8/15/15
Well this week has been
fantastic yet again. I want to thank all of you guys for your love and support
during this last transfer and all of your prayers over these past two years! I don’t
know what I would have done without them.
Well this week has been
super strange. I bore my testimony in my last District meeting... It still hasn’t
hit me yet that I am going home in a few days...I guess when I finally get off
the airplane and see you guys I will finally understand that everything has
ended. Sorry if I look a little shell
shocked when I get home....culture shock!! :P
But most of all what I
wanted to do in this last email is try to express some of the things that have
happened here on the mission. From the first experience of hearing that I wouldn’t
be going to CTM in Brazil but going instead to the Provo MTC to the elation of receiving
the call that I would be able to go to Brazil but would pass through Provo, I
can see the hand of God more clearly in my life. I can see now how much I
needed that one week to prepare, to see Madison for the last time, and then
head off to start my adventure in another part of the same world. I can see
much more clearly now how God plays a super important part of our lives on a
daily basis. The other day we were conversing with a child and her mother about
prayer. We asked the girl (She is about 14) if she believes that God answers
her prayers. She said “No.” She said that she hadn’t ever received an answer to
a prayer. It was difficult to try to explain to her and to make sure that she
understood but in the end the most powerful thing that we did was we said...” I
know that God answers prayers because he has answered mine.” I have come to
realize Heavenly Father is ever present and ever willing to help us.
What I have learned here
in these 2 wonderful, hard, and extremely happy two years I would never
exchange nor trade. I have learned so much and yet I realize how much I have
yet to come to know\remember. This is why this is not really the end, but the
beginning. My time here on the mission has just been the training for real life
or as Jeffrey R. Holland said that the mission is just the MTC for Life. Now I
look forward with the firm hope and faith that I will be able to be better; a
better son, a better brother, a better servant of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
I know that this church
is true. I know it with all my heart. I know it not because I have been
teaching it for two years, (that has given me some great insights but it is not
the center of the matter) I know it because like Alma I have received a
testimony given by a member of the Godhead. I love these two verses and often
used them to help our investigators: Alma 5: 45-46
And this is not all, Do
ye not suppose that I know these things of myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do
know that the things whereof I have spoke are true. And how do ye suppose
that I know of their surety?
Behold I say unto you
that they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed
many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I know of myself
that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his
holy spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.
I know that Joseph Smith
was a prophet of God and that he restored Christ´s church here on the earth. I
know that the priesthood was restored and with that we were sealed in a temple
of God to be a family for all eternity. There is nothing more precious in the
world to me than you guys. I love you with all my heart and I am so eternally
grateful that Heavenly Father allowed me to have a family like you guys. I
cannot wait to see you guys in the airport at 11h40!!
I know that OUR Savoir
lives! I have started to learn about him here on the mission and I hope to one
day I will be able to behold his presence side by side with each and every one
of you and say that We have done the best we knew how and he will just smile
and give us a hug and welcome us home! I pray for that! I know that one day it
can happen but it will all depend on us! I love you guys so much!!
Love, Elder Pachner II
