Welp. I officially turned eight months old yesterday. So yeah,
that happened. In other news, I counted some steps, thought about life, and
kneaded some dough. The excitement never ceases out here in Los Solares. Haha
that sounds sarcastic, but seriously, it was a good week :)
Some short highlights. We saw a guy eat it hardcore on a
motorcycle, and I'm not talking about a tostada. We hurried over, lifted up the
guy's motorcycle, and did. Well. Literally nothing else. The guy was fine and
really didn't need any help. But like a couple of givers, we picked up his
motorcycle anyway. I'm not saying we should be beatified or anything, but I
mean, if you can win the Nobel Peace Prize for someone else electing you
president.... Haha sorry-we-shouldn't-make-political-jokes. We also had a
dumpling dinner with investigators in which I was in charge of kneading the
dough. It reminded me that of all the muscles in my body, I'm most proud of my
forearms. If that strikes you as odd, it's probably because a) you are not a
pianist b) you are not big on being a dumpling kneader or c) you are a normal
human being. Thank heaven, I suffer from none of these maladies.
We also
currently have ten baptismal dates. Yes. Ten. Diez. 10.
Out here, we do it like
we do.
 |
| One of our investigators, Rayni, in the rain. We love Rayni. |
Speaking of which, Ventura wasn’t terribly happy about me
announcing his 6-3 Five Crowns loss, and this whole week, he’s been a man with
a purpose. He challenged me night after night, growing so frustrated he wanted
to punch a hole in the wall. He never actually did, though, because, well, the walls
are solid cinderblock and he weighs in at a whopping 110 lbs. But it’s true. I
can’t deny it. Saturday night, in a contest that wouldn’t have been
inappropriate in the Roman Colosseum, I got hosed in the round of queen,
where I got dealt almost exclusively doubles and Ventura laid out on the second
opportunity. I fell, 101-93, on stakes of an empanada and public shaming. And
that’s not a bet, that’s a justified exchange. Yes. I lost. Only took him
eleven tries. Nyahaha.
Anyway, as Elder Ventura and I were walking home from the gym this
morning, I found myself thinking about how transient we-and the lives we
live-are. And what a blessing that is.
Allow me to expound. People do this thing. We have a tendency to
think that we're some end product, the result of all of our life experiences
added up, and now, we're us. Whether or not we are consciously
aware of the fact that hey, EVERYONE changes, we always see ourselves in the
moment, like we've walked a long road and here we are at the end, cheerfully (or
not-so-cheerfully) being us.
More specifically, there's this mindset that what we've done up to
whatever point we're at right now has set or is currently setting the course of
our lives. I remember in high school, everyone was always like, oh, you better
get good grades and always be in class because if not, it'll go on your
"permanent record", whatever that means (as if the mortician is gonna
carve a dunce cap on my headstone when he finds out I sluffed 11th grade English!) and those things are gonna decide the course of your life. And now
they're telling you to be very careful of where and what you study because
those things are going to decide the course of your life. You already know that
when you graduate college, they'll keep telling you to be careful of where you
start your career and how you start to build your family, because those things
are going to decide the course of your life. They make it out like every choice
and its grandma are gonna determine the course of your life.
Well I call baloney. Maybe they'll affect the path you take, but
they will not decide your ultimate destination. The course of your life is not
a constant, unchanging thing any more than you as a person are some fixed point
at the end of a straight line. The person you are right now is not the person
you have to be, nor is it the person you WILL be. It's silly when people act
like things are always gonna be the way they are now because they aren't. Life
is full of beginnings and ends, and as long as you are alive, the course of
your life isn't ever fixed.
The application? There is a power inside every one of us, and it
doesn't matter how far down the road of life you are, you still have it. This
power is the power to change. Whether you're fifteen or fifty, the sum of
your past actions will never be something you can't rise above. If you've
lived poorly and want to live better, you can. If you think you've lived well
enough and can't really get better, you're wrong. We will be able to change the
course of our lives as long as we live. However we've lived. Good or bad. We
can do better. Always. And that. That is a great hope.
Love,
Dallin
P.S. It rained a smidge.
No comments:
Post a Comment