I am just so full of joy! I feel like conference was just quite the gift from above. When I heard the news about the new age requirement for missionaries, the first person that came to my mind was little Kenners! I remember that you had the desire to serve, and I wondered what you thought at that moment. I kept saying to my companion, "I hope my sister emails me and tells me what she thinks about all this!" And lo and behold, I get an email from you. I am so happy that you are preparing to serve! I just want to tell you how grateful I have been to be a missionary in this short time (it really seems SOOOO short). I have learned so many incredible things that have blessed my life. I have had the craziest moments of my life, the saddest ones, the ones where you feel the most helpless and inadecuate. I have had moments where I have felt so much love toward a child of our Heavenly Father and have felt that I would do anything to help them be happy. I have met people that have tried my patience, who have completely rejected the message of hope that I have brought just for them. I have seen families and lives that have been ruined by bad decisions. Many of them don´t want to change, or don´t believe that they can. That´s the part that breaks your heart. So then you ask, why do I love my mission so much? The answer is: because there are those chosen people that DO change! There are people that have waited their whole life for someone to come up to them and tell them that we have something for them that will bring them more joy than they have ever imagined...and they actually believe you! And they make the necessary tweaks...tweeks? in their life to achieve the happiness that is promised to those who obey the commandments. They start the process of conversion, that Elder Bednar spoke about. This conversion is hard for them, as it is for us all, and sometimes they fall. Sometimes as a missionary you find those people who have fallen, people who had so much joy when the missionaries taught them for the first time and had lost that feeling that they had once felt at the beginning of that process. And then you help them remember. And they come back. As a missionary, as you help those in this roller coaster ride of conversion, you become even more converted yourself. You learn small lessons every day that your Heavenly Father has carefully prepared for you, just as you carefully prepare lessons for your investigators. You realize how much He must love you, considering how much you love these people that you are here to help and serve. The mission is not a walk in the park, it´s more like the dirty dash (hahaha...I saw those pictures, they were pretty funny). It´s full of obstacles and lots of hard work (and lots of fun, too, of course :)) But the feeling of satisfaction is one of a kind! I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and that He will show us the roads we should take in our lives to achieve true happiness and best help our brothers and sisters. I also learned a really big lesson as I made the decision-- that many times He lets us choose between a lot of good things. McKenna, I know that as you continue to pray and fast, (Omni 1:26 <3) He will guide you and you will know the course you should take. I love you a ton and know you will be an amazing servant of the Lord no matter where you go or what you decide!
That goes for my other little sissys too, that are getting so BIG. (As in, old. I don´t think you´re fat.)
Dad, I´m so glad you mentioned that song Brightly Beams our Father´s Mercy. When we watched conference we only got to watch half of the first session in english, so I listened to the vast majority in spanish. It was still awesome though! But anyway, about that song...it really stuck out to me when Pres. Packer talked about it and this morning I read the words to it (in spanish) and was thinking about the significance and Hna Rentería and I sang it together for our hymn of the day. And then I get your email, and you also talked about it! Inspiración! It really is a goodie...goody?
Welp....longest email of my life. I was going to tell you about some other talks I really liked and some stuff that I learned but, time´s a tickin and there is food to buy and clothes to wash. But hey, no time to rest when you´ve got stuff to do!....that was deep.
I luff you.
Hermanita Hill
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