I had a difficult mission. I went to Finland, so the langauge seemed impossible. I missed my family--ok, I was homesick. I didn't experience any baptisms. And early on, my mission president explained to me that for my misison I would work only with companions who had had difficulties with other companions or with their lives.
For much of my mission, I just didn't feel I was making any progress with the language, with my companions, or with the work. However, I loved and trusted my mission president, Robert G. Wade. He was called to be a president while in his early thirties, and he was powerful, kind, and loving. I remember one particular interview in which I poured out my concerns and frustrations with my inadequacies--I felt I was falling short in every possible area. President Wade came to my side, knelt next to me, put his arms around me and said, "Veli, if you could see yourself as I see you, as your parents see you, and as your Heavenly Father sees you, you would see tremendous growth and progress."
Even then I wished I could see in me what President Wade saw in me, but I started to learn, that my own self-perceptions can sometimes be limiting. More in life since then, I have found the need to see myself more clearly.
I'm afraid many of us don't see ourselves clearly, especially in terms of our own discipleship and leadership. We often see better in others than we see ourselves. A purpose of this blog is to help us examine more closely our own developing discipleship and leadership capabilities--we have them, and we're working on them.
