Monday, October 3, 2016

“Remember”

This is the end....
So the chopping block is coming and I have no idea how it came so fast! It has not hit me and it probably will not hit me until I am on that plane comin home! I can’t believe I have to fly to Denver first... I had my interview with President Burt this past week. Love that man! It’s been a quick two years. He told me to paint him a picture of my mission starting from square one. It only felt like yesterday that I was sitting in Port Alberni. Well...anyway...General Conference was great and I loved it! Jeffrey R Holland layed down on that home teaching which I am sure drove a heart wrenching guilt trip into every home teacher! Hope that kicks some butt because that is so important!

I guess, since it is my last email I better go off on a high note, and that is my testimony.

No words will be able to fully convey the love I have had for my mission. I have had and will still have the most loving and caring mission President that has ever walked the face of this earth. I have had the greatest of areas, some of them more refining than others, and that goes for my companions as well. I have had great people to work with; trials that have made me who I am today and will help me define and discern my future. I have had great support from my family and friends no matter where I was. At this point in time it has been the best two years of my life, and will be the best two years for my life. I am grateful for every moment, even the hard ones, even the ones where I even felt completely alone and even felt like I was abandoned. I am grateful for the divine blessings that have been given to me and my family.

I will never be able to comprehend the impact mission has had or will have, nor will I ever be able to be completely grateful for all the lessons and blessings that came in the two years span that has ultimately shaped my life. That is why I can say, and, I not even being home yet, that my mission has meant everything to me. I cannot fathom where I would be at at this point in my life if I had not served a mission, nor would I like to. This has been the most powerful impact in my life. Now why do I say that? Lessons have been learned. Trials have been overcome and I learned how to rely on the Savior to get me through it.

I will forever remember my mission. The impact it has had on me and my family has only been for good. I also would like to testify of one simple word that is completely Elder McCown doctrine because I think the most important word is the is the simple 3 syllable word "remember". Trials that I have surmounted have been because I have remembered my Savior. I remembered who I am. I remembered that I am son of the most High who has created cosmos without number, with no beginning or end. I remembered that I had my family to support me, and often times my mission president who was on speed dial, and will be when I go home. I can never be fully grateful for the blessings of my mission and I can never fully appreciate the impact it has had on not only me, but others as well.

My favorite hymn is There is a Green Hill Far Away. The second verse is my favorite. "We may not know, we cannot tell, What pains he had to bear, But we believe it was for us, he hung and suffered there." I am grateful for my Savior and the power he has to edify and purify us through his loving kindness. I know that he lives, that we are his children, and that he wants you and I, to return to live with Him again. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love

Elder McCown

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