Week 5: I Need The Every Hour

 Being doubled into my very first area is hard. I don't have a clue what I am doing 95% of the time and the rest is just a struggle. The thing that frustrates me most is words, not always knowing what it is I need to say to help people. I love words, I decided to major in English primarily because I LOVE words. I love putting sentences together in my brain and the feel of a well-formed sentence coming out of my mouth. But now I don't always know what to say, in fact I rarely know what to say, and that's a huge setback for me.

     Sister Bird and I still don't really have investigators, so we knock doors... all day... every day. And that is about the most discouraging thing there could ever be in this world. Lincoln is a super small area and with two sets of missionaries, every house gets knocked all the time, people don't really like that, so we get doors in our faces and cruel words hurled at us constantly.

     On Wednesday, the stress was mounting and Sister Bird and I were trying to decide on a place to knock that hadn't been knocked on in a while. At one of the most frustrating moments, we got a text, from Bro Mac (Brother MacDonald, a member of our bishopric) asking Elder Jocelyn, Elder Pipe, Sister Bird and I to sing in sacrament meeting the upcoming Sunday. That didn't exactly alleviate any of the incredible stress we were all under. So we talked with the Elders and decided to each come up with a list of songs and decide based on that. Comparing our two lists, we came up with "Be Still My Soul," or "I Need Thee Every Hour." After practicing "Be Still My Soul," we dropped that idea entirely, there was no amount of work that could make us singing that sound acceptable! So we were left with "I Need Thee Every Hour," after quite a bit of practice, we made it sound decent. Unfortunately, our pianist split his head open and couldn't play for us. So last minute on Saturday we called a Sister in our ward, who wound up being a vocal coach, and who found us an awesome arrangement.

   Giving missionaries the arrangement 20 hours in advance is an adventure, but we actually made it sound like we had had at least... 3 days of practice on it! Anyways, long roundabout story, but there is a purpose to it! As we sang in church a realization hit me. Here are the words so you can get what I mean:

1. I need thee ev'ry hour,

Most gracious Lord.

No tender voice like thine

Can peace afford.

(Chorus)

I need thee, oh, I need thee;

Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior;

I come to thee!

2. I need thee ev'ry hour;

Stay thou nearby.

Temptations lose their pow'r

When thou art nigh.

3. I need thee ev'ry hour,

In joy or pain.

Come quickly and abide,

Or life is vain.

4. I need thee ev'ry hour,

Most holy One.

Oh, make me thine indeed,

Thou blessed Son!

     As disciples of Jesus Christ we need him, every hour of every single day. There is no way on earth we can do this without His help and His guidance. I came to a kind of rude awakening to that fact as we sang in sacrament. As a messenger of Christ I am not only entitled to His help, but I cannot do it without Him. I am a very independent person, I like to do things myself so I can have the satisfaction of accomplishment. But I am not a missionary for myself, I am a missionary for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and I cannot do His work without relying solely on Him who is mighty to save. I know that the Savior can help every one of us in our personal struggles, as He has helped me, dragged me and carried me through mine. Christ will never leave you comfortless and He will NEVER leave you alone. I bear testimony of Him, to every person I meet and to every person who read this letter. I know that my Redeemer Lives. That He appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 and that He restored the fullness of the gospel. I know this is true, and if you aren't sure, if you don't have your own witness and testimony, you can always lean on mine. Christ loves you! I love you!

All my love to you,

Sister Megan Monson

(Check out the mission blog posts from July 12 and July 21, 2016 for more pics of Sister Monson)