"Memories Are Summer Flowers For The Winters Of Our Lives."

Hey everybody!

This past week was great and Elder Durrant and I are kicking it into high gear to finish strong.  We had lots of good lessons and have been blessed to find and receive success from our Heavenly Father.  This week we have a goal of three baptisms that we hope to have so we are excited and excited again to also be preparing some people and families who will be baptized after I leave.  I love these people and really wish I could stay a little longer to bless the lives of a few more people.

Somehow, two years go by in the blink of an eye.  It's hard to comprehend that my time as a full-time missionary has come to a close.  The funniest part is that even though I had many difficult and hard, rough times in the mission, all I remember are the good times; the times I was happy, the times I have felt the Spirit bear testimony, the times when me and my companion would run through rain, dust, mud, hail, cold, heat and be laughing as we were and fully loving what we were doing.  Truly we do remember the good times more that the bad. I love a quote I saw the other day that says:

 "God gives us memories, because memories are summer flowers for the winters of our lives."

I have cherished and hold dear every memory I have had here in the mission and all the lessons I have learned and all the growing I have done spiritually.   I love my mission.  I have loved it and I will forever love it.  There has not been any moment in my life to compare with it and if I had the chance, I would gladly do it again.  My favorite scripture says:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I testify that if we trust Him and love Him, He shall indeed direct our paths.  I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.  He knows each and every one of us.  He wants us to be happy and thus provides the means by which we may have happiness if we will but only follow Jesus Christ.  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer and our Friend and Advocate with the Father.  He lives!  He loves us!  He can and will heal even the deepest of wounds that we have if we will let His loving sacrifice take effect in our lives.  I know that the scriptures testify of that.  I know that all scripture invites us to come unto Him and be perfected in Him.  I testify and know with all my soul that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  He did see the Father and the Son that early spring morning in 1820, an occurrence of which he so persistently and unwearingly testified of to his death.  He was the instrument in God's hands in bringing forth His truth and His restored work in these last days.  The Book of Mormon is true.  I know it is.  I am convinced that this is the true and only church of Christ upon the face of the Earth.  It is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know that all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ which are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands, and enduring to the end.  I know that all of this is true.  I know it because I have felt the Spirit of God confirm the truth of it to me personally.  I bear my special witness as an authorized representative of Jesus Christ  that these things are true and I do so in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego