Mmm...Humble Pie

June 17, 2013

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

I hope you really enjoyed sleeping in. As you know, I am a pro at the art of sleeping in. Too bad the Mish is making me not-so-good at it, really fast... I can remember since I was a little kid, you being a good Dad to me. Remember the "Batman Helicopter" game? Wow, one of my favorite memories as a young buck. We would play it on the tramp, we would lift off, and then suddenly have some sort of mechanical malfunction, then crash and land somewhere. What a fun game! :) I can remember it like it was yesterday.Thanks for being that kind of Dad who took time out of his busy schedule to play with his kids. Also, the work ethic. That is something that I rely on as a missionary and even after my mission. Thank you.

The title of this email should be self explanatory. We had a humbling week, me especially. Sunday is when we really tasted that pie. Before Sunday, we were "rocking" it. We found four new Gators before Sunday, taught lots of lessons, and had two Gators on date for baptism. Don't we just rock? Nope. God decided to force feed us this pie that no one wants to taste. We had nine firm commitments from Gators that they would come to church. We were so excited! So, sacrament meeting came around, and only three showed up... Grant it, four of them had good reasons not to be there, but man, I was pretty bummed. I realized very quickly that God is in the driver's seat. I prayed (I do a lot of that) for forgiveness right then and there. I thought I was humble, ha, I guess that's why he had to show me that I wasn’t. Hopefully as time goes by, I can understand what it means to be truly "humble".

If that wasn’t enough pie for the day, we had a really interesting and tense experience with Dyson. It all started Tuesday of last week when we felt like we should stop by Dyson and Kim's house. When we arrived, we began to talk, and found out that they were struggling financially. They had zero money. Because of the rain, Dyson can’t work, so, that means no money for his family. We quickly contacted the Relief Society Pres, and High Priest Group Leader about the situation. One of the members of the ward heard about their situation and decided to act on it. He's the same one who gave us those boxes of food before. He did the same for D&K. We had the opportunity to deliver the goods to their house. They were overwhelmed by the kindness of the people of the ward. It was a very touching moment for me. One of those experiences where I knew I was truly fulfilling my purpose. Dyson said that he has only cried five times in his life, including that night. It was amazing to see first hand, God showing His hand, and them noticing that it was God's hand in their life. What an experience! One that I will keep very close to my heart.

The following Sunday, Dyson came to church. It was great to see that step of faith he took to come to sacrament meeting. Don't worry, I am getting to the tense part. After the meeting, Dyson talked with the bishop and with us in the bishop's office. This is where things turned south. The bishop told D somethings he didn’t want to hear, and D stormed out of the office. I couldn’t believe what was happening! I thought everything was going so good. Dyson told us that he didn’t want us to come by his house anymore, and said he will never come back to church. My heart sank. I felt like dirt. How could this happen? More importantly, why was this happening? I knew that we as a companionship needed to pray as hard as we could for D&K. I probably prayed for them ten times within the hour. Around 3 pm, (about an hour after the ordeal) we got a call from Dyson. He told us that he doesn’t mind if we come by still, but he would not be going to church for a long time. I was so relieved... I immediately thanked Heavenly Father for answering our prayers so quickly.

I hope that I can savor the flavor of that pie, so I don’t have to have some more anytime soon. I know why it is so important for Young Men, like myself, to go on missions. I have already learned so much. I will continue to learn life lessons that I will hopefully never forget. What a great lesson I learned this week. Humility is close to Godliness...

Love,

Elder Browning.2

My support system :)