When Life Throws You A Curve Ball

Or rather, when President Taylor throws you a curve ball. Transfer day was today. Transfers are six week periods where we work with our companion in certain areas. After six weeks we can get a new companion or be moved to another area within our mission. On Friday I received a letter saying that I would be transferred to the Portland Heights Ward as an ASL missionary. Basically, I stared at my transfer letter in disbelief. I was not originally called as an ASL missionary. When I went to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) I was trained to teach in English. I haven't used ASL since early December. That may not seem like that long of a time, but it really is. Languages aren't exactly like riding a bike. At least not for me. I've been having to figure out how I'm going to do this. How am I going to teach people in a language I don't normally speak? How am I going to communicate? How am I going to not be a burden to my companion and a waste of a missionary?
Here's what I'm coming to see out here on my mission. With Christ we can do all things. It's as simple as that. That doesn't mean that all things will just come easy to us. It means that as we work hard and with faith, Christ can help us overcome our challenges. He can help us knock those curve balls out of the park. In the Book of Mormon there's a man named Nephi. Nephi has just left Jerusalem with his family to avoid being taken captive. The Lord has just commanded Nephi to build this ship to carry his family out of the land. Now, building ships is not something Nephi has ever done. The amazing thing is, he simply asks the Lord how he can do it. He has so much faith in the Lord that he knows that if the Lord wants it done he will provide a way.

If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.
And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?
1 Nephi 17:50-51

Nephi had the faith that all things can be done with the help of our Heavenly Father. I know that if we have that faith in our life, if we ask for the help from our Father in Heaven, we too can do all things. We can do things we didn't even imagine possible. I'm excited for this new adventure. I know that it's going to challenge me and stretch me, but I know that with the Lord on my side I will never fail.