Sept 5, 2013

HI!

Another transfer gone! Time goes ridiculously fast. Every transfer seems to go a little faster. We got the call Saturday night to say that I'll be staying in the wonderful city of Liverpool for another transfer. Elder Walker has been transferred to Newcastle-under-Lyme, My previous area. I got to tell him how lucky he was. I'm now serving with Elder Duran. He's from Murrieta, California, the same place Elder Corbin was from. He is in my same M.T.C group as well. This is the 5th person in my M.T.C group that I've been lucky enough to serve with. Elders Barnes, Beard, Sutton, Palmer, and now Elder Duran.

I learned some very important lessons last transfer. I was retaught the principle of faith. It's amazing how you can learn about something for years and years and still not completely understand it. I thought I understood what faith was before coming on my mission but when I got out here I realized that it was a lot deeper than I thought it was. I've come to know that faith is a literal power and that you can do anything if you have enough faith. I've also seen how experience can be an enemy to faith. The longer you go on your mission, life, and in the church, and the more experience you start to have the more you begin to rely and those that on simple faith. Sometimes it's good thing to not know exactly what to do. That will force you to rely on God. When Nephi was asked to get the plates from Laban he said "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth..." (1 Nephi 4:6-7). Don't let experience shadow faith.

I also was retaught that the church organization is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Unfortunately it's members aren't perfect, but the purpose of the church is to help us one day become perfect.

I also learned loads about humility, that it impacts all that we do. It impacts our perception of ourselves and the way others view us. We don't magically become more humble by making a list of our short comings and telling ourselves what we're not good at. That's not humility at all. It's just throwing yourself a pity party. President Uchtdorf said "We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves. We discover humility by thinking less about ourselves." I've learned that you can't inhale recognition and praise. Those types of things can go to your head very quickly and can give you a false image of yourself. Spencer W. Kimball once talked about how Humility has the ability to properly catalog praise and recognition. That which is over the top and untrue must be thrown into the garbage. That which is exaggerated is taken and trimmed down to an appropriate size. And that which is true and appropriate is to be graciously accepted, only to be forgotten later and used as a stimulus for further improvement.

Last transfer taught me a lot. I'm grateful for every single transfer because of what it has taught me! I'm learning things here about myself, God, and the world that I couldn't learn sitting in a classroom.

We're going to be incredibly busy these next 6 weeks. The other Liverpool Elders area got turned into a Chinese speaking area so we have all of there people that they were teaching on top of ours. It'll be a bit chaotic the first few days of the transfer like it always is but things should settle down nicely. Elder Duran and I are preparing ourselves for some miracles.

Thanks for everything. I love you all so much!

Love Elder Ford