It Only Needed to Be One

Hello wonderful and beautiful children of God!

So... I've been doing a lot of thinking this week. I usually do quite a bit of thinking, I think, but this week I wanted to share a few of my thoughts.

First of all, some of you may be familiar with the phrase, "The Best Two Years". Now for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, missionaries serve for a period of a year and a half to two years, and there was a movie produced a few years back with that title all about Mormon missionaries. It followed their ups and downs and experiences as a missionary. And it is a pretty accurate movie. Although, I haven't seen it a very long while, so I can't be terribly sure. Anywho, I have heard this phrase repeated again and again on my mission, by missionaries. That this is the best two years, that here on a mission, is where you will have the most spiritual experiences in your life. That it ends after those two years. That you go home, and you've "done your time". I would like to take a moment and express my feelings on the subject. Quickly, and briefly:

This is NOT the best two years (or year and a half) of your life. If it is, you did it WRONG. Absolutely wrong.
Tell me it doesn't get better AFTER your mission. Tell me you don't have deeper and more powerful spiritual experiences when you get home. Tell that to... oh I don't know.... tell that to ELDER HOLLAND. (For reference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is a member of our church who served a mission that he absolutely loved and is now one of the 12 apostles.) For Pete's sake people, use your heads.
Sorry. Can you tell that this is something that I feel passionate about? A mission should prepare, instruct, enlighten, assist. It should be a springboard to your spirituality and to everything else. That is why it is so wonderful. But it is not, and should not be, the BEST. Yepp.

And another thought:
I've been thinking about the power of a single individual. I have been contemplating what a single person can accomplish. How they can influence, inspire, and literally change their circumstances, their surroundings, and the lives of all those that they have met. Think, for a moment, about someone who has changed you for the better. It may be your mother or father, it may be your friends' older sister that you always admired and looked up to. It may be a favorite athlete who stood up for the right and held their ground. It may be that person that can change the feeling of any room they walk into. That person you use as a model. You know, that person that you think about when you're not sure how to act. "How would so-and-so act in this situation?" "What would they say or do?" Think about the impact one person can have on you and countless others.
Think about the power of one. And now think about Jesus Christ. It only needed to be one. It only needs to be one. One person to change everyone and everything.
As you think about this. Think about the impact that YOU can have as that one person in YOUR sphere of influence. YOU can be someone's mentor, the person they think about whenever times are rough. And YOU can be a more powerful version of you when you model YOUR actions after Him, after Jesus Christ.
Hopefully that made sense. It does in my head.

"19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."
-2 Nephi 31:19-20

I love you all. This week, be the best version of you.

Sister Szilagyi