Perseverance

Dear Grandchildren,

I have decided to talk about the characteristic of "perseverance". Most of my younger grandchildren won't really know the meaning of this word so Grandpa Randall is going to share with you his version of what it means.

Perseverance is:  

"To put in the effort required to do something and then to keep doing it till the end, even if it's hard."

It means that you have to be determined to finish what you started. You need a strong desire to use all your mind and energy to get it done.

Here are some of the characteristics of perseverance and some of the circumstances surrounding it that I want to focus on.

• Make sure you are focusing your efforts, making goals and commitments on things of real value - to you and to others.
• Carefully consider what you want to focus your efforts on. You can spend a lot of time on things that are of no value to you or someone else. (apps on your phone that don't give you anything of real value would be one of them...)
• Service to family and others is a very good goal and at times needs to be time-managed.
• Other people may want you to do something that is going to require real effort. Sometimes you don't have a choice (family issue - clean your room). However, most times, and especially as you grow older, you will most always be able to choose what you want to do. Choose wisely.
• When you make a promise you persevere to keep that promise.
• One of Grandpa's motto's in life is to try very hard to not make a promise unless you plan on keeping it.
• Once you make that promise, you need to persevere to keep that promise. This speaks to how much integrity you have. If you are always making promises, and not keeping them, your integrity decreases.
• Anything of real value to you or others will take real focus and real effort.
• If you want to be a person of integrity, you will need to be patient.
• If you want good health, you will need to eat healthy and exercise.
• If you want to have friends, you will need to be a good friend first.
• If you want to be a successful professional, you will need to study hard and pay the price to get educated in the thing you want a profession in.
• If you want to be a good pianist, you will need to practice daily.
• Obstacles will "always" be in the way of you reaching your goals.
• This is a true statement. Figuring out how to get around, go over, go under, or break right through an obstacle, will need some attention. (Grandpa often uses prayer to figure this out :))
• There is a phrase that people will sometimes refer to when things are hard. 
• "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!" I like this phrase, but I always tell myself that "I have always been going, I just need to keep going and I will be tougher."
• Anticipate obstacles so you won't be surprised when they happen. You probably won't know what the obstacles will be, but they will come.
• Have a good attitude towards figuring out how you are going to handle the next obstacle. I believe that always having a good attitude is one of the most important components of being able to successfully persevere. Having a good attitude is also extremely important when it comes to how you approach getting past those obstacles.
• Sacrifice of something good for something better is necessary in perseverance.
• Perseverance normally includes some type of sacrifice to get to the end of your goal, commitment, or promise. For example, you may need to give up some sleep in order to exercise.
• Be wise when you sacrifice. Take the time to understand what this sacrifice means to you before you do it. That will help you when times are tough and you can remember why you made the sacrifice you did.
• Don't rationalize quitting.
• We often find reasons to stop our pursuit of our originally, well thought out goal, commitment, or promise. Some of these reasons may be really good too. Ask yourself, is stopping your original commitment really the right thing to do?
• You will need to review the "Obstacles" part of my viewpoint to figure this out for yourself.
• Perseverance is normally the anti-quitting effort.
• You have to run the whole race to win the prize.
• When you start something, finish it.
• You want to be known as someone who will finish the race. This means that no matter what happens, you will finish the work, and do it as best you can.
• You can't win a race you stopped running in.
• Every race you run has a prize.

Examples of Perseverance (I decided this time to just use my own personal examples. I found it too difficult to share the personal feelings of others for this characteristic.)

My 2-Year Mission to Japan

One of the hardest things I have ever done is to serve a mission for my Church. Even as I write this in February of 2025, I still believe it to be the case. I also believe my mission experience helped change and improve my outlook on life more than any other experience.

Mission preparation back in the mid 1970's for missionaries was a whole lot different than it is today. There was no organized method of preparing you to serve a mission, you just went.

I was assigned to the Fukuoka Japan Mission. Japanese was very hard for me to learn and the food, especially rice and fish, was something I didn't like. I was not very learned in my understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ even though I was taught it regularly by my parents, church leaders, and seminary teachers.

While in the MTC (Mission Training Center), I seemed to always be one of the last ones to understand Japanese, figure out how to memorize the lessons and scriptures, and the last to finish our school-type work at the end of each day. After arriving in Japan, I had some difficult situations with my missionary companions towards the first of my mission that didn't help my attitude. I just felt like I wasn't contributing, or even had the skills and ability to do so. I am sure I was part of the difficult situations in my relationships with my companions, for various reasons. Nevertheless, I continued to study and memorize the Japanese language, memorize how to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in Japanese, and eat the food there. I was doing all of this while not knowing anyone and being thousands of miles away from home and family (where I was much more comfortable.)

After about one year of studying, eating, and daily going out preaching a gospel message that most of the Japanese people didn't even want to hear about, a change occurred. My next transfer was to the mission home where they had me be what they called the "Commissarian". The Commissarian's job in the mission was to help organize and do things for other missionaries who were out away from the mission home like I had been. I ordered supplies and typed up newsletters. I had name tags made and I mailed copies of the Book of Mormon to missionaries, etc.. I was also put in with missionaries who were good and faithful people and who knew how to persevere. This change in assignment and location brought about many small and large changes in me. I began to think differently about my mission efforts, about who I was, about what I could do, and about what I could become. I left the mission home 4 months later as a different person. I had a great final 8 months on my mission. I was able to speak Japanese rather fluently (or so I thought). I liked most all of the Japanese food, especially rice, (but not raw fish). I loved the Japanese people even more, and I more fully understood the gospel of Jesus Christ, and realized that I could learn more than I thought.

I came back a much better person because I had to work through quite a few different parts of my character. I learned that for me, I had to get up a lot earlier than others so I could spend time studying and learning. Since my mission I have arisen early because I know there are important things in my daily life that if I don't do them, they won't get done. My mission was not easy at all, but because I persevered when it was difficult, I was rewarded with what I needed in life. I even learned how to do math so much better than I did in high school :).

Elder Bruce Randall - 10-13-1977 (Joe Dunning on my right, and David Grayson's chopsticks)

My Accounting/Marketing Job Interview Experience

About a year after Grammy and I were newly married we moved up so I could go to Idaho State University (ISU)and finish college there. We didn't have a lot of money and this was the best move for us. Of course, neither of us had a job to go to, so we needed money to live.

Grammy's Dad (your Great Grandpa Chambers) got me an interview for an internship with Osco Drug. I had never heard of them. I had just changed my major to Accounting, so I figured Grammy's Dad knew that, and I went into the interview assuming I was trying to get an accounting internship. Really, I needed to earn money as quickly as possible to pay for our rent and food.

During the interview I focused on how I was really good with numbers and that I had helped my Dad a bit with the accounting for a client of his. About halfway through the interview they said this was a marketing internship and they were looking for someone that was interested in marketing.

Without skipping a beat (like in heartbeat) I switched my focus into how great a marketing and sales person I was. (I needed that job, and this was my only opportunity at the time, or so I thought.)  We finished up our interview. I didn't think I had done very well because of the big difference in the first half of the interview and the second half. But guess what, they called me shortly afterwards and I got the marketing internship with Osco Drug. They said they were looking for someone who could adapt and "figure things out quickly", and that my changing my area of focus from accounting to marketing so quickly convinced them I would be a good fit for their type of internship.

Not all perseverance takes a big long effort. We may only need to persevere for only a small moment. I could have easily just stopped talking about accounting during that interview and said "Sorry, I didn't know that." and left the interview with no job. I persevered in that brief moment and it paid off big time. That 3 month internship was the main reason I got my full time job as the asst. manager at Super-Save Drug while I went to college full time at ISU. I finished my college degree at ISU in Business Management and Organization.

Grammy and I in one of our wedding announcement photos. Isn't Grammy beautiful!

Living Life

Sometimes we think it is hard to live life. We get down on ourselves too much, I think. I know I have been hard on myself, and others, during my life. However, the older I get, the more I can tell how persevering in living life is extremely important.

Each of you grandchildren are important to me and to Grammy. Each of our children (and if they are married - this includes their spouses) are important to us. Living life includes ups and downs, and as I explained above - there will always be obstacles in gaining things of value. Living a good life is of extreme importance to me and I hope you know it is of extreme importance to you.

I persevere in living life. Here are just a few pictures over the years that reflect the happy times and the hard times in my life. When and if you have a bad day, think of the good in life.

Lacey and Me

Grammy, Jenny, and Me

Me and Jason

Matt, Nick, and Me

Grammy in a happy place

Me and Ganbatte Sign

I thought I would finish up with this picture of me just after I arrived home from my mission to Japan. That sign I am holding was given to me by a member of the Church who was a friend. The word written in Japanese Hiragana is "ganbatte". Ganbatte means "hang in there". I thought it would be appropriate to show this as my last picture. I try hard to live my life each day with good intents with a long-term perspective of a better life now and eternally. Ganbatte!