Swing low, sweet chariot

"Farewell, my brave hobbits. My work is now finished. Here at last, on the shore of the sea, comes the end of our fellowship. I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil."

Oh boy. Where to begin.

Running through my mind is a montage of memories and flashbacks of experiences and people that have crossed my path over the last two years. There is a lot that I feel I could say, and far too much to write in one letter, but I hope to be able to capture at least some of it and communicate it effectively.

I don't know of a way to effectively summarize a mission. I'm not even sure such a thing exists. There are so many moments; so many people that you encounter and so many miracles that you witness that make describing it briefly a virtually insurmountable task.

First things first, the most impactful part of my mission, and I'd imagine for anyone's, is the people who I was blessed and privileged enough to meet and interact with. With the onset of COVID-19 we had to change the way we did things, but that never shifted the focus off of helping the people. I never thought that I could come to enjoy things like knocking on random peoples doors, or, more recently calling through massive lists of phone numbers of people I will likely never see in person, but somehow, little by little, I was able to find joy even in these, the most mundane of tasks.

Closely coupled with the people are the experiences and the miracles. One thing I learned is that those two things only come when the people are your focus. There were so many times - an almost unbelievable amount - where my companion and I would experience something so miraculous that we could almost do nothing else than look at each other with amazement. We have had our prayers directly answered by other people, and have been equally privileged to participate in answering the prayers of others. It's truly remarkable to ponder the immense love that pours down from heaven each time we pray. The power contained in simple words uttered in faith is astounding. Truly, the moving of a mountain would be far less significant than the touching of a life and the blessing of another's journey.

Finally, there are the choices. There is a line from one of my favorite testimonies that says "the decision to serve or not to serve effects the salvation of other people." I believe that that not only applies to the initial decision to serve a mission but to every decision that is made along the way, even those that seem insignificant. Looking back, I don't have many regrets from my mission but one of the few is that I wasn't bolder earlier on. It may seem like a small thing, but boldness is what will make or break a mission. There came a point in my mission where I was presented with the decision to either go home or stay out. That was one of the most difficult choices I ever had to make, but the decision to stay was one of the greatest ones I ever made. These last six months have been among the most rewarding of the whole two years, and I shudder to think of what I would've missed had I not stayed out.

In closing, I want to share a few lines - several very long lines - from the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson. They describe the importance of this generation, and the magnitude of the responsibility we all have.

"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not. True, there will be some individuals who will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head—even Jesus Christ. While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is that God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God.

All through the ages the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it—you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized. Now is the great day of the devil’s power, with the greatest mass murderers of all time living among us. But now is also the great day of the Lord’s power, with the greatest number ever of priesthood holders on the earth. And the showdown is fast approaching.

Each day the forces of evil and the forces of good pick up new recruits. Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go. The final outcome is certain—the forces of righteousness will finally win. What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this fight—and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last-days, foreordained mission?" 

I hope that we can all be true to what we have been commissioned to do in this life. There are so many opportunities that we have. All we have to do is reach out and take them.

Bye.

P.S. Bro, I literally go home tomorrow!! (I've said that phrase, with some variation depending on the day, to my companion so many times in the last few days I'm sure he wishes he was deaf. I don't even really know what the emotions behind it are).

P.P.S. duibuduibuqi

P.P.P.S. You can breathe a sigh of relief everyone. This is the last you'll ever have to hear from me.