He wrote us his last email on Monday, and it was tremendous. What he conveys helps explain why we send young men on missions. Obviously I haven't asked him if I could post this, but here it is:
Hey Family,
This is a sad e-mail to write. Yesterday, we had two appointments that went relatively well, but once we got home I was very sad. I taught someone in their home for the last time on my mission. I tried to share my testimony with as much clarity and passion as I could over the last week. Now, an wonderful, tiring, challenging and rewarding part of my life is about to end. I am extremely grateful that I served a mission and had the opportunity to do so. Thank you so much for your prayers and letters.
I'll try to share a few thoughts I haven't before about my mission. When I received my call to serve as an English speaking mission in North Carolina, I was not happy. I thought I should've had something "better". I hope that I have completely repented of that embarrassing, prideful thought. I think part of that process is making clear to those that saw disappointment in my face when I opened my call that I love North Carolina, the missionaries and ward members I worked with, and the people I taught.
Some things LaDon shared with me about his mission experience were amazingly true during mine, even if I still took time to learn them. One is that Jesus Christ lives, is the only way we can be cleansed from sin and is involved in our lives. I said that before my mission and my testimony won't sound particularly more powerful or impressive afterward but I know it now in a different way.
The last lesson I taught as a missionary was an interesting parallel to the first time I taught with my trainer. We taught a family that I love. We taught them the Restoration and shared our testimonies and made clear what people were rejecting if they didn't at least read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And they kindly rejected the invitation. As much I wanted them to embrace modern apostles, a complete view of repentance, eternal families, etc., they used their God-given free will to reject it. It made me sad but I was very comfortable with what we shared and the effort we made. I don't have regrets about the lessons we taught this week. There was a diffferent excitment and love in our work. I was happy to feel the same way about the work last night as I did two years ago.
A few hours before that lesson I just referenced we met with a less-active young man. We talked for a while about his faith and where he was at but little progress was made. He made a lot of excuses for why he isn't keeping commandments but they all had a common thing: someone else did something they shouldn't have and that's why I'm not going to repent. Please don't use other faults a crutch or cover for your own shortcomings. I've seen it a lot over these two years and it makes me sad. These things have often been a church leader/member who committed some trangression, a family environment that wasn't ideal or something as ridiculous as a another person teaching false doctrine that you know isn't true. Who cares what it is but it doesn't help you at all. In almost all cases I've seen, people that withdraw from fellowship with Christ's church will also stop living commandments, having the same quality of prayers and certainly will feel the Spirit less in their life. And then some think: Wow, it just doesn't feel the same, this isn't what I need and turn to a world full of ways to mask our problems. Read the scriptures and identify how you can repent. Its such a simple plan. It's not always easy to do but it is laid out pretty plainly for us in scripture. All the things we need to understand and should spend our time worrying about has been laid out by God's prophets.
I loved serving. Every young man needs to serve a mission. Not the church's sake but for his own. There is nothing you can do more important or valuable at this point in your life. And accomplishing the things you think are equally or more important, will be much easier to handle after learning a bit about how to learn and lead as the Lord intends.
On a similar subject a young man from Australia is a Mormon and also a Rubgy League star. He has decided to give up $2M per year to go on a mission. He's literally giving up $3-4M. Now that I work hard and am an adult, I'm beginning to understand how much money that is. It's a true act of faith. Also, having gone on a mission, I can confidently say that he's making the right decision and the right investment. I admire him greatly.
Here's a link to an article about it:
Here's an excerpt:
SYDNEY (AP)—One of the biggest stars in Australian rugby league has turned his back on million-dollar contract offers to instead go on a two-year religious mission with the Mormon church from 2012.
The 19-year-old Will Hopoate—son of prominent former player John Hopoate— is off-contract with the Manly Sea Eagles next year. He had been offered up to $2 million a year from two other National Rugby League teams.
If he comes to know Jesus lives as a result of this decision and comes to learn about how much Jesus loves all people and learns about revelation and how to pray better, it's a very good investment. Besides, God doesn't forget things like this.
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