Many, many, many years ago, I was taught a very important principle. That I never new would take years to conquer. As a young boy, I didn't have a lot of patience. I was often hypocritical to others because I would tell them that Patience is Virtue, but I really didn't have it myself. Just a few weeks ago, I was once again tested on this point. I was playing soccer with a group of Kenyans, and I hurt my ankle. I fact it took me out of the game, which I didn't like in the first place. Well after several tests, doctor visits, x-rays, and a MRI. I got a result that I had a torn tendon, a contusion on a bone in the ankle, and effusion. It has not looked good for me at all actually. Its been about 4 weeks. I went to the doctor this week, and he said to me that I must start putting partial weight on it. In two weeks I should be able to put full. But in trying such, it caused a lot of pain. So now what?? What am I supposed to do. Well In Kenya, as a missionary, you walk everywhere. So all I have been doing is sitting in the mission office, doing things that missionaries don't do. I'm a very active person. For those who know me, they know that I can't stand just sitting around doing nothing. I must be out doing something. I you could say that Patience is something that I have really learned these past weeks. We have a mission president, who kind of makes the final call, of what will happen with me. But I still have not heard word from him. So I have slowly slipped into insanity. When you lapse into insanity, your mind goes places that it has never been before. Your body seems to break down. You have a longing for peace, but it just can not be found. You yearn for comfort but you can't find it. It truly is the hardest thing that I have done. That of just sitting around trying to cope with it all. May I add though, that I have been able to cope. There has been times where I have wanted to just punch a wall or something. But I have not because I know that God has been teaching me a lesson. A lesson about patience, much like the one President Uchdorf was taught. He said:
"When I was 10 years old, my family became refugees in a new land. I had always been a good student in school—that is, until we arrived in West Germany. There, my educational experience was a significantly different one. The geography we studied in my school was new to me. The history we studied was also very different. Before, I had been learning Russian as a second language; now, it was English. This was hard for me. Indeed, there were moments when I truly believed my tongue simply was not made to speak English.
Because so much of the curriculum was new and strange to me, I fell behind. For the first time in my life, I began to wonder if I was simply not smart enough for school.
Fortunately I had a teacher who taught me to be patient. He taught me that steady and consistent work—patient persistence—would help me to learn.
Over time, difficult subjects became clearer—even English. Slowly I began to see that if I applied myself consistently, I could learn. It didn’t come quickly, but with patience, it did come.
From that experience, I learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort."
So Yes Patience is far more than simply aiting for something to happen. I know that to be true. I know that God directs us when we are patience. Just remember this: God cannot steer a parked car.
