A Mission

Many of you know that I am on my mission right now. I have noticed that I don't have much time left on this mission. So I have been pondering about my mission and the things that I have experienced and seen.

As many of you know that a mission is full of trials and hardships. I have had my fair share of them. However, I have noticed that it is through these hardships that the Lord thakes our rough edges and smooths them out. It is his way of making us worth more. Like a diamond or silver. The purer the silver the more value it has. Like it says in the Book of Mormon that it is through our trials that the Lord proves us, and makes us stronger. (that is not a direct quote as you can tell) I have decided that it is one reason why the boys of the church at age 19 go on their missions and come back as men at age 21.

No matter how many trials we have it is the blessings and good times that we have that we remember best. I believe this to be try. For when I look back in my past I have an easier time remembering the hike that my companion and I went on with an investigator than the time I was threatened to be hung by my tie. It are these blessings and events that keep us going. I know for at least for me they have.

With these two things together; would say that it is really hard to go home from a mission, and still be the same person that you were when you left. For you see things that effect your whole life, experience things you will never forget, and more important chooses you have made change you as well. I will say that I am so happy to be here right now. If I wasn't here I would probably be in some sort of trouble. I would have been able to have the same experiences that I have had. It has been the best decision that I have made up to this point in my life.

I have heard it said that the mission is the best two years of my life. I would change that to say they have been the hardest, but of the most worth. For it changes you for good. You can never go back to be the person that you were when you left. I say that for on a mission you make one choice that effects the rest of you life. It is either to do as the Lord commands or not. If you haven't made that decision yet and you are on a mission or have been on a mission than you have not really done what you need to do.

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The Wheelchair

Hey everybody, here is a video of me in a wheelchair. The guy there at the project who was in a chair himself said that it takes about 16 months for people to get it down the way I can balance. So here is the video. For all of you not it a chair just try it is fun.

My year mark in the country

Well, sorry that I didn't do this earlier around my year mark in the country, but I didn't have time to do that. Since I have been here in Serbia and Croatia there has been some weird things that have happened to me. I think that I will start off with the ones that happened first and do them in that order.

First was the week that My trainer, my other companion, and I had to stay in for a week. By the way that is coming up again. We had to stay in for the fact that it was the ten year anniversary of the USA bombing Serbia and there were a lot of stuff going on that week. I hated being in that apartment for that long. You get cabin fever real fast. I don't know if we will have to stay in this year but we most likely will have to. That sucks. Second thing was when my name tags were stolen by a huge dude. That was with Elder Singer (the other companion that I had during the first deal) when we went contacting. The guy was not a nice guy he told us to leave or he would kill us. Then he just came up and took the name tags. I don't know what he was going to do with them. The third one didn't happen for a while after that one. It was the University Olympics. They were really fun and we got to see a lot of people from all over the world. If you didn't know the missionaries in Serbia got in the church news for that one. The fourth one was in a small town of Sremska Mitrovica. It was my second area that I have served in on my mission. I was with Elder Christianson and Beaumont. My pen was stolen and the guy threatened to kill us. He wanted to hang us by our ties and leaves us there. For some reason I got a lot of that at nights. Night time is not a good time to be out. The fifth thing was that I was being sent to Croatia. The whole Croatian experience was a weird one. How many people can say that they served in two countries on their missions, and then return to the one that they started out in. I even got to touch the sea during this experience.

Those are the big ones for me it has been a very interesting year. I don't know if this next one will top it. We do have a baptism coming up so that might put it over this other one.

I have also learned a lot about myself and those that want to know they are just going to have to wait until I get home. By then I will have changed even more I guarantee that. So, that has been the big factors for my in my mission. I have now served in three areas and returned to my first one. Until next time have fun! I will be have some.

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