Boy, the questions in your letter have left me a lot to answer! And once again, this keyboard is horrid. It comes from thousands of untrained Africans coming in here and pecking at the keyboard all the day long for months. I'll do my best. ;-)
Yeah, a year. It's so long! Ha ha ha. Man, I feel like mi na JC (I'm a greenie). I feel like the thing that I've learned the most is love (rather, charity). How to love people that are mean/evil/lazy. How to love companions that are challenging. How to love situations that are crappy (like our baptismal font that had no water Saturday. Uh, problem right?). How to love strangers. How to love those that hate you. How to love the most under-foot-trodden country on the planet. Suffice it to say, how to love everything. The most challenging part (as with the gospel of Jesus Christ) is "enduring to the end". Day to day work is easy, but doing it every blessed day without a break with numerous failures can be discouraging, and the tough thing is not letting it beat you. Lets face it, missionary work is HARD. I summit-ed Wellington every day this week. Is that hard? YES. Was I crushed when 0 investigators came to church yesterday? YES. Does it keep me from trying harder? NO.
Facing and overcoming challenges is easiest when you just focus on the fruit that comes of the manure, so to speak. Do what you're supposed to, be strictly obedient, and God does the rest. When I'm doing everything that I can do to be obedient, I don't feel bad about anything that happens in the day.
The most important goal for the remainder of my mission is to sprint faster. Become cleaner in thought, word, and deed. Have a greater desire to do good. Change from a disposition to do evil, as the people in Mosiah 5. That's the goal. Come back a new man, and don't ever turn back. This is the most important ultimately because it's the reason I came. I came to make myself a faithful Latter-day Saint for good, and to help others do the same.
As far as my testimony goes, it hasn't changed. Should it? I know it's true. Can that become anything more? I KNOW. You can't go from "know" to "knower" or "knowest". I just know. And if, in the impossible scenario that I've been duped by Joseph Smith, I'll thank him forever for the joy it has brought in my life. You can't replicate that anywhere else.
So, does that help answer your questions? :-) When people ask how long I've been on mission, I say 11 months. Why? It means I have MORE than a year left, rather than LESS. ;-)
I can relate to Tyler Russell suffering from Culture shock upon his return home from Ghana. I will have such a hard time adjusting when I get back. Brother Lancaster wrote me last week, and he said he went through the same thing. If you want a bit of entertainment, ask Tyler how his Twi is (pronounced "tree"). I've been blessed to learn a phrase or two from the Ghanans I've lived with.
We joke about how we'll wander around the house looking for a bucket to fill for bathing, and other funny things. We'll marvel at the light switch that will turn on the lights EVERY TIME you switch it. We'll be happily surprised when the running water never runs out. Oh! And its heated! I'll be able to cook more than one thing at a time (we have just one burner here), and I'll never have to lug that 60-100lb tank of gas to be refilled for the stove. I'll be able to drink tap water and not die. I'll be able to sit still and not sweat. I'll be able to sleep in the open air, even outside without any risk to my health! I won't have to take doxy again. I'll never have to watch for cobras as I cross a cemetery. I'll never have to worry about being run over by a motorcycle. I'll have internet that moves, and a keyboard on which ALL of the keys work. I'll be able to flush the toilet (yeah, it's a big deal. I'm sure you've taken THAT one for granted your whole life!). I'll never greet someone by asking how their body is. And most importantly, I'll never have to squish a cockroach again. Yeah, it really is a big change. Luckily, I'm still here. ;-)
Okay, time is don don. Oh! I got Grandpa Doug's package! Make sure he knows. I wrote a letter to thank him that I'll send asap.
Have a wonderful week! :-)
Love,
Elder Vaughan
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