This week in sacrament meeting, I had a really special spiritual experience. I guess I should explain a little. Every missionary in the entire mission has my cell phone number. They aren`t allowed to call, but they do it anyway so that they can get their questions answered when we are not in the office. It's really annoying. Sometimes I take the battery out because I get five calls in a row from people who shouldn´t be calling at all.
So the other day, an Elder from Colombia called me and asked me for the number of the office. That's slightly annoying because everyone else in his zone has the number, and he is allowed to call them, but instead he called me. I gave him the number and he hung up. Five seconds later he called again. He had written it down wrong. I gave it to him. He hung up. The phone of the elder standing next to me rang. It was the same guy. He wants the office number. The elder with me gave him the exact number that I did. It was really frustrating at that point. A few days later the phone rang again. It was the same elder, asking for the same number. I lost my patience a little bit and told him to write it down this time. His response was very profound: "Please have patience with me."
When I was in sacrament meeting, I was thinking of all of the things that I fail to accomplish. I found myself asking forgiveness as I took the bread and water, and immediately that phrase came to my mind. "Please have patience with me." How often do I have to ask forgiveness for the exact same things? The whole experience was very humbling and opened my eyes a lot.
