Your
missionary is doing really good! Life is all good, birthday, mission still
going good. I get my bar things off my teeth soon, I am healthy and going
strong. I just feel like a little tired a lot more now. I am not
totally sure why. So I need your prayers to help me be more active a little
more awake!
I
did have time to celebrate my b-day; my comps took care of that. They got me a
cake, smashed it in my face too! Ha-ha! They bought some confetti canons and
blasted me with them. So it was a pretty great birthday. It’s still weird to say that I am 21.... I
did get some pretty cool stuff for my birthday. Thank you for all your birthday
wishes! I love you!! Thank
you for the cash, thoughts, letters, etc. it has been a pretty great birthday!
Thank you so much.
This
week we will return to the temple on Wednesday to take the other half of the
mission there, so that should be cool! Honestly we have had a really great
week for work. We have found and been working with some pretty great
investigators, one of which we found at the beginning of last week and who came
to church the following Sunday! Pretty great huh??? We had a ton of
investigators in church too! We saw lots of miracles this week! We will
be baptizing this Saturday and the next one too!
So
it’s going pretty well.
I
am little by little coming to the knowledge that my time here is almost over. I have accepted it. It’s time. I am still giving it an effort but its
time. I am not totally sure when I will cry, in the airport maybe, when I
see you guys maybe, who knows but I will cry, that I am sure of! Just be gentle
when you tell stories about it! Just know that I will need your help and
support. I will need your shoulder to cry on even. I never understood
what you meant about not wanting to leave your mission until now. I get it. I love this place. It’s my
home away from home.
The
Temple last week was awesome! It was super spiritual and calm and helped me to
forget everything I had going on upstairs. I had several questions to take to
God and I feel like I got some pretty good answers! I honestly felt the
spirit super intense, and I felt that He is pleased with the efforts I have
given in my mission, but it still depends on how well I finish!
Some
of my favorite scriptures are Mosiah 23:21-22
21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people;
yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.
22 Nevertheless—whosoever
putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the
last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.
I
love these scriptures, and this story. It honestly warms my heart.
I
can’t really explain why the Lord gives us troubles and hardship, but I can say
that He loves us, and like it has been said, the trials that hurt us and that
try us are for our own good.
They
will shape and form us, they will strengthen us.
We
can see them, not as painful, rather as strengthening. Like the gym, it hurts
to lift and it burns, almost to not be able to handle it anymore, but over an
extended period of time, it begins to become easier and not as hard, and we get
stronger.
Another
scripture that really helps to put all this in perspective is this:
D
& C 122: 7-8
7 And
if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and
the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if
the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy;
if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up
the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the
mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give
thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of
Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
God
loves you so so much. But if we want to get better and progress it needs to be
hard, easy doesn't teach anything. He loves you so much that he lets you
go to the spiritual gym and get stronger, he gives you what you need in order
to better know how to help someone else that will maybe be passing through the
same problem. Something so special that the mission has taught me is that
trials make me better. I see them as
opportunities to get better, faster, healthier, more faithful, have a better
testimony, the list goes on. That's breakfast! We eat challenge for
breakfast and turn it into strength and faith!
Heavenly
father loves us, He sent us His son! That's all we could ever need, His Atonement
will carry us!!
I
am very proud of my effort here in Mexico.
I have worked hard and I feel that if I keep it up over these next 2
weeks it will all have been worth it. The tradition in the mission is to
completely die in your last cycle, stop waking up and basically stop working and
that's what some people do. I have not done that! I still get up at 6.30, even earlier sometimes
to go to the gym. I still work, contact,
invite, and all that. My comp Elder Matos actually said that he wants to
finish his mission like I am. I just hope that I have made you, my
family, and my Heavenly Father proud.
I
love the mission!
I
know that the church is true, that is something I have come to know here! I
know it’s true! I know Jesus Christ lives!
I
love you tons!
Keep
up the faith and the good work!
Elder
Galbraith
I
just want to testify that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints is true. I know that Jesus lives. I have come to understand and
know what the atonement means. I have come to know that Joseph Smith was a
prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet called of God. I know that what I have been preaching is
true and that our Father in Heaven loves us. I know it and I will do
everything to continue strengthening my testimony. I want you to know
that. 
