Aug. 26, 2013

Dear Family in general,

I honestly can't believe how things are going lately. It was a challenging week, and this district is especially challenging my leadership skills. But this week will be incredible. The Lord has been preparing me through inspirational thoughts from friends and family. Honestly what I've learned about personal revelation on my mission has changed the way I think about everything. I've wanted to be a chiropractor forever, but I've learned that when you are giving all your attention to the Lord, he directs you. I've been feeling a lot of attraction towards helping people find healing and relief from their pain mentally in my mission. I've honestly been kind of puzzled lately because of this. My bendicion patriarcal talks about success in my mission. I have time and again found all the people that are steeped in drugs, alcohol and other serious sins. Very rarely have I baptized anyone that I have found myself. But I feel the spirit work through me to help these people break their addictions. I feel him work through me to comfort broken hearted spouses and give them hope. I watch families come together again. I think I've found a new love in life. I love just listening to people and helping them ease their pain. Obviously the way to do that is coming unto the Savior. The Lord has given me sooooooo many opportunities to do this. The other day I received a super strong impression as I was reading about a woman whose life was destroyed by her husbands addiction. Sooo is the Lord directing me? Probably. Not sure if it's like a career thing or not, but I feel like it is. So I wrote it down and decided to at least check it out after my mission.

<obviously this week I'm also having my midlife crisis. I've been evaluating who I was and who I am. I think there's a little difference. But one day the reality of how much my father in heaven knows me came crashing down on my head, and I realized he knew exactly where I was gonna be right now, and he's ready for me to speed up my progress. There are new challenges. But there is always a solution. It's called the atonement of Jesus Christ. I can't begin to describe the reality of it. It's a sweet relief, an enabling power. It gets me through every day and helps me to have the energy to keep going. It's real.

I love you guys, try to stay strong with all the changes. Heavenly father has a plan for us. I'm proud of you all in my dear Enid Ward!

Love 

Andy