one year.

one year ago from yesterday, i was on a plane....flying home from my mission in argentina. it's crazy for me to think that i have been home an entire year since my mission. it feels like i have been home for so long, but it also feels like i was on the mission just yesterday. i have so many great memories. the mission is definitely one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life. sometimes i even feel a little bitter because of some of the trials i passed through. but i know they were for my own good, and that i am stronger because of them. i am so grateful that i had the opportunity to serve. i love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all me heart. i really do. and i know that His church is on the earth again.

i just wanted to put a little excerpt from one of my last letters home, this was a very special moment for me:

"Saturday Sonia was supposed to have her baptism interview. The elders came down from another town to do it. And as we are waiting for the bus to go to Sonia’s house, she sends us a text message saying to forgive her, but she is just not ready for baptism yet. A few minutes later we tried calling her, and her mom answered…sonia had already left. The mom told us that they didn’t want us to come by anymore to teach them. (we had been teaching the whole family for 2 months) so that was a major blow. That one really hurt. I cried and felt like a failure.

Saturday and Sunday morning all my thoughts were, “what did I do wrong?” “why am I here if i’m not helping anyone?” and all that other stuff. I grabbed my scriptures and sat on my bed and decided to say a prayer. After the prayer I opened my scriptures to wherever and began to read Mosiah 2; King Benjamin’s address. Verse 17…

“and behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

I don’t know how many times I have read this scripture…I even have it memorized…but Sunday morning it was the answer to my prayer. I remembered a story that President Eyring had once told about his father. They had been pulling weeds for hours, and his father had been pulling weeds in a place where they had already sprayed to kill the weeds. And when they told Pres. Eyring’s dad that he had been pulling weeds where they were already going to die, Pres. Eyring’s dad began to laugh. And Pres. Eyring said “dad, how can you laugh, all your hours of work are wasted!” and Pres. Eyring’s father responded, “I wasn’t doing it for the weeds.” I realized that my efforts were not wasted, like Pres. Eyring’s father…I was in the service of my God. And I felt that Heavenly Father was telling me that.

We need to pay better attention the scriptures…It’s God’s way of talking to us. When we need to talk to God, we pray…but when God wants to talk to us, He uses the scriptures…they are His words."