Called to Serve Him : My Currant Bush Moment.

Hey everybody!

Tomorrow is my one month mark in the mission field! I can't even believe it! Time is flying.

I also only have 13 more days left in the MTC! I am so stoked that I will be out in the mission field soon! It can't come soon enough!

Days here in the MTC are pretty repetitive. Our schedule is literally the same every single day. I have been teaching lots of lessons, studying a ton, playing some crazy volleyball with my district.. just living the life.

It is also getting so crowded here! When I first got here, there was around 400 missionaries here. We now have around 800 missionaries, and by the time I leave, there will be over 1,000. It is nuts!

This week has been one of the most spiritual weeks for me and I have grown so much.

I have learned that attitude is everything. Before leaving, I made a goal with myself to always be positive. To always have an attitude of ''Come what may and LOVE it.'' It has made the biggest difference in the world! I can honestly say I have not had one bad day here in the MTC. Yes, I have had some moments that have been hard, but those moments don't determine my day. It has been really cool.

One of the most spiritual moments happened when I was struggling the most this week. I was taught a really special lesson...

The Lord has high expectations for each of us. He sees a future that we can't envision and who we can ultimately become. Because of this, we sometimes are asked to experience difficult things that at times, don't make sense and seem to tear us down.

President Hugh B. Brown told a personal experience that he had on a farm he purchased in Canada. On the farm, he came across a currant bush that was over 6 ft tall with no berries on it. So he pruned the bush down until it was only small stumps. On each of the stumps, he saw a what looked like a tear, as if the bush was crying.

He imagined it saying, "How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth.. and now you've cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me.. how could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here."

President Brown replied, " Look little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn't intend for you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and some day, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit you are going to say, ''Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down."

This week, I had my own little ''currant bush'' moment.

I was asked to get up in front of my district and teach an ''investigator'' about the restoration. Spanish just wasn't happening for me that day. I struggled the entire time and the words I needed just were not coming to me. After I was finished, I sat down in my chair feeling cut down, humiliated, and pretty worthless in the language.

I began thinking to myself, "Why would God ask me to do something like this? People are a lot better than me and I make embarrassing mistakes all of the time. Why would he want me to do something that I am having such a hard time with?'' I basically just started having an internal pity party.

I then remembered the sweet words of an elder in my district who said, ''I believe that the people I will be teaching on my mission came to me in the pre-earth life and asked for ME to come find them.''

As I sat in my chair, I was completely humbled as I was reminded that Heavenly Father has asked me to learn this language because He knows that my friends who asked me to come find them, need to hear the message of the gospel in Spanish.

I am so thankful that Heavenly Father loves me enough to cut me down and direct my life in a way that he knows will be best for me.

We will all be cut down and asked to do hard things at times and when this happens, we should never forget that we are never alone. Jesus Christ can and WILL help us through it all.

"The Atonement will carry you. When you struggle and when you are rejected, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known. You have reason to stand tall because the Living Son of the Living God knows ALL about your sorrows and your afflictions.''

-Jeffrey R. Holland

The church is true!

Love,

Hermana Rupp