. Good thing we have Facebook so we can keep track of our people! The worst though was telling Kim! When we told her she started crying! She was so upset to see us both leave. She wanted to call the mission president, but the last thing we want our stressed out president to deal with is an angry Korean! It's going to be a trial of faith for sure but God knows what needs to be done.

"President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:

“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”

President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”

Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:

“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done--that I should have done--that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall.

“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …

“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

God knew what Hugh B. Brown was to become and what was needed for that to happen, and He redirected his course to prepare him for the holy apostleship.

“As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

I know that change can seem to be awful sometimes but when we have faith in our Heavenly Father and prayerfully go to him for guidance we will be shown the way! But if we refuse to open our eyes with a little faith to see the good that God has prepared for us we will never see it! Keep your eyes open and look to the future!

I wish you all the best in all of your endeavors! I hope all is well!

Elder Herrin