I received one last email from Grandma today, that I guess she must have sent right before she passed. Her emails were never very long but those short and simple sentences such as ¨I love you¨ and ¨ My prayers are with you¨ always did give me a little boost, because I know that Grandma has always been one of my biggest supporters. I will always be grateful for that, because the mission has changed my life. Even though at the end of her life, she struggled with many things, I never think about those things when I think of my Grandma Mary. I think of the many times that she took us to ¨La Puente¨ , and the love that we shared for good food, and old classic movies. I think of the endless number of Saturday´s that I spent dusting and vacuuming her house, and how she would buy me KFC after. Who can forget her incredible Christmas parties, where we would eat amazing appetizers and Honey Baked Ham. 7 layer dip anyone? Like I said, we share a love for good food. And let´s just take a second to remember she always owned at ¨Trivial Pursuit¨. To this day, we still joke about Simon Bolivar. I also think of the love the she always showed for our family, and the support she always gave. I also think of how strong her testimony was and how she really did have the ¨Spirit of Elijah¨ I know we always joke about family search, but she has helped so many people and changed many lives through her dedicated service. I love Grandma Mary so much. She was a wonderful person, and an incredible Grandmother.
I know that when something like this happens, it is always hard, and we don´t always understand why. But I do know that the Lord always knows why. Grandma was sick and she needed relief from the pains of the this world. The scriptures in Alma 40: 11-12 really applies to Grandma, and will probably offer some comfort in this hard time. It says that all those people who pass on will be ¨taken home to that God that gave them life¨, and those that are righteous will be received into a ¨state of rest¨ a ¨state of peace¨ and there they shall rest from all their ¨troubles¨ and ¨sorrow¨ I know this is true for Grandma, I know that she has found rest and peace, and I know that she has been reunited with her other family members that have passed on.
Even though we will miss her a lot, and things will probably be different for a while without her, she is not really gone. I know she is still there supporting us and rooting for us to hold on. And I know that we will all see her again, and that we will live together as a family forever.
I can´t even tell you how grateful I am for the knowledge that we have, and for the opportunity that we have to all live together again. It brings me so much comfort, because I don´t know what I would do without every single one of you. I am so grateful for our family, and for the love that we have between us.
I love and miss you all. I really wish that I was at home right now, but I know that I am doing the right thing, and that Grandma would never want me to give up, and that she would want me to keep going and finish strong. And that is exactly what I will do. Because I know that´s what God wants too.
Things are going well here in Alcala. For the past two months, we as missionaries have been planning this fireside, that was to help excite the youth to serve missions, and to just excite the ward in general to get more involved with the missionary effort. President came and spoke, I spoke about the joy that comes from serving the Lord (Alma 29:9) and other youth spoke, a couple of returned missionaries, it was awesome! The spirit was so strong,and it was such a success. The president came up after and thanked us, and said that it had been a huge success, and this is what we are doing here, trying to help and serve others and inspire the ward. I feel really good about the work we have done here in Alcala. The ward has made such progress these last six months that I have been here. I really am just so happy about it for them, cause I love the members here.
Today for Pday, we went to El Escorial, a small Spanish pueblo that is surrounded by a mountain, and has this huge castle on the mountain side, and just trees everywhere, probably the most legit Spanish place I have been to yet. Oh the perks of serving a mission in Europe :)
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