Well, hello everyone! I can't believe the time has come that I am writing this email. I still can't believe that I go home in a week. It blows my mind every time I think about it. I try my best not to think about it so I can stay as focused as possible. A lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote. We have been teaching this girl for a while now and a couple weeks ago we were able to set a date for her to get baptized! Her baptism is going to be on the 16th of August so I sadly will miss it by five days but that's okay. It is so cool to watch people change and watch them accept the commitments we have extended and also have them say they will follow them and then they do. It's the best! It's crazy what the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do for people and how much it can change their lives! I know it sure has changed my life!
Since this is my last email, I thought it would be a good idea to write down many of the things I have learned throughout these past two years. I have a lot of things I have learned so I will just share a couple. The First thing that comes to mind that I have learned on my mission is what having genuine faith is. Faith is a topic that is talked a lot about in the church and sometimes I think people can overlook how important it really is. Some people, including myself at times just think of faith as something you have and that you just need to do the basic things of the gospel to nurture that faith. I have really come to understand how important faith is. Especially being a missionary just about everything you do MUST rely on your faith. If you have weak faith, then the Lord won't think you are ready to do some of the things he will ask you to do and he will wait until your faith has grown enough that he thinks you are capable of the task that he requires. I have seen that so much on my mission. It has forced me to dig deep and really understand how important faith is. There is a reason why it is the first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without it, we have nothing. It's also not just to have Faith. It's having Faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ we can overcome anything. He overcame death which allows us to utilize His Atonement and repent of all the sins we commit on a daily basis. I just love that. I love how infinite the Atonement is. That is another thing that I have really come to cherish these last two years. I have loved studying the Atonement because every time you study it you will learn something new that you didn't know before. That's why it truly is Infinite. The last thing that I wanted to talk about is if you set your mind to it you can accomplish it. There have been many, many days out here where I have thought to myself that I couldn't handle it anymore. And that is okay. Honestly, it's exactly what I needed because what do you learn when every situation you're in is easy? None! You never learn anything when life is easy, it's always when life gets hard that you learn the most. I never wanted to be the type of person that just quit when things got hard because I knew that my life would not go well if I did that. Looking back on my mission and thinking about all of the situations that were really hard I can think of many things that I learned from those experiences. Whether it was living with a companion I didn't get along with super well or any area that was just hard to be in. I can look back now and say how grateful I was for being put in each and every one of those situations. I might not have understood it during that time, but the Lord knew exactly what I needed and he knew that all of those situations would help me grow as an individual. They sure have and I am so grateful for all of the tough times I have had these last two years!
Lastly, I just want to thank everyone that has helped me throughout these last two years. It hasn't been an easy two years but it sure is two years I wouldn't change for the world. I am grateful for the amazing support that I have had out here. You are all amazing and I can't thank you enough!
Here's to my next journey in life!
And for the final time, SEND IT FOR THE LORD
ELDER HILBURN
