I had many meaningful experiences while serving a mission but there is one lesson I learned that I think of often, especially since I have become a mother.
I had served what would be considered a successful and honorable mission. I worked hard, strengthened and shared my testimony, found people who were interested in the gospel and taught them about Heavenly Father's Plan. I had been faithful and had seen the power of God at work in his children's lives. One evening during my last few weeks as a missionary, my companion and I found ourselves with a little free time on our hands. I think we had had an appointment to teach a lesson that had fallen through. We were at the chapel in a part of town that had been thoroughly visited by missionaries. It was a dark and stormy night, literally. We discussed our options and felt strongly that we should go tracting. We did. We were out for what seemed like a couple of hours, knocked on many doors, talked to a few people, but had no results that would have been consider outstanding or significant. As we walked home I had an overwhelming feeling that what we had done was correct. That the Lord was pleased with our obedience.
As I continue to experience the lessons that come with every choice, those feelings becomes of more value to me. I have known the confidence and the peace that comes with obedience and I am (still!) learning that it is preferable to all other situations. As with that last tracting endeavor, not all decisions we make, good or bad, will have immediately visible or tangible fruit, but every decision we make is of consequence, sometimes to nothing else but the making of who we are and what we will become. These building blocks cannot be taken lightly because they will eventually define us.
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