I love you from here to Missouri!

Hello, its good to be back and updating you on this week! It has been a great and exciting one.

Sister Hunt is taking wonderful care of me, she packs my open wound morning and night! What a stinkin' trooper.

Dr. Kirk took such awesome care of me. He cut it open and showed Sister Hunt how to take care of it. I have some funny videos of Sister Hunt packing my open wound. It's just a little flesh wound, but it is so sore and tender. It should heal in about 2-3 weeks.

Investigator wise, Kris is preparing for his baptism this Saturday at 11:00! He is so excited and so are we. He is one of the most prepared investigators I have taught on my mission thus far, he is a miracle and will be a strong and faithful member of the church. We took him to the Historic Liberty Jail last night and he LOVED it, one of his concerns was he wanted to know more about the Prophet Joseph, and can I just say how eternally grateful I am for the church history here in Missouri and to be serving in Zion, I will forever be more grateful for the early saints and the sacrifices made here in Missouri.

Since Anthony, Kris, and Luis all got baptized, we are in the finding stage of the work right now. We are trying to find new people to teach and bring unto Jesus Christ, the Lord truly has prepared souls all around us. We must be diligent, we must be worthy of the spirit, and we must following the promptings so we can find those precious sons and daughters of Heavenly Father. What an exciting work it is!

We went on Exchanges with the Sedalia Sisters, and I spent the day in Sedalia with Sister Pita, she is wonderful. I was back in a boonie area, oh the days of country life!

(Bear with me this next part will be lengthy)

This week we took a trip out to Harrisonville to look for inactive YSA's and I had an experience that touched me and impacted me and has continued to be on my mind since. I will try my best to put it into words. We had been there for 2 hours and hadn't been able to talk to anyone. We decided to try one last person on the list and we met a young guy and he was so excited to see us. He walked out and said, "Hi Sisters! Good to see you!" and we just looked at each other and thought... "there's gotta be a story behind this." He was so happy to see us, had a special light about him, yet.. we had never seen him or heard of him ever before. As we talked to him, we got his story. He is a convert, he served an honorable full time mission and is a Returned Missionary of about 2 years, and he is inactive and attending another church. When I heard this, I guess he could see the heartache in my eyes because he said, "I know. I am one of those sad statistics Sisters, and I served a mission, I know why you're here. I love the church, but you might be wasting your time." and as I talked to him I had an overwhelming and burning feeling that I knew he still had a testimony. I knew he knew what was right, but I also knew that he had no desire at this time to make the gospel a part of his life. It reminded me of someone very special in my personal life and as we talked with him, I told him about my favorite talk by Jeffery R. Holland called, 'Cast not away therefore your confidence.' and recited my favorite quote that came into my mind as clear as day, "beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don’t give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. “Cast not away therefore your confidence.” Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you." Brothers and Sisters, I cried as I testified that there was time when he wore that badge and he LIVED for it, blood, sweat, and tears everyday. There is no possible way he is too far gone. I testified of the truthfulness of the gospel and left him with the commitment to read that talk and his book of Mormon. As we left, my heart just hurt. I cried with my companion knowing every soul is great in the eyes of god, and that God wanted him back. He texted us 25 minutes later and said he read the talk, and thanked us, and asked us to come back and have lunch this coming Tuesday. I don't know if anything will happen, but I do know how I felt and it was one of the strongest feelings of "I have to help him." that I have ever felt. And the personal experience I took from it all was communing with my Father in Heaven that night, I cried to him, I told him to make me strong and immovable so I would never be that returned missionary. I promised him I would be faithful in my callings, in my scripture study and prayer, in my church attendance, in all that he asks me to do, no matter the cost. After all, we need not count the cost. There is none, but pure happiness and joy. That prayer is marked in my heart, to Endure to the End, and live for it, because it IS true, and that will never change.

I am grateful for a Savior who loves us infinitely, I am grateful for his gospel that perfects us into the saints we are meant to become. I am grateful for the Atonement and the chance to start over, for "There are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings." Dieter F. Uchtdorf