I have a son serving a mission in Taiwan. It’s been a long time since I have seen him–21 months. In my weekly email about the family, I shared with him our volunteer work at the cannery, even sent him some photos to keep him up to date.

My missionary son’s reply–

Volunteer work eh? Hyrum and Arleene fit the part so well in the pictures I’m starting to think that the whole family just wrote it off and decided to work at a factory together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… In all honesty that is great.

I also had a charitable moment this week and donated money to a man in need.
Actually, I didn’t know I had donated the money until I checked my wallet the next morning and found that all my money was gone.

A few nights ago somebody broke into our apartment and rummaged through our wallets (I say broke in, but up until now we never locked our apartment door.) Thankfully, he/she/it left my credit cards and a few other items (such as my new drivers license…Elder Oldham would’ve died if that were stolen and he had to drive us everywhere.)

Instead of ‘freaking out,’ I merely asked myself the question that Preach My Gospel provides us in Chapter 2: Effective Study:

“How should I change as a result of what I have learned?”

Because I was burglarized, I now will:(1) lock the door to my home
(2) keep my wallet in a secure place
(3) keep my money separate

During my mission I have started to realize that 80% of learning does not occur while reading a book or sitting in a lecture. Though the question mentioned above was in regards to scripture study, I think it has even greater application to learning experiences.
“While we are in mortality, we have experiences that bring us happiness. We also have experiences that bring us pain and sorrow, some of which is caused by the sinful acts of others (hehe). These experiences provide us opportunities to learn and to grow, to distinguish good from evil, and to make choices.” (Preach My Gospel p. 50)
As a result of my mission, I have become less prone to getting angry or upset, complaining, and panicking in stressful situations.