Esperar- To wait

There's something funny about the word Esperar in Spanish. I've known it for a while, but I have just barely realized that the Spanish verb esperar has two meanings in English. The first one, as the subject states is to wait. The second meaning of esperar is to hope. I don't know if it is a coincidence or not but I think there is some insight to be drawn from it.

Many times I think that these two words come hand in hand, or at least they need to. Hope without waiting a little will yield little good. What I'm trying to say is that to have hope it necessary to wait. I have two examples of this principle from experiences this week. This Saturday the sisters had the baptism of woman named Dawn. Now the time for Dawn's baptism has been rescheduled about five or six time over the past couple weeks. Finally she was baptized two days ago, but what would have happened if the sisters would not have waited and given up that hope for her to be baptized. Well, two weeks ago the baptism would not have been rescheduled, Dawn would not be coming to church, and Dawn would not have made a covenant with God.

Experience number two. This Sunday I drove out with Elder Shurtleff (the senior Elder) to attempt to pick up the people we had invited to church and needed rides. We pulled up to the house of a part member family. Two siblings are members and two are not. I knocked on the door, no answer. Knocked a second time, nothing. Before the third time I said a little prayer that somebody would answer because I knew these people needed to go to church! Third time, the ten year old nonmember answers the door. I ask him if he's ready for church, he says give him a second. Anyways long story short we ended up having to wait for about 5-10 minutes for this kid another member of the family to get ready for church. The other one was a 15 year old less active who hasn't been to church for probably 4-5 months. After church probably almost every member exclaimed how happy they were to see him at church again. But what would have happened if we had not waited for them to answer the third time, or not waited for them to get ready? Just given up hope from the get go. What would have happened if the branch would have stopped waiting for him to come back to church and just accepted his inactivity?

Hope is the essence of life, therefore a little waiting is required once in a while.

There is song called "His Eye is On the Sparrow" by Page CXVI (great song, I encourage everyone to listen to it). There is a lyric that states: "Don't lose your hope, to doubt and fears." Don't do it! Always hope! Even if you have to wait a little always hope!

So I conclude, without hope, we are nothing. We need to wait once in a while. Hope without a little waiting means nothing. So don't lose your hope, and always be waiting for something good. Have a great week,

Sincerely,

Elder C. Waldron