A Whole Year!!!

A few days ago, on June 27 I hit one year out on the mission! Wow time has flown! It seems both like just yesterday (and at the same time feels like a lifetime ago) that my brother dropped me off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

These are pictures from that first day, and now. ...Same person, yet a different person. One difference between the 2013 and 2012 pictures is that now I'm one year more tired! :) Missionary schedule can be grueling! I've definitely gotten better sleep than ever before...but I've never worked so hard for so long either! -- Our day starts by 6:30 a.m. when we get up and excercise, eat breakfast, get ready, and then start our studies at 8 a.m. When studies are done, it is out the door to teach, find, and do service, with an hour for each lunch and dinner. The day ends at 9:30 p.m.,  in bed by 10:30 p.m.. I've now been doing this for a whole year! ...And I love it!

I can not adequately express what I have learned in this last year of my life. There have been a lot of love, tears, happiness, stress, laughter, prayers, answers to prayers, peanut butter and fluff sandwiches (an east-coast thing), studying the scriptures, giving tours at the church historic sites, tracting, wishing 6:30 am wouldn't come so fast, teaching lessons, snow, leaves, letters to and from home, rough days, super great days, blueberries, service, and flowers. 

 

Just a few things I've learned:

• I am thankful that God has given us commandments. I'm grateful my parents taught them to me. Often people see commandments as restrictions...but that is not really it. Commandments are to us what a string is to a kite. At first glance it may seem as if the string is hindering the flight of the kite (no rhyme intended), yet it is actually the string that allows the kite to stay in the air...and the more string the higher the kite can fly! In my year of service as a missionary I have seen people with a lot of pain and problems. Though not all, so many of these things could have been avoided by living the commandments of God.
• I dislike it when people are in pain.
• Heavenly Father is very mindful of each of us.
• Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives, blessing us each day.
• The Book of Mormon is so powerful! It teaches so much about Christ, and has helped me to develop greater love for the Bible.
• Repentance is a positive thing and to be applied daily!
• Gratitude, especially to God, makes a powerful difference.
• The Atonement not only can cleanse us from sin, but also enable us to do things beyond our own natural ability.
• Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." ... This scripture is so true.