My Last Missionary Blog...

From when I first started my mission

     As I look back on the past couple years, it seems to have flown by like it was nothing, and yet has felt like being able to be here sharing the gospel for the past lifetime.  One thing that is comforting, is knowing with how much I have learned here, is that you don’t have to have the tag on to do missionary work and to share the gospel with so many of those around us each day. It has been of the greatest blessings to be here, and getting to especially do the work in a way never done before.  I don’t know many missionaries who have had the blessings who have had the blessing to reach those of our Heavenly Father’s children on every continent (minus Antarctica of course haha).  I understand a lot more now after these 2 years, of what

Alma meant when he shared his desire that “oh that I were an angel” and having the voice of a trump (haha most people know I’m not too quiet) and being able to reach all the ends of the earth in sharing the glorious message of the gospel and of our Savior Jesus Christ.  When I first was called here to the Referral Center, I didn’t quite understand at all what God had in store for me, or of His plans; and not that I completely know now, but I can see so well looking back how all that He has blessed with me (the good and the trials) to bring me to serve in this capacity and vast blessing, and to where He will continue to lead me in life. 

      One of the things that has also grown a lot, is my love for the scriptures, and the amount of study I have been able to put into them.  Nephi knew what he was telling when he said of that we need to not endure to the end alone, but to feast upon the word of God, in the very literal blessing we are given with scriptures.  My own testimony for the love that God has for us has deepened exponentially through all that He has not only taught throughout history but also through the revelation and teachings He has given in our day. He always is there to lift and encourage, and is ever vigilant, even in those times where we may in ways feels solitary and alone.  That He never gives up on us, yet continually desires for us to find the joy that He wishes so much for us, and the blessings that He has in store for here in life and after this life.  And The Book of Mormon is one of the most powerful tools that God has given for us to be able to use in the days in which we live, and most importantly to be able to learn for ourselves of truth from God.  My mission President’s wife, Sister Allen, tells often of after the first vision, Joseph Smith went home and as he was there by the fire talking to his mother, he told of 5 words that are of the most powerful in this dispensation, that is as well available to each of us; that “I now know for myself”.  The Book of Mormon is a literal fruit that God has brought forth, through His infinite understanding, will, and perfect plan, to help us to know for ourselves, just as Joseph, that Christ’s church has been truly restored to the earth, through a living prophet.  That this is Christ’s gospel fully restored, and His Kingdom firmly standing, led by His loving hand, by His chosen and called prophets apostles and leaders.  As I have been here I have read the Book of Mormon time and time again, and I can tell you with absolute resolution, that I know, by every piece of my being, that the Book of Mormon is of God; given through revelation by His love and helping not only His children anciently, but destined ever greatly for our day, of how we can now know for ourselves.

Near the end of my mission

      What a great comfort and power it is for us to know and feel for ourselves that God is not some unknowable force, somewhere in space, clouds, or what have you, but that He is a literal being Whom divinely led the creation of this world, and not simply because He could, was bored, or wanted to try something out which He expected to fail or anything of the sort, but for us to come to and live.  That our Heavenly Father wants the most for us and has created a perfect plan in which to bring those desires to fruition and for us, His children, to come to.  There is a person who has recently received the desire to learn more about Him, and of how He has restored the fullness of the gospel.  As we shared with her the very fundamental fact that God is our Heavenly Father, and loves and knows each of us individually, she was confused of that and how to know that.  The way we can know that is through prayer, in seeking and asking Him, what better source could be given.  And as she did, she felt so fully that comfort and peace of the Spirit, and then the indescribable comfort of love that comes from our very Father in Heaven. It is never enough for a person to go by the hearsay, or to take only the word of another, in a sense, to ride along the conviction of others (which is often a great way to start and plant that seed of faith for oneself); but the only way you can come to know for yourself, is to pray, and ask God. That is what it always will come down to.