It’s pretty incredible how focusing on others almost entirely for two years helped me to find myself and who I really am.

Well this is the last one. I can’t believe this day is here. Words can’t accurately describe the changes I’ve been through, experiences I’ve had and how much I love the people here but I’ll try my best. Looking back at the beginning of my mission I was a person who was very focused on myself and making myself happy. I thought I was happy but looking back I felt a lot of emptiness in my life. Two years later a lot has changed. I’m still very much the same person as before my mission in a lot of ways but I have changed so much. It’s pretty incredible how focusing on others almost entirely for two years helped me to find myself and who I really am. My relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is so much stronger and I have so much confidence in them. I know they help me to overcome my weaknesses and flaws. I’m so thankful that Jesus Christ loves me enough to let me be a part of His work despite all my many struggles. I can’t begin to explain how thankful I am and how much I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. Without Him I am nothing. I’m so thankful fo the chance I had to serve in all 6 of the different areas I served in and with the 11 different companions that I had. I’ve learned so much from all of them and from all the amazing people I’ve been blessed to work with and get to know. To wrap up I just want to end with my testimony. I know that we all have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and is aware of us and our needs. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and through Him we can overcome any weaknesses we have or pain we are experiencing. I know that both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and we still have prophets on the earth today. I know through the Atonement of Christ our families can be together forever. I don’t know much but I do know that. Thanks for all of your prayers, emails, letters and support in all aspects over the last two years. I’m excited to start the next chapter in my life and to see where my relationship with Christ goes. Love you and can’t wait to see you all soon!

We were all sent here at this specific time to be a part of each other’s life’s for specific reasons and I think that is so cool.

Well my last week of my mission is here. Sometimes it is really hard to believe but other times I can really feel my window of time closing. This week was a very interesting week. I was able to visit a lot of people I’ve worked with in the past and say goodbye and it meant so much to me to hear them share how much I meant to them. It really got me reflecting on a couple of different things. One, about all the people I’ve been blessed to meet throughout my life who I feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to help in some way. It was really humbling to have God kind of show me how He has used me over the course of my life to help people. It also made me reflect on opportunities that I’ve wasted or have been too scared to speak up or act and maybe missed a chance to make someone’s day or help them to feel God’s love for them. That was also very humbling to sort of sit back and look at how far I still need to come. The third thing that I reflected on were all the people who have helped me in my life. Friends, family, teammates, neighbors, and even random strangers. From the smallest of things to the biggest of things. Again that was very humbling to see not only do I need God but I also need hundreds of people to help me become who I want to be and who God wants me to be. I thought that was a really cool message that was reinforced to me this week. We were all sent here at this specific time to be a part of each other’s life’s for specific reasons and I think that is so cool. One of the most important lessons I have learned over the entirety of my mission is how well God truly knows us and how much He truly loves us. Of all the things God could care about and focus on, He focuses on and cares about all of us individually. He knows each of our circumstances and needs and is going to helps us through them. I know without a doubt that that is true. Well only one more email after this one until I’m home! Until next week!

Last gallon of milk- this one expires after I’m home

I can’t believe it but I’m down to only two weeks left! It’s kinda scary to think about but also really exciting. Elder Whittaker and I had a really good week. God was really good to us. On Monday night, we were headed home and came across the aftermath of a really really bad car accident. We decided to get out and see if we could help because it literally happened maybe 20-30 seconds before we got there. A kid ran a red light and t-boned a car on the driver side. The lady who got hit was in pretty bad shape and her husband was pretty frantic and so there wasn’t a whole lot we could do but we offered to give a blessing and so they had us wait at the scene and then we met them at the ER to give them both a blessing. It was a really cool experience because we didn’t know these people at all. But God led us there so we could help and thankfully He was watching over them because they should have been worse of then they were. I also have been really praying for some more people to teach. Our teaching pool has shrunk considerably and I really want to be able to finish strong and keep teaching. So we had dinner with this family whose daughter’s boyfriend came and he is interested in meeting with us. His name is Simon and way cool and so we are going to start working with him so that was a huge answer to my prayer. Unfortunately he will be going to Mexico for two weeks and won’t be back until after I’m home so I won’t get to but it was still a huge blessing. I got to speak in one of our wards this week and talked about strengthening our conversion to Christ. I have come to realize the more I have focused on others the more I’ve become converted to Christ which really makes sense if you think about it. When Christ was here everything he did was for others, never himself. I strive everyday to be more like my Savior. Thanks for all your prayers! I hope everyone has a great week!

Some other highlights were Saturday we got to do service basically all day.

 Well this was a short 4 day week so my email will be a little bit shorter this week. But those 4 days were crazy busy! We had Zone Conference on Thursday which means I’m now officially done with Zone Conferences. I’m really going to miss those meetings meeting together and being able to learn from a bunch of different missionaries. I also got to meet our new mission President, President McBeth. He seems like
a really awesome guy who is really close to God. I wish I had more time to get to know him but that’s part of it. At your last Zone Conference all the missionaries going home get to give their “departing testimony.” I got to do that and that was a pretty crazy experience. I still remember my first Zone Conference and thinking
that I was never going home and now all of a sudden it is here. It was really cool to be able to reflect on my mission and think about how good God is and share my testimony on how I’ve gotten closer to God.
Some other highlights were Saturday we got to do service basically all day. Some random guy we met a few days earlier said he was moving and would need some help and so we helped him almost all day. It was
really hot but I’m going to miss being able to do things like that all the time. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue serving people when I get home. We also started teaching a new family, the Woods! They just
moved here from Vegas and are a super cool family. We were able just get to know them a little bit better and they want us to help them straighten their relationship with Christ so I’m looking forward to
working with them over the next few weeks. I hope everyone had a good 4th of July and has a good week!

I have found that the happiest people I’ve taught and met over the last 2 years are those who let Christ into their life the most.

Another week in the books! We had a really awesome week. It was a longer week because our Pday got moved to the 4th but it still went by so fast. First off, Elaina got baptized last Friday and it was so awesome. It was very easy to tell that she was happy and excited about the decision she made. She has changed so much over the course of the last few weeks that we have been meeting with her. There is just a different light about her and she is so much happier. I have found
that the happiest people I’ve taught and met over the last 2 years are those who let Christ into their life the most. That’s something I’m still trying to work on but I feel much happier than I did when I left. We also got to go to the temple with Jenn who got baptized about
a month ago. It was really cool to go with her since it was her first time and to experience that with her and her boyfriend, Nathan. I love going to the temple so much. I also got to go to the temple on Saturday as well. I have some family that live really close to where
I’m serving and so I’ve seen them a couple of times. One of my cousins is about to leave on his two year mission to Samoa the week after I get home. Something we do before our missions is to go through the temple and receive what we call an endowment. It’s an awesome experience and really we just learn more about what God’s plan for us is. Well on Saturday my cousin was receiving his endowment and I got to go with him as well as some other cousins and my aunt and uncle and it was a really special experience. Now that I’m at the end I can
really look back and see why God has sent me to the west side of Salt Lake City, Utah. At first I wasn’t sure at all why I was sent here and how I would be able to help others but God has helped me so much and
I’ve been blessed with so many amazing opportunities to serve and bless the lives of other people and I’m so grateful for that. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and has a great week!

I am so thankful that I’ve gotten to learn from both of them.

Another week in the books! Pretty nuts. This week went by so fast. It seemed like everyday we had only two or three things on our schedule but they took basically all day so it made the week go by really fast. We got to do some service this week which is always nice. Elder Whittaker and I and some other guys helped this older lady dig a ditch. She runs a small farm all by herself and she is about 75 years old. It was pretty cool to be able to help her out with something that will make her life easier. We also got to help out at a camp for 11 year old boys who are involved in Boy Scouts. We got to teach them about missions and what it is that we do and how they can help people get closer to Jesus Christ. It was also a really awesome experience to get to try to influence the lives of those 11 year old boys. One of the wards we cover had a neighborhood fish fry so that was pretty awesome to go to. They had some halibut, salmon, and rockfish from Alaska and it was so good. We of course had some really good lessons this week as well. The one that stood out to me the most this week was with this couple named Steve and Crystal. They actually cancelled our scheduled lesson but called us at about 9:30 on Sunday night and asked if we could come over and give them a blessing. 9:30 is past our curfew but we couldn’t tell them no and we couldn’t find anyone else and so we went and briefly visited with them and read from the scriptures and then gave them each a blessing of comfort. It was really cool to be able to do that and to tell them things that obviously touched them. I could really feel the Lord helping me to know what to say to bring peace into their lives. God is so good. This week is the last week that I’ll have President and Sister Palmer as my mission president and wife. I’m definitely really sad about that but I am so thankful that I’ve gotten to learn from both of them. I’m also excited to learn my last 4 weeks or so from my new mission president and wife, President and Sister McBeth. What’s cool is nothing really changes. We keep doing the same things and go out and work hard everyday. Here is to another good week!

I know that God loves all of His children no matter what color they are, where they are from, or what they are doing in life.

Transfer calls came this week and so I found out I will be finishing out my mission in the same area with the same companion, Elder Whittaker. I’m super excited to keep serving with him and to be able to continue working with the people we have been working with. This was a pretty awesome week. We had two baptisms this past weekend, Sydney and Jon. Sydney is a 10 year old girl who we have been working with for a while. Her baptism was so awesome. Most of her family isn’t super religious except for her mom so it was cool to see them come and support her. I could tell that they were touched by the spirit that was present there. Jon is in our young single adult ward and he is just awesome. He is in his mid-20’s and has really changed his life so much in the past year. A year ago he was addicted to drugs and alcohol and now he is free from both of those addictions and has found Christ in his life. It was such a blessing to be able to be apart of both of their baptisms and conversion processes. I know that God loves all of His children no matter what color they are, where they are from, or what they are doing in life. I wanted to share something briefly from what I studied this week. I was studying about the correlation between faith and repentance. And so I was reading about a guy named Enos in the scriptures and wanted to share a few of those verses. It says: 

“4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.”

I thought that was really cool. Enos prayed and prayed and repented and wanted to be forgiven of his sins. Although that was necessary and important that’s not why he was forgiven. It was because of the faith that he has in Christ. The action of repentance is a way of showing our faith but if we just pray and ask God to forgive us without any meaning behind it or without believing He will forgive us, He can’t forgive us. It is so crucial that we develop our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. I know that’s true. I hope y’all have an awesome week!