I’m going to be 20!
Well, first I want to thank all of you for the birthday wishes — spoken, emailed, or unspoken. I’m so grateful to everyone who reads my emails and keeps me in their prayers! I can feel that I get a lot of help and support from back home!
This week I’m not going to write much because I don’t have much time. I’ll write about everything that happened next week, but this week I’d like to share a little of my testimony.
I’m just so grateful to be here in the mission that I can’t express it. I’ve realized that about a lot of parts of the Gospel: There’s no way to say it; you just feel it. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and knows me, that He has a plan for me that is perfect, even if I’m not, and I know that this applies to everyone. No matter how much we mess up, our eternal destiny is certain if we just try to do the best we can. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He died for me, just like He did for everyone else.
It’s hard to explain just how much I’ve come to understand these simple things while I’ve been out here these 15 (almost 16!) months, but I know, with every fiber of my being, that it’s true. I have so much faith in these things that I literally cannot stop believing them. All of this is such a big part of me that I can’t imagine life without believing in and knowing my Father and my Savior and everything that they’ve given us. Everything is so perfect and so incredible that it blows my mind sometimes, and I promise everyone that reads this that even if you can’t feel it like I can, it’s true and if you just keep going with a little bit of faith, hope, and good actions, you’ll eventually come to feel it and know it too.
— Elder Schroeder