Hello beloved family!
So good to hear from you. I'm glad you have access to Sister Taylor's blog. She is so awesome! She and President Taylor are down right missionary magnets. Everyone likes to be around them anytime they can! The first thing President Taylor said to me when he called was this, "Well Elder Mouritsen I just wanted to call you and let you know that the surgery that is going to have to happen on your shoulder is a little more serious than we had anticipated. It's going to be a very rare form of shoulder amputation." Yes, that was very encouraging. Haha he's a funny man and extremely personable. He then laughed and told me that he was going to call back in a few minutes on the house phone so that he and Sister Taylor could each be on the line at the same time. I was quite nervous upon hearing that. You know what happened next because I assume that they told you the same story. As they told me the options, I knew without a doubt in my mind that I did not want to go home immediately because I felt that would impede the work the most. The other two options however are what I'm having trouble deciding on. There are several pros and cons to each.
Having the surgery here: One week in a member's home while sleeping in a recliner (possibly for an entire month) and then severe pain for the month following along with four months of physical therapy. Not how I would like to spend the time I have dedicated to the Lord but yes like you said sometimes forms of service can come in many different ways. Yes, complications of follow up visits after I return home could be bad...but I'm sure we could get some help through great sources like Dr. Bean and others. Also, summer fun, work, vacations, etc wouldn't be impeded because of a surgery next summer.
Surgery after the mission: Accepting the pain and hoping that no more complications occur while out in the field. President Taylor has already promised me that I will be in a car area for the rest of mission. P-Day activities might be limited (and you know how I like to have fun...). After mission activities, work, and even school in the fall could be hindered. I would be able to continue my mission the way I am and look forward to a surgery at the end. Fun!
There is one thing that has been plaguing my mind though. I don't know if you remember much from my setting apart blessing from President Thredgold. There is one thing that I remember specifically from the blessing. It was when he said something to the effect of, "...you will never have to stay in a single day from doing missionary work because of illness..." I think that this applies. Of course this blessing is only promised through my obedience but I want you to know that over the past 15 months I have never stayed in a single day. Not even for my companion! When I feel myself starting to get sick, first I take some airborne, haha but then I start to look back over my week and see what I need to change to become more obedient and strive to fix it. It's been a huge blessing. There are so many missionaries that call Sister Taylor on almost a weekly basis telling her that they need to stay in for things as menial as a headache or a stomach ache. I consider myself extremely blessed because of the days I've not had to stay in. With this thought, I have faith that if I stayed in the field and had the surgery done that the recovery process would be as minimal (if any) as it could possibly be, depending on what the Lord needs me to do. This is the decision that I have been leaning towards but I am still considering. I've seen miracles in other people's lives and I know that the Lord has the power to perform them in mine.
Anyway, enough with that. I love how you talked about taking the hard route instead of the easy route in life! That is amazing because I have been thinking about that a whole lot this week! I actually talked about that in one of the letters I wrote today. I think the Lord has us do those hard things so that we can be prepared for harder things in the future. If we don't do the hard things now, then He won't trust us to do the harder things in the future. I think that that would be a very humiliating experience to think that because I took an easy route that the Lord now doesn't trust me for what He had originally wanted me to do. This is also an extremely hard concept to teach other missionaries who do not enjoy doing hard things. It relates really well to the famous quote from Sister Beck, "There is no growing in a comfort zone, but there is no comfort in a growing zone." I have seen this become very real for me in my mission. At the beginning, I was terrified when I would see a person a head of me while riding my bike down the street. I hated talking to people and it scared me to death! Slowly but surely that nervousness turned to excitement and other "harder" things became the source for a terrifying adrenaline rush. Things like correcting misbehavior, speaking in front of others, having meetings with the stake president, mission president, and other stellar missionaries. Life is great and I think it is such a confidence boost when we accomplish those hard things! Sometimes it can be even emotional but it is so worth it.
I'll give a quick rundown on the week: Tuesday, Zone Leader Council. President Taylor is entrusting the missionaries with a lot. He has removed the music guidelines and put all the trust on the missionaries. The rule is: If you and your companion can each agree that you can feel the spirit while listening to the music then it is ok. That is a whole lot of trust but I think it is going to be great. The missionaries also know that if they abuse it and lose his trust that they will lose privileges. Wednesday was district meeting galore. Thursday we had some great lessons with a couple of investigators. Saturday was a long story and I will have to explain later. Long story short, we went to the temple, some things went down between a recent convert and an investigator while we were in the visitors center and the investigator yelled an extremely explicit word and stormed out of the theatre where we were watching the Joseph Smith movie. It's in my journal so I will definitely fill in the details later.
Thanks so much for all you do. I love and appreciate all you do.
Love,
Elder Colton Mouritsen
P.S. Dad the shirt is awesome! So legit! Apparently there was like an anti-Mormon guy at the post office and he didn't forward a bunch of elders’ letters to where they were in the field because they were coming from a "business." Sister Cherry, who is the letter lady in the office, went and chewed the crap out of them and it won't be happening again. haha
So good to hear from you. I'm glad you have access to Sister Taylor's blog. She is so awesome! She and President Taylor are down right missionary magnets. Everyone likes to be around them anytime they can! The first thing President Taylor said to me when he called was this, "Well Elder Mouritsen I just wanted to call you and let you know that the surgery that is going to have to happen on your shoulder is a little more serious than we had anticipated. It's going to be a very rare form of shoulder amputation." Yes, that was very encouraging. Haha he's a funny man and extremely personable. He then laughed and told me that he was going to call back in a few minutes on the house phone so that he and Sister Taylor could each be on the line at the same time. I was quite nervous upon hearing that. You know what happened next because I assume that they told you the same story. As they told me the options, I knew without a doubt in my mind that I did not want to go home immediately because I felt that would impede the work the most. The other two options however are what I'm having trouble deciding on. There are several pros and cons to each.
Having the surgery here: One week in a member's home while sleeping in a recliner (possibly for an entire month) and then severe pain for the month following along with four months of physical therapy. Not how I would like to spend the time I have dedicated to the Lord but yes like you said sometimes forms of service can come in many different ways. Yes, complications of follow up visits after I return home could be bad...but I'm sure we could get some help through great sources like Dr. Bean and others. Also, summer fun, work, vacations, etc wouldn't be impeded because of a surgery next summer.
Surgery after the mission: Accepting the pain and hoping that no more complications occur while out in the field. President Taylor has already promised me that I will be in a car area for the rest of mission. P-Day activities might be limited (and you know how I like to have fun...). After mission activities, work, and even school in the fall could be hindered. I would be able to continue my mission the way I am and look forward to a surgery at the end. Fun!
There is one thing that has been plaguing my mind though. I don't know if you remember much from my setting apart blessing from President Thredgold. There is one thing that I remember specifically from the blessing. It was when he said something to the effect of, "...you will never have to stay in a single day from doing missionary work because of illness..." I think that this applies. Of course this blessing is only promised through my obedience but I want you to know that over the past 15 months I have never stayed in a single day. Not even for my companion! When I feel myself starting to get sick, first I take some airborne, haha but then I start to look back over my week and see what I need to change to become more obedient and strive to fix it. It's been a huge blessing. There are so many missionaries that call Sister Taylor on almost a weekly basis telling her that they need to stay in for things as menial as a headache or a stomach ache. I consider myself extremely blessed because of the days I've not had to stay in. With this thought, I have faith that if I stayed in the field and had the surgery done that the recovery process would be as minimal (if any) as it could possibly be, depending on what the Lord needs me to do. This is the decision that I have been leaning towards but I am still considering. I've seen miracles in other people's lives and I know that the Lord has the power to perform them in mine.
Anyway, enough with that. I love how you talked about taking the hard route instead of the easy route in life! That is amazing because I have been thinking about that a whole lot this week! I actually talked about that in one of the letters I wrote today. I think the Lord has us do those hard things so that we can be prepared for harder things in the future. If we don't do the hard things now, then He won't trust us to do the harder things in the future. I think that that would be a very humiliating experience to think that because I took an easy route that the Lord now doesn't trust me for what He had originally wanted me to do. This is also an extremely hard concept to teach other missionaries who do not enjoy doing hard things. It relates really well to the famous quote from Sister Beck, "There is no growing in a comfort zone, but there is no comfort in a growing zone." I have seen this become very real for me in my mission. At the beginning, I was terrified when I would see a person a head of me while riding my bike down the street. I hated talking to people and it scared me to death! Slowly but surely that nervousness turned to excitement and other "harder" things became the source for a terrifying adrenaline rush. Things like correcting misbehavior, speaking in front of others, having meetings with the stake president, mission president, and other stellar missionaries. Life is great and I think it is such a confidence boost when we accomplish those hard things! Sometimes it can be even emotional but it is so worth it.
I'll give a quick rundown on the week: Tuesday, Zone Leader Council. President Taylor is entrusting the missionaries with a lot. He has removed the music guidelines and put all the trust on the missionaries. The rule is: If you and your companion can each agree that you can feel the spirit while listening to the music then it is ok. That is a whole lot of trust but I think it is going to be great. The missionaries also know that if they abuse it and lose his trust that they will lose privileges. Wednesday was district meeting galore. Thursday we had some great lessons with a couple of investigators. Saturday was a long story and I will have to explain later. Long story short, we went to the temple, some things went down between a recent convert and an investigator while we were in the visitors center and the investigator yelled an extremely explicit word and stormed out of the theatre where we were watching the Joseph Smith movie. It's in my journal so I will definitely fill in the details later.
Thanks so much for all you do. I love and appreciate all you do.
Love,
Elder Colton Mouritsen
P.S. Dad the shirt is awesome! So legit! Apparently there was like an anti-Mormon guy at the post office and he didn't forward a bunch of elders’ letters to where they were in the field because they were coming from a "business." Sister Cherry, who is the letter lady in the office, went and chewed the crap out of them and it won't be happening again. haha
The Sandstorm (Haboob)
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