Wednesday, April 1, 2009

UNTITLED

I’m leaving this post untitled because I want you to be able to draw your own conclusions.

Last night, I woke up in the wee hours. Because I lack any kind of self control whatsoever, I got out of my bed and checked the computer for Trammell’s weekly email. It comes in the middle of the night Tuesday. Rather than wait until some coherant hour on Wednesday, I would rather lean into the screen with bleary eyes and search for the one line I am looking for.

“Good Morning Family! I hope that you are all doing well. I can’t wait to read this weeks emails later today. And last weeks. And the week before that. But I skim over them every once in a while and am glad to hear that everything’s going well. Things are going great here!”

He’s happy. That’s all that matters to me. I allow myself to breathe and continue with his letter. It was fabulous, as usual.

Not wanting to wake Brian, I slid back into bed silently. But I couldn’t fall asleep. Parts of the letter kept coming back to me….. parts that held answers to some of my rhetorical questions from yesterday.

Answers come in different ways. And people get different answers to the same question. I will refrain from commenting. Once again, I want to allow people to draw their own conclusions and find their own answers.

Here are some snippets from Trammell’s letter.

“Transfer calls came this morning... and- I am not going anywhere- thank goodness! But Elder Godfrey is coming down to the city! He is the new AP! I am excited to be able to see him a lot more and to learn from him again.”

Elder Godfrey was Trammell’s trainer. His first companion. He was everything we prayed for………and more. We haven’t met him but we love him. We love him for showing Trammell “how it is done.” We love him for setting Trammell up for the remainder of his mission.

“Her husband's name is Laay. He is good. He has great faith. He has some amazing experiences with prayer. Last week Laay went to buy a space to sell goods. He needed a hundred dollars, he said, “Eh, it’s just a hundred dollars, I don’t really need to pray about it.” Those were his exact words. Well, the first four places he went couldn’t loan/give him money. Finally he prayed, then called his brother who came immediately, gave him the money, and they went and bought the place. Man that was so cool! It showed that no matter what- whether small or big- we should ALWAYS pray unto the Lord! I know that when we do that, then He will consecrate our efforts for our good! I have seen this so much! That a little pray here or a little prayer there has so much influence on the things that we do, and that he will truly consecrate it for our good. I learned this last night. We have to be in the house by 8:30 at the latest. You know me- I like to be obedient, and so we left and literally as we left from our appointment, a powerful wind came- man it was so hard to ride back in this wind and we only had 15 minutes! So I said a quick prayer. I prayed that we would be able to make it back on time and that the Lord would give us strength to make it back. Then we just pedalled as hard as we could! Miraculously we made it back at 8:29! I know that when we turn it over to the Lord first, and then work as hard as we can, He will take what we do and then make it complete and whole."

Lastly, I would like to share Trammell’s companion’s email that he sent Brian. Trammell’s companion and his family joined the Church in Cambodia a year ago. He is now serving a mission and his father is the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency up in Siem Reap (6 hours from the mission home- Trammell’s first place – home of Elder Godfrey for the last 9 months.)

Here it is- unedited.

"dear brain thanks for your worry for me and your son i have tow sisters i am so exitet to hear general conference now i am so happy in 2 branch some time i miss my family but elder cox help me to be joy and work hard i forgot homsick elder cox know cambodain alots i can not help him because he know more khmer than me i just help him to pronounciation more clearly i love him he try to study and obedint exactly i love this work love from elder da"

Well there you have it.........24 hours of my thoughts. Scary, I know! Thanks for letting me take this very public 24 hour journey and for sharing it with me.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm behind and catching up. Woah, scary on Parker's breathing thing. I'd be kind of nervous about that.

Bikini's - Well, I think that's a bit young for one. I can't judge though. I know my daughter won't be wearing one though.

Trammell sounds like such an amazing young man. Truly.

valerie said...

Thanks you for sharing Trammells letters with us! I truly love hearing about his thoughts while he's on his mission.

H.K. said...

I couldn't help but tear up when I read this! Moms forward their missionary son's emails to me, but you rarely get their thoughts.

And it's hard for me to think that my son is only 2 years away from going on his mission! Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I enjoy reading yours..I'll be stopping by more often!

StephieMae said...

I love how you just taught me SO much! Well through Tram anyways. Thank you for that because I am pretty sure I needed that little reminder...you pretty much rock thanks for the example!