Nearing the End of His Mission

Glen could hardly wait for the calendar to turn to the month of June so that he could happily say, "Ben comes home next month!!!!"  He is doing the exact same thing he did when both Jacob and Abe were gone on their missions.  He counts down from the day they leave until the day they get home.

It is hitting our son that the end is nearing for him as well.  I am sharing the last part of one of his emails because it is very dear to me.  I love to hear him express his gratitude for his opportunity to serve a mission--and it's always heart-warming to hear a child express gratitude to his family as well.

(Excerpt from Ben's May 25th email.)

At the end of zone conference, there were the farewell testimonies. There were 15 testimonies. It was from all of the elders in my group and Elder Christensen's group. It was really weird to think that that was my last zone conference and to give my farewell testimony. It still feels like a long time until I will go home. It was pretty crazy. It was a good start to the week. It is pretty awesome that I have been able to see two Apostles on the mission.

Well, that is about it for this past week. Things are going well and I really love it here! It is awesome to be able to serve God here and help build the church here. Elder Pratt also came with Elder Bednar and during the meeting, Elder Pratt told us that he served his mission in Argentina and at that time there weren't any stakes but now there are over 100. Elder Bednar also said that 40-50 years from now, we will see the progress here and if we come back with our families to Malaysia, we will pass the church and it won't be there anymore because it will have moved to a bigger building and there will be multiple stakes here. 

He said that we can tell our families that we were a part of building the church in Malaysia. It truly has been a great blessing to come here and I am glad I chose to serve a mission. I couldn't have experienced anything like this or learned what I have doing anything else. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement! I couldn't have done it without you Mom and Dad! I hope that things are going well back home! Love ya!

Elder Thomas