The Great Piano Adventure... Part 2

Hello, my wonderful friends!!

How was your week? Mine was an adventure for sure!

 

This week was challenging, but so rewarding. So many times, I felt like I wasn’t enough, or I wasn’t doing enough, but then I felt God with me all week, helping me and lifting me and reminding me of my worth.  

 

We hit the ground running. I am training, so I wanted my companion to experience ALL the things of missionary work. We set some high goals and got to work. It was so rewarding. Every day, we were tired, but happy because we knew that we had given our all to the work. 

 

Sister Bacot is amazing! She wants to work hard, and she wants to learn all she can. Whenever I ask her if we are going too fast or if she is feeling tired, she always responds that she is doing great and ready to go. She is awesome and we are going to get great work done! I absolutely love it!

 

There was one day in particular when our schedule was a bit packed. We didn’t have enough time to go home for lunch, and because eating out was expensive, we just decided to pack lunch and have a picnic! When it came time for lunch, there wasn’t anywhere to just stop and have a “picnic”, so we stopped on the side of a highway and ate a nice peanut butter and honey sandwich while cars whizzed by us. It was actually one of my favorite parts of the week. We got to take a quick lunch and jump right back into the work!

 

That was just one example of our crazy week. I also got the wonderful opportunity to have ANOTHER piano adventure! 

 

We were talking to one of the district presidency members on Friday and he mentioned that they didn’t have a piano player for their choir (we had a district conference this week). The choir was going to perform on Saturday, but our schedule was full with missionary work, so we were unable to help. We—as missionaries—are not always encouraged to go to the Saturday session of the District Conference, so we gave them a few suggestions for a pianist and thought that we were in the clear!

 

WELL…Friday (the day of their practice) rolled around, and Sister Bacot and I were out working and every single lesson we had planned fell through. In desperation, we prayed to Heavenly Father where He would have us go and what He wanted us to do. It was a very spiritual moment. In our prayer, we specifically asked what he wanted us to be learning and where we needed to visit. As we closed our prayer, I scrolled through our list of people, listening for the promptings of the spirit. As I scrolled, we received a call from our branch president. He called to ask if we were close to the church. He then told us that there was still no pianist for the choir. Now, at this point, it was 7 pm. Choir practice started at 5:30 (but with Filippino time, probably closer to 6, or 6:30). Anyways, we hustled over to the church. The whole time I prayed that I would at least know the song…

 

When we got to the church, they were practicing without a pianist…and it was a song that I was not familiar with. In fact, I had never heard it in my life! But God has a way of making things all work out because I was able to play it! We then learned that both Branch 1 and Branch 2 were also without a pianist…and just like that, our Saturday plans changed, and we attended district conference to play the piano for 3 musical numbers!

 

Then, on Sunday, I really thought I was in the clear. But as I was sitting in the audience, I got a text from President Cobing (our Mission President) asking if I knew how to play “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” and thankfully I actually knew that one! I responded that I did and again, I got the pleasure of playing for yet another musical number, but this time, no practice! I am eternally grateful for the many hours my mom made me practice the piano to prepare me for moments like this!

 

But in all seriousness, it was a great opportunity to serve the branches and a spiritual confirmation to me that God guides us as we seek Him. The Lord truly directed us to serve differently than what we had originally planned.

 

This week was full of spiritual miracles and promptings:

 

Amid all of this missionary work, there have been a few challenges. Things that I used to rely on my companion for, all fall on me. My companion is brand new so of course, she looks to me to lead, to know what to say, to interact with interested friends and members, to know where to go and what to do 100% of the time. And it is HARD! There have been times when I have not known what to do, or what to say. 

 

But I have felt God magnifying me more than I could have imagined. He has filled my mouth with words. He has guided our finding, our teaching, and our testifying. God has made me so much more than I was before.

 

As I was having a bit of a struggle this week, I turned to the words of our latter-day prophets and apostles. I read a wonderful talk by Elder Uchtdorf called “Of Things That Matter Most”.

 

In it, he said to focus on 4 relationships: Your relationship with God, your family, your fellow man, and yourself. He talked about slowing down and simplifying. 

 

I loved this and I have been trying to implement it. Specifically, concerning my relationship with God and myself. I have seen God so much this week. Every time things were hard; I would find myself pleading with Him to make my efforts enough. As I strengthened my relationship with Him, I have seen miracles. It is hard to put it into words, but I was able to do things this week that I never thought I would be able to do, and I know that it was only through God.

As I have also focused on my relationship with myself, I have seen myself draw closer to God. I have been working on being patient with myself and seeing my strengths. I have tried to see myself as God sees me. Sometimes when we go through hard things, it is the best time to get to know ourselves and work to see ourselves like God does—as his divine children.

 

While there are a lot of challenges with training, I love it and I am so grateful for the chance to grow. I know that God can make my efforts enough as I embark on this new adventure. I know He loves me, and He will help me. 

 

I hope you all had a great week and felt God’s love for all of you! I am cheering you all on in whatever you are experiencing!

 

The Church is true, God loves you,

Be happy, Be brave, Be smart,

Love,

Sister Miller