Inner Game of Ping Pong and Missionary Work

From: Joseph Weiss <joseph.weiss@myldsmail.net>
Date: March 30, 2014 at 5:36:45 PM MDT
To: Cyndy Weiss <cyndyweiss@gmail.com>

This week was awesome. We got five people to church! We are teaching a girl named Danielle who's dad is very less active and mum is “Catholic". Her dad is the toughest customer of them all but we taught with the spirit and committed the whole family to come to church. The miracle came at the end of the lesson. We promised to teach Danielle's sister Isabella to pray the lesson before. As we went to teach her, being just a kid, she got shy. Elder Moyes, "asked do you want me to help you?". She shook her head. "Do you want Elder Weiss to help you?" She shook her head again. We smiled and I asked, "Do you want Elder Moyes to help you then?" Again she shook her head but then she pointed to her dad. She got up and walked over to kneel by her dad.

He doesn't really believe in prayer. He talks to his dad but hasn't willingly prayed for years. I thought, "Perfect. Vicarious prayer, That's a step in the right direction!." He whispered to to her ear, "Dear Heavenly Father..." but she was silent.  So he tried again and she wouldn't say anything. I prayed so hard, "Heavenly Father please help her speak for his sake let it happen?" We sat there for a minute and then without being asked her dad said the prayer. He set such a wonderful example for his family and I think it really broke up some spiritual ice for him. The Lords answers to our prayers are far better than we can ever imagine.

I studied diligence and here is what I learned. I read a talk by President Bednar about "Not shrinking". He taught me that diligence is having faith that something good will happen and working hard, submitting your own will to Heavenly Fathers.

I think of it like tennis. In tennis when you make a bad shot and become frustrated it leads to more bad shots and more frustration. And then it's a downward spiral until you lose the match and wonder, "Why do I even like this game?". Same goes for golf. We need to see the big picture and keeping working hard even when things don't always go our way. We need to be ok losing if that is what will make us better in the end.

We need to submit to the Lords will. But that doesn't mean that the Lord's will can happen whether we have faith or not. If we give a hundred percent in a tennis match we can still lose but we will learn if we submit our will and say, "It's ok I lost, now how can I improve?" That is an example of Faithfully submitting. Sometimes by our diligence in a tennis match we will win; and other times we will not. Regardless, the Lord wants us to give 100% because doing your best helps you become your best whether you win or not. We need to play the game with no fear. Having faith that if we give our all, in the end we will be a better player, person, or missionary because of it.

This morning I taught my companion how to hit a topspin backhand in ping pong. I'll have to write the inner game of Ping Pong when I get back. Haha it's crazy. It only took him 10 min to figure it out. #timgalleway

Love you all

Elder Weiss