Washin' the Coffee Mug‏

Well, hello again! Hope all is going well in the land of milk and honey (this is the land of kimchi, rice and fish).

First off, I want to start with a cool story to explain the Subject line. One of the Elders in my district shared it with us and I really think it's a great anaology for life.

When his Dad was young he got involved in drugs and alcohol. He eventually made it into couseling. His counselor in this program was a former hardcore Columbian druglord. You name it, he dun it. One day his "business" just came crashing down and nothing was left other than the addictions and massive amounts of debt (and guilt). One day, in his depressed, angry state of mind he decided that his life needed to change and decided to change. He determined that the very next day he would give up drugs and alcohol, call his family, clean his house, find an honest job and turn his life around. Well, obviously, that's not how it works---he just set himself up for failure. Those kinds of changes don't happen overnight.

He tried this method several times and just crashed harder than ever after each attempt. He decided to give up trying. Then--he decided that he didn't want to let himself down anymore, so he'd only make a simple goal which he KNEW he could keep. He promised himself that he would wash his coffee mug. So the next day, he did just that--he washed his coffee mug, and didn't even put it away. A few days later he washed it AND put it away. A little later than that, he started washing all of the dishes. He kept adding to his goals little by little and at some point he realized that he COULD overcome all of his trials little by little. As a result he is free of drug and alcohol and now works counseling others in overcoming their addictions.

So, if there's something you want to do to change your life--identify your coffee mug--figure out what you CAN do, and build from there. The second you add Christ into the equation the process becomes complete. I know that that's how God intends for us to improve---baby steps--baby steps (many of you just had the name "Gill" pop into your head).

I am a little short on time so the rest of this will be random, but that's my life.

Sis. Jennings got me Calcium tablets at Costco, so you don't need to send me any--if you did, don't fret, I'll just sell them to another sister no harm done.I'm glad to hear you all had a barbeque for Independence Day. It was a solemn feeling walking past the sleepy fire station on July 4th---that place should have been hoppin! That's okay, I'll survive.

We also had a barbeque. We were told the meat we bought was beef, but I'm not entirely convinced. Whatever it was, it was really tasty---best burgers I've ever had. We'll skip right past the part about trying to figure out why they were green in spots...Welcome to my life. It was great to have hamburgers and watermelon, though. I'm a fan. Elder Snell and Elder Murray made a US flag out of handkercheifs, which was fun, and we Americans said the pledge of allegiance(spl?). It was grand fun.

To top it all off, it was Elder Snell's 1.5 year mark so he burned a pair of pants---so we had makeshift fireworks. It's a good thing that the firestation is right next door to the Church :).

Remember how in the MTC I told you that I liked fast sunday because I understood what was being said? Well, I take that back. IT was true in the MTC when people knew to stick to 5 point testimony (because that's all they could do anyway), but in the field it's a different story. It's now the HARDEST week to understand--why?--because of the Church-wide curse of doing "open-mic day". There's no telling what people will talk about up there. If I had understood anything, I'm sure I'd have outrageous stories to tell, but I was lost, so you are too. Such is life.

And to finish--our quote of the week goes to Sis. Beckstead: "Those of us missionaries sent to Korea are the ones who were prideful. We needed to be humidified."

Much love to all!

~Rachel~