18 Month Mark

Hello family!

Today I complete 18 Months in the mission field. 18 months ago, right now, I was headed to the MTC. 6 months from now, I will be on a flight home. Come to find out, President wants to send us home just on the wednesday before Thanksgiving, in other words, the day before thanksgiving, i.e. the most travelled day of the year. I don't know if he'll get that approved by missionary travel, but we'll see. And if he does, schedule an appointment with the stake president so that I can get off the plane, go have my interview with him and get released, and then go home. I wanna be able to hug everyone and feel like me when I see everybody again lol.

This past week has been interesting. I've come a lot closer to God and I feel that He has been helping me to better myself. He has taught me many things. Something that another Elder said that really touched me was, "If you knew who you were before this life, it would scare you." I think about who we were in the war in heaven and the roles we played. Those of us here in this world today were leaders in the life before. How can we do less than reach our true potencial? God expects it of us. As with anything that He expects of us, He provides a way for us to reach said potencial. My mission president sent me a great quote today, he said, "God wants us to be stronger than we are - more fixed in our purpose, more certain of our commitments, eventually, needing less coddling from Him, showing more willingess to shoulder some of the burden of His heavy load. In short, He wants us to be more like He is and, if you haven't noticed, some of us are not like that yet." - Jeffrey R. Holland. I really enjoyed that quote. He chastens us to be better and man up. I know that it's something that I could work on, as could all of us. We each need to shoulder the burden of the Lord. Every disciple is expected to bear his cross with gladness, for the yolk of the Lord is easy, and his burden is light. If we have hope, faith and charity, together with a habit of abounding always in good works, the Lord will provide us with a way to support all of the loads we must carry. As we attend the House of the Lord and worship Him in His holy temples, we come closer to him and grasp a true sense of our "duty to God".

I've been thinking a lot about the future, and I must say I'm excited. I enjoy the mission field and am loath to leave behind the calling and authority of the mission. I do, however, know that God has prepared for me more blessings, dependent upon how I use the time that I am given here, and how much I persist to be better when I leave. I know that life is progress, and in each stage thereof we need to progress to the limit of our potencial so that God can give us that extra boost that turns us from all that we are to all that we could be.

I've gotta go now. I love you all very much.

Love,

Elder J.

P.S. In missionary lingo, I'm now officially dying. Haha