We’re doing really good down here in South Texas! The
temperature got down to 33 this week and boy was that cold. No worries
though...today we’re back up in the 80's again! It feels so good to have the
heat back...hopefully it’s Springtime now!
We received transfer news this week! I’m staying here in
Alamo/San Juan/Pharr which means I’ll be Elder Ayers’ final companion! We were
both really excited and happy to hear the news! We had a lot of changes in the
missionaries who serve around us but the new missionaries who are coming are
good friends as well! Today I’m short on time so I'll just share a few thoughts
I sent to Scott earlier today!
Being in South Texas is all just one big Eternal summer.
Today we got up early to go take breakfast to some Elders getting transferred
and as we drove home from Weslaco to McAllen I had the strangest sensation that
I was back in time at the start of my mission. I felt as If I still had a whole
two years ahead of me! Looking back it feels like I’ve climbed a huge
lighthouse and I see all the stairs...but when you look up and out you can see
and savor all the beauty for miles. I’ve decided the easiest part of ending is
that most of my mission friends have been older than me in the mission or will
be ending just a few months after me! The hardest part...well...I think it’ll be
the release itself. Lately I’ve noticed how strangely people act around
missionaries. Unconsciously they can sense in their spirit that we really are
representatives of Jesus Christ and so they often behave the same way towards
us as they would behave if the Savior was there. Last week for example we
taught Rene about the Word of Wisdom. We committed him to live it and he
accepted and then took about 15 minutes to just unload his burdens about how he
had felt unappreciated at work and in his family. It was completely
unrelated...but I could tell that that's what he would have told the Savior if
He were there! People just often need to speak about the problems and troubles
in their lives and because the Savior has suffered and experienced all of it
they can feel that as they open up and share these things with His
representatives they will feel peace and happiness. It really taught me the
principle of being a representative of the Savior. How grateful I am for the
authority and power of the calling of a missionary!
I’m so grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I
have a testimony that He lives. I am His disciple and my commission is to say
what He would say, to do what He would do, and to minister to the very people
He has sent me to in the way that He would if He were here. The happiness I am
experiencing on my mission is greater than any other of my life before or that I’ve
yet found in this world! Missionary work really is the best!
Con amor,
Elder Cook!
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