Today I shall live as if this is the day I will be remembered.

Well this week was a pretty routine week. Nothing too special. "A" was supposed to get baptized last Saturday but we have to move it back a couple of weeks. He is still super solid and ready. 

This will probably be a short email as I have nothing new to tell you. However, there is one thing I learned that I wish I would have learned long ago. In High River, my mission was very different. We did tons of service. We did some teaching, but not nearly as much as we do now. The whole thought of going into that area was that we were going to prepare the hearts of the people. We were going to prepare the way for future missionaries to teach people by serving everyone and softening their heart towards God and his church. We knew that we wouldn't see much success right away and because we went into there knowing that, we were fine with not seeing much progress. 

Well, when I got to Lethbridge, I expected now to start seeing tons of teaching, progress, and baptisms. I expected to go into an area that had already been prepared like what we were doing in High River. Well, that wasn't the case. There was more teaching, sure. But not much has happened beyond that yet. And I have been here longer than I was in High River. What I was not thinking was that we would still be doing a lot of preparing the way for future missionaries. Even though that wasn't our only goal now. 

I came here with the attitude that I prepared people, now it's time to move on to the next level and see some fruits of our labors. When I didn't see that right away, I was a little bummed. It is very discouraging when you set your expectations at a certain level and they are not met. I forgot my purpose as a missionary. "My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ." It is not to baptize people. It is not to make others come unto Christ. It is not even to have others come unto Christ. It is to invite. We are not commanded to baptize x people or reactivate x people. We are simply commanded to invite. 

I have felt like I was not fulfilling my purpose because I forgot my purpose. It is all too often in this life when we forget our purpose. We feel that we are not fulfilling our duties here on this earth. Well do we even know what duties we are supposed to fulfill? We must never forget why we are here, why God has given us this life, what he asks us to do. We are here for a reason, but unless we know the reason, we are lost. Our life is without meaning then. We have a purpose. Always remember what that purpose is. What are you doing to fulfill it? 

Dr Suess said, "Today I shall live as if this is the day I will be remembered." How will you be remembered? I hope to be remembered as the missionary that handed off every area he served in better than what it was when he got there. Progress is only made when we are working towards a goal. This is how I will serve for the rest of my mission here in Canada, as well as here on this earth. 

Take care and stay safe. I love you all. 

Elder Anderson