Hey Everyone, hope you're having a great week!
I've decided to extend my mission to Nov 18! I'm super excited to continue to be a missionary for a little bit longer, here's kinda how it happened...
So it all happened this last Friday night. I had 8 days left and zero idea of extending, and then we got a phone call from our mission President. After talking about the area and some hopeful baptisms in the near future, he broke the news. My Companion, Elder Self, had got his visa to go to Japan! Super excited news, he's leaving this next week on the 13th. One day before I was supposed to go home. So instantly I start thinking about the area and all the effort I've put into teaching and developing relationships with members and nonmembers here in Rapid City, and I start to stress out a bit. I start fighting a little against what I knew would be a good thing to do.
I knew extending would be a great thing to do, but I still honestly didn't want to. So I starting praying and slowly my prayer changed as I really considered the possibility and put worldly desires and reasons aside. Like it always does, the prayer had to shift to... "God, what do you want?" I also started opening up my Book of Mormon, looking for answers. I saw the phrase, "everything good is from God." I knew that "I cannot go amis" in seriving him, and that extending to avoid taking us both out of the area at once would be a good thing. I also read in Alma 7:15 "Come and fear not." The spirit really started working on me and giving me added strength to push for another month. I love the people here and I'm striving to show that in my actions for them.
Even these last few days I've felt the spirit more as it seems to gently say, "thank you for listening and taking this added opportunity." I can see all the little steps that got me in the place to make the important choice. So I told my mission president and we starting figuring out if I could even extend, and another cool confirmation happened.
So missionaries can only extend a certain number of days past the day they leave or get to the MTC (my mission President told me I can't remember which one.) Anyways, it makes it so depending how transfers line up sometimes missionaries can't extend or if they do they can't extend the whole next transfer. The date they can go till is purely decided by MTC dates, not transfers or anything like that. Because of Thanksgiving, this next transfer is only 5 weeks instead of 6. Also transfer were changed a while back to Friday's from the Wednesdays they were at the start of my mission. Despite these changes, God was looking out for me. November 18th, the new going home date, the day after next transfer ends, is the last possible day I can extend to. One day more and I wouldn't be able to do a whole transfer and go home with a group of missionaries. One week more to make it 6 weeks like every other transfer I wouldn't have been able to extend to it.
My mission president called me back and told me this and said, "Elder Christensen this is confirmation that the Lord wants you to extend. You are serving your mission to its fullest. To the very last day that you can go to." It was a sweet experience and one that's gave me a lot of hope and confidence as I finish up.
Sorry for the essay and grammar errors, I usually don't write a whole lot in these emails. 😂 I just want to let you all know that I Love you and I know Jesus Christ has the power to help you change your life... because he is helping me change mine! I miss you all but I'll see you still pretty dang soon. 40 days and 40 nights....
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