....Poopy.  Plain poopy.  It all started out with one step.  One small step for (Ku)men, and lots of giant leaps afterward.  I happened to be walking down the road with a smile on my face, head turned, talking with my companion when I brought my foot down in the center of a huge pile of brown mud. Mud that really stank.  

I looked at the bottom of my shoe and only one that passed through my mind...`It doesn´t look like mud...it doesn´t smell like mud...IT´S NOT MUD!`  My companion began to crack up.  Immediately, I began leaping and kicking the curb to clean up the mess.  Finding a nearby patch of grass, I hurried over and commenced dragging my foot back and forth to resolve the situation.  Looking up at the other Elder, I saw them almost crying with laughter.  I stopped for a minute, then looked around me.  It turned out that I had been cleaning my shoe on the grass in front of a statue of Maria in close to the Catholic Church.  Furthermore, an older Catholic lady stood not 10 feet away with wide eyes, a pale expression, and the look of a person about to faint.  Stifling my laughter, I expressed my apologies and headed off with the rest of the missionaries.  

So it comes to this...when we have days that are just plain poopy (literally speaking included) do `we shake it off, shake it off` and smile and bring out the best of things.  For, after all, `at the end of the day it´s another day over` and we can´t go back in time to get it back.  Are we the ones that when `lost and alone and sinkin` like a stone, carry on` or just stay in our sad circumstances?  Many times in my mission I´ve sang the song, `I get knocked down, BUT I GET UP AGAIN, no NOTHING`S ever going to keep me down` to lift up my spirits and the spirits of my companion in bad weather, when an appointment falls, or something frustrating happens. I can promise each and every one of you that it makes a difference.  My investigators, companions, and random people in the street have seen this.  It makes a huge difference, for after all `men are that they might have joy`(2 Nephi 2:25)!

Elder Johnson