What a blessing it is to serve a mission!

It's been a really tough week. It's also been a beautiful and spiritually uplifting week!

I wish I could tell you everything that's been happening around here, but there's no time! I've completely filled up my first journal and I'm starting my second one tonight. Portuguese is going great, but we still can't do 24/7. I got two baptismal commitments yesterday (from practice investigators)! It's getting really cold, especially in the morning! I got your package! It's wonderful! I love pumpkin seeds and mints and the winter clothes and key ring were sorely needed! I shared the rest with the district! We had a devotional from Elder Robbins (THAT Elder Robbins) and shook his hand and he remembered Joplin Stake!

So I've been really struggling with being Christ-like. So much so that I've been more focused on asking for help from Heavenly Father than receiving it. Luckily, after a lot of fasting, prayers, and an outpouring of the Spirit, I received strength to pull myself out of depression and get back to work. There were a couple days that were really bad, but Sunday night was wonderful! There's so much more I could say about this, but there's not enough time!

I'm also having trouble with one of my companions. Elder Beyler (my companion) and I are doing great, but another Elder in our district, who has Asbergers (didn't spell it right), has been giving me trouble. I know that it's not his fault, and that I'm the one who needs to change. At the moment, I can't feel the Spirit around him, which is a serious issue, since I'm around him all the time. But don't worry. I have so many angels guiding me, along with my Older Brother and my Heavenly Parents. And there are so many people on this side of the veil that are helping me, like my branch presidency, teachers, and the rest of the district (as we all struggle with this same problem of not being Christ-like enough.)

I've learned so much here! Every day is something more, something better. What a blessing it is to serve a mission. I encourage all who can to consider doing what I do, be it at home or abroad, full-time or just within your own home.

While I was in the Provo Temple today, I got really homesick. But it was a good kind of homesickness: not for Joplin, or Mannford, or Glenpool, but for my ultimate goal: home with my Heavenly Family. And it's good because I know that home would not be home without my family. So I've decided that I'm going to bring as many of my brothers and sisters home with me as possible. Heavenly Father wants so badly for His children (and we are literally His children, who he raised from the beginning and knows us personally) to come home. Never have I ever felt so close to Him, or to Christ.

I'm sorry it's such a short letter! I wish I could send home my journal but (1) I'll still need it and (2) you'd need the Urim and Thummim to read my handwriting.

I love this gospel, and I know that it's the only way to get back Home. What a wonderful place this is! I've learned more in the last four weeks than I have my entire life. In fact, I would trade everything else just to know what I know now. That God is our loving and very much literal Father. Jesus Christ is our Older Brother, and our Savior, Redeemer, and our Example. The Holy Ghost is real, and He is a wonderful companion for anyone who will accept Him and listen.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true! It is the same church established by Christ in the New Testament. It is the same gospel that existed at the creation of the world! God never changes. His love never ceases for anybody. The fullness of the gospel is restored. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, through which the priesthood, or authority and power of God, was returned to the Earth, never to be taken or driven away. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is the most correct book on the Earth. Coupled with the Bible, it contains a power and a spirit that I, myself, have barely scratched the surface of.

Learn His Gospel. Live His Gospel. Preach His Gospel.

This is how we can all be together again, perfected and exalted, living with our Heavenly Family once more.

I testify of this in the sacred name of our Older Brother, even Jesus Christ. Amen.