That was my first thought as i read this weeks letter from Elder Cocker. It's a mad, mad world out there, as a mother, we breath in deeply and pray often for our children when they are blessed with that great opportunity to serve the Lord on a full time mission, to whatever part of the world they may be called.
The journey to arrive at the casual and happy sentence of, "My son is serving in the Sydney South Australia Mission". The realities of this journey began something like this: March 1993 our first and only--(oddly enough favorite son), was born. He was blessed at church a month later; as his father held him in his little white tuxedo I had made him.... I thought..."Someday son, we pray you will have the opportunity to serve a mission." and it excited my soul to think the Lord would be so mindful and gracious....there is no wiser teacher, I could think of no greater opportunity to help assist him in that vast chasm of chaos between boyhood and manhood. Then, Elder Cocker almost two years of age; how he cried the first sunday we put a suit on him. Big tears. Big.
I thought, "Oh, it's gonna be interesting if we don't work through this in 18 years." (It took sixteen, 16 more years to work on that little wrinkle). So the years went on. The time came the decision was made by him, and he put his heart and soul into the prospect of serving a two year mission. Echo the words of 1 Nephi 3:7
"“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”
A mother's thoughts are not the Lords thoughts, He told us so, in Isaiah 55:8-9 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. "
My thoughts were more along the lines of, "He doesn't even cook for himself." He will go 'find', 'fish', 'harpoon' or 'skin' for his dinner....but hand him a box of macaroni and cheese and he would hand it to one of his three sisters and ask them to please make him some food. Two years seemed a very precarious amount of time to me.
There was also his sense of humor. Elder Cocker loves to laugh. Loves to see 'the joy in the journey'. More often than not he will just speak his mind. That point to a mother can be a bit disconcerting. We send out our young men and women to serve the Lord, full of energy and vigor and the resolve and resilience of youth; often the "wisdom of Job"---not so much.
There was also his sense of humor. Elder Cocker loves to laugh. Loves to see 'the joy in the journey'. More often than not he will just speak his mind. That point to a mother can be a bit disconcerting. We send out our young men and women to serve the Lord, full of energy and vigor and the resolve and resilience of youth; often the "wisdom of Job"---not so much.
(his big sister's wedding reception--the uppercut photo....typical boy fun)
That good nature has been one of his greatest strengths. It has served him well.
(A video Elder Cocker and his companion took while watching some Kangaroos 'fighting'. I guess that is part of the Australia mission experience! except mom doesn't know how to upload it....but heres a shot)
(A video Elder Cocker and his companion took while watching some Kangaroos 'fighting'. I guess that is part of the Australia mission experience! except mom doesn't know how to upload it....but heres a shot)
As a mother we think: "When he is gone; I am not there, to listen, to support, to help". How I have been humbled by the tender mercies of the Lord as we have gone week after week, month after month, now into the last six months of his mission. I understand more deeply, and with an intimate knowledge the words of Nephi 9:6
“But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.”
I loved this weeks message from Elder Cocker....he talked about a concept that rings true with all of us from time to time. "Don't get caught in the thick of thin things". He shared some of those same feelings ( in a secular sense) with us when he returned from his time in Papua New Guinea before his mission. He saw the world through different spectacles, humanitarian, versus the worlds capitalist agenda.
(spending some time with village children Papua New Guinea)
His letter was like that this week, with a deeply spiritual resolve, that experience and trials teach. He said,
"This week has been swagalicious and today I've got something good for everyone. A simple and sometimes overlooked little phrase. "Dont sweat the small stuff" or "Its all good, no need to trip" or "Dont get caught in the thick of the thin things". If your sitting there reading this and saying, "ya. ya. I know", then congrats, guess what? Things are probably going well for you right now! But, we all know when things suck, its tuff to see past it, so, if you can't use this now keep it and remember it; use it later, cause I know this will help.
My comp and I this week, we realized that, we go through the motions, a lot, and we wondered 'why?'. We talk about faith a lot, with everyone and the scriptures teach us that faith and action must be together or faith is dead(James 2:17-18-26) and faith comes before the blessing. So, we have faith to act; we know cause were doing it; but how do we do more?
We decided that we were doing some things, just cause we knew we should; we knew it would be hard, but thought we just have to do it. Like-- talking to everyone. One of the hardest things about missionary work, because we put ourselves out there for people. Some people are nice; most aren't interested, but, there are a few who are hard to deal with; for real. They'll say anything, to put you down and make you go away. And because of those few experiences, it always plays on you, holds you back sometimes....Just yesterday, I was in church....... and I heard Elder Pearson say:
"We need the faith to act and we need the faith to succeed."
which made me think "ya-- they are different,huh." It turns out, life is what you make it. Ya, thats right, that little, dinky, fortune cookie was right. YOU choose how this plays out. YOU make and call the shots. If each and every day is a gift don't send it back unwrapped, thats dumb. Use it, experience it, let it take you new places......Dont let past experiences weigh you down. Why? because yes, our faith is in the past and ya its now in the present but it has been and always be pointing forward, to the future. Remember, "BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD!" and great things are to be had by all, saith the clause of santa."
His letter went on......but I really could hear him, hear what he was sharing, and it is true. I know they've had a tuff go this past while...He doesn't say too much...a few weeks ago he said it was hot.....it's been average temperature in the 40c/105f +......they are walking every day, everywhere in the sun.....like missionaries do. I don't like to hear that people are unkind....but we read about it every day. There are missionaries every day, all over the world experiencing the best and worst of humanity, face to face and door to door.
I see from what he shared with us the words of Nephi 1:20, when he said:
I loved this weeks message from Elder Cocker....he talked about a concept that rings true with all of us from time to time. "Don't get caught in the thick of thin things". He shared some of those same feelings ( in a secular sense) with us when he returned from his time in Papua New Guinea before his mission. He saw the world through different spectacles, humanitarian, versus the worlds capitalist agenda.
(spending some time with village children Papua New Guinea)
His letter was like that this week, with a deeply spiritual resolve, that experience and trials teach. He said,
"This week has been swagalicious and today I've got something good for everyone. A simple and sometimes overlooked little phrase. "Dont sweat the small stuff" or "Its all good, no need to trip" or "Dont get caught in the thick of the thin things". If your sitting there reading this and saying, "ya. ya. I know", then congrats, guess what? Things are probably going well for you right now! But, we all know when things suck, its tuff to see past it, so, if you can't use this now keep it and remember it; use it later, cause I know this will help.
My comp and I this week, we realized that, we go through the motions, a lot, and we wondered 'why?'. We talk about faith a lot, with everyone and the scriptures teach us that faith and action must be together or faith is dead(James 2:17-18-26) and faith comes before the blessing. So, we have faith to act; we know cause were doing it; but how do we do more?
We decided that we were doing some things, just cause we knew we should; we knew it would be hard, but thought we just have to do it. Like-- talking to everyone. One of the hardest things about missionary work, because we put ourselves out there for people. Some people are nice; most aren't interested, but, there are a few who are hard to deal with; for real. They'll say anything, to put you down and make you go away. And because of those few experiences, it always plays on you, holds you back sometimes....Just yesterday, I was in church....... and I heard Elder Pearson say:
"We need the faith to act and we need the faith to succeed."
which made me think "ya-- they are different,huh." It turns out, life is what you make it. Ya, thats right, that little, dinky, fortune cookie was right. YOU choose how this plays out. YOU make and call the shots. If each and every day is a gift don't send it back unwrapped, thats dumb. Use it, experience it, let it take you new places......Dont let past experiences weigh you down. Why? because yes, our faith is in the past and ya its now in the present but it has been and always be pointing forward, to the future. Remember, "BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD!" and great things are to be had by all, saith the clause of santa."
His letter went on......but I really could hear him, hear what he was sharing, and it is true. I know they've had a tuff go this past while...He doesn't say too much...a few weeks ago he said it was hot.....it's been average temperature in the 40c/105f +......they are walking every day, everywhere in the sun.....like missionaries do. I don't like to hear that people are unkind....but we read about it every day. There are missionaries every day, all over the world experiencing the best and worst of humanity, face to face and door to door.
I see from what he shared with us the words of Nephi 1:20, when he said:
“But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”
I see Elder Cocker and his companion Elder Larsen, being delivered out of the hands, of apathy. Out of the pitfalls of mediocrity, self absorbtion or self pity. I see the windows of heaven open up to them and their hearts and minds expanded with a willingness to grow.
It makes me want to try harder, be better, do a little more, be a better contributor. Stop being tired.
Oh, the commitment for the week he left us with (his sister shared this one with some of her friends):
"Commitment: When things try to get you down, punch that crap in the face and say "get off me child's play, cause that ain't happenin' today, mister jackson." A.K.A. Don't blame your circumstances for feeling bad, we are all better than that. Have faith that it will get better and keep going. Swim on you beautiful gold fish.......... swim on."
("If its 41degrees and and you ain't got no car and have to walk all day-- your face should look like this. why? cause that dont phase us dude") #YOSO
**again......i needed a translation for the 'generational' acronyms.
YOSO= You Only Serve Once.
To that I say.................................
'Kia Kaha!" (Maori--Be strong!) ; "Tsol-haw!" (Kiowa--That's the way!)
