Week 88: Lessons learned and blessings received from serving a mission!

It was a good week this week and we got a lot of good work done. There were a few days where the work was extremely difficult, but we pushed through!

My abscesses are all gone and I'll be taking amoxicillin every day for the rest of my mission to prevent them from coming back!

Elder Smith and I are doing really well together!

As for your questions...

1. I don't know if I can narrow it down to one single greatest lesson that I have learned from my mission, plus I am still learning lessons each day, my mission isn't over yet...

But I would say that the biggest lesson that I have learned over these past two years is how to love people and see them through God's eyes. I have really developed a love for everyone that I come to meet and I feel an overwhelming desire to help them with the Gospel and the happiness that it brings to me.

I don't know if that is the GREATEST lesson that I have learned on my mission or not, but that is definitely something that comes to mind. I have learned a lot, Dad. I feel like I've grown up, you know? I just feel different. When I think of the stuff that I used to do or say back home, I just can't help but look down on myself for some of the stupid things that I used to do and say. I think I'm different, Dad. Sometimes it scares me too. I don't know if I still have the same desires that I had before the mission. I just don't know exactly what I want to do with my life. The mission has become my life, but I know that it is just a prepatory phase for the rest of my life, and I don't know if I'm ready...

2. I don't have many specific goals for the rest of my mission. I just want to lose myself in the work. I want to work hard without any regrets, and I've been doing pretty good these past few weeks. I don't have any regrets about the past month or two. I feel like I have become a consecrated missionary and have lost myself in the work.

3. My biggest surprise about serving a mission... I don't know. It has just become my life, so not much surprises me much anymore. I can say that I am surprised at how quickly I recognize the Lord's hand in our work. Something that seems so normal to me is the Lords hand in everything that we do, is still so foreign to other missionaries.   It has become my first thought to recognize the Lord's hand in our work. That change has been a huge surprise to me.

 

Love, Elder Rash

Note from mom:  No pictures or videos this week....but 10 recordings!  He sounds great and is making the most of his time left on his mission.  We are now in SINGLE DIGITS!!!  99 days until this man, who left a boy, comes home!