Iokwe from OK! Taste of My Own Medicine

Iokwe!

So, President Mansell announced a few weeks ago that he was going to dub one week this month as Bike Week and he would let us know when that was because he wanted to do research on the weather; he promised it would be a week that wouldn't be so hot. 

Well.

Last week was decided upon to be the don't-even-think-about-touching-your-car-keys week. It was also the hottest week of the year. I really don't look at the weather, but I'm pretty sure it broke 100 every single day. Thank goodness that it was a dry week and less of a humid week. It honestly really wasn't that bad - like I said, thankfully I've already reached the "It's hot, so what?" stage - and we just made sure to drink a ton of water. But we sweat a ton. I've never sweat so much in my life. My shirts are so dirty. Some days we would come home for dinner just drenched in sweat and have to change all of our clothes. It was actually pretty fun. The best part was the number of people that stopped us and asked if we were okay. Everyone was so concerned that we were biking in such heat. I think President's idea was that people would take notice that we were willing to put forth such effort to get our message out there and feel the importance of what we were trying to share, but I think just about anyone that I ran into ended the conversation by shooting us a "You guys are idiots" look. Haha, oh well. 

Yesterday, we had interviews with our mission president, and Elder Oberender and I were asked to train on something. So, we chose to train on not waiting to become the person you want to be and who God wants you to be. We invited everyone to sit and ponder who they felt God sees in them and what is holding them back. We talked about setting low expectations for ourselves and putting it off until "someday" as excuses that we use to protect ourselves from making commitments we think we'll just end up breaking. We explained that we can't give up just because we see less in ourselves than God sees in us. We taught that if we can just catch a vision of what God sees in us, and believe in that, then we can do it.

It was super great. And then we had opportunity to do it ourselves (something about not being above what you ask other people to do). I was so excited to do it. And then I got what I asked for. It was something that I had never considered before, nor did I think was possible for me to do. I was astounded. The more I thought about it, the more I began to doubt and create excuses and lower expectations and put it off until "someday". 

It was really tough. I want you all to know that I understand how hard it is to try to make changes. This one almost got me. But, I heard a voice in my head (that sounded suspiciously like a friend from back home) that said "You idiot, apply your own training." So, I did. Everything that we taught everyone yesterday, all of the principles we shared and reminded them of, I know are true because they applied to me and they helped me overcome something hard.

I know life gets tough. Sometimes it may seem like we don't have the capacity to make bigger changes and become better people. Often, we probably don't. But, if we believe in ourselves and believe in the Savior, there will always be a way. I still have no idea how I'm going to live up to this new goal. But I know that with His help I can. I'll let you know how it goes.

Love you guys. Let's keep improving.

Jerammaan!

Elder Josh Kilmer
Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission, Marshallese speaking
不動心
Fudoshin:  immovable spirit
www.mormon.org