Just a little background. I met Mike a little over a year ago as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was introduced to the gospel and us by his girlfriend, soon to be fiancé. They were both in the Disney College Program. The whole time that they were in the program I had the chance to teach them. It was over a 6 month period of time. Mike had is ups and downs in searching for the truth, but I can remember the night he had decided to really change. It was at the beginning of December. We were in chapel right before church. We invited him to be baptized on January 1, 2012. He accept the invitation, but he gave us the disclaimer if he was ready. When he said yes I saw something in him I hadn't seen before, commitment. From that day he read and prayed and got his answer from God. Mike is a very inspiring person to me and hopefully you will be able to see his growth since that day as a member of the church and as a leader to others, including me.
Mike is a very inspiring and loving person. In the interview he proved why he is a leader to me and to others. One thing stood out to me right from the beginning; the word happiness. That was something that he brought up in the first few minutes of speaking. Mike defined true happiness as being in the right place. At first I thought of it in the physical sense, which it can be, but he meant more of heading in the right direction. He said, “...even when times are hard you have Heavenly Father on your side.” If you are heading in the right direction it doesn’t always mean it will be easy, but that peace allows one to be happy. Mike through his words showed understanding that happiness isn’t a onetime thing or even instantaneous, but that it is something that comes as in knowing we are doing what is right. Later in the interview Mike said on service, “If somebody had someone that loved them, they would be happier” I believe his ability to seek happiness allows him to be a great servant leader. He understands the simple truth that it isn’t about personal gain. Mike loves his former calling as ward missionary and current calling as first counselor in the elders quorum, because it gives him the opportunity to share with others what has made him happy. His love for others and the gospel builds a trust. They want to be around him and want what he has. That sounds like a good leader to me.
These are the things that I observed and heard from Mike. What I learned, at this time of my life, is the need to reach out. Recently coming home from a mission I just wanted to do everything! After a month or two of that, it has become very burdensome. With the many things and little time it becomes easy to become stressed and start to focus on myself. That doesn’t bring the happiness that Mike described. He described we should just love someone to make them happy. Happiness isn’t in trying to do it all. Looking a little more into what I learned from Mike he stated that his happiness comes from knowing that he is going in the right direction. Coming home has been hard trying to fit in or know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t want to fit in with the “in crowd” or just got back to who I was. I am a new person. I know the gospel brings happiness and I’m trying to apply that in my personal living. It’s time to live what I preached for two years. It makes me wonder if I have the faith like some of the people I taught, Mike for example. I know that it will work out. I know that a lot of my confusion and lack of direction will start to become clearer as I reach out to help someone else. I started by trying to do this last week by committing to meet five people. I met Jeremy, Chloe, Liz, Russell, and Kimberly . That was in my first day. This week to reach out more I will take our TA Rebekah’s challenge to write down when people show service leadership and when I do something to be a service leader. I will commit to have 3 of each by the next post.
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