Email - June 9, 2012

 It has been... and will be another long, adventurous week with exchanges! That is our assignment for my last weeks, give it all and leave the mission better. Oh buddy have we been traveling. It has been a blast though. I couldn't ask for a better way to end. I get to be with many missionaries, still teach lessons and feel the spirit in investigators, still contact people, see growth in many aspects in the mission and know that I have been somewhat of a help, and of course... see old sectors!

 I love this aspect of Sacrifice and I have been learning by experience. The other day I had a moving experience. We ran to a city 2 hours away to help some missionaries pack, leave a house behind and secure things over in that zone. One of the missionaries has had a really hard mission. On the bus ride there, I was really tired and planned on simply sleeping, yet received the subtle impression that put me in the shoes of the missionary right next to me. How is he feeling right now? What is in his head? How can I help him out? Thoughts of him filled my mind, so I finally began a conversation that turned out very edifying. The missionary broke to tears with me, had a few doubts about the success of his mission and the hope of his future, things that blew me away. I was able to listen as he vented, share a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon that came to my mind and lighten the load of another in struggles. He thanked me after for the help I had given him and he was going to try to put it into practice, yet I knew if I hadn't followed the spiritual impressions of been worthy to receive them, that bus ride would've simply been filled with catching up on sleep and another missionary still stuck in doubt and loss of hope.

 I love what Pres. Uchtdorf said in his talk on pride. With such emphasis in his voice he exclaims 'There are so many people in NEED whom WE could be thinking about instead of ourselves.' and it is oh so true. Many times we judge others for who they are and every time we do, we go wrong. Many times we lose time thinking of ourselves, and it doesn't come back. There is no such thing as bad people, simply people who don't know they need to change, they don't know how to change, or they need a helping hand. That is where we step in. Christ is He who will judge, we are here to lift others to see and obtain their potential. I love this work with all my heart. Christ is my Savior. The road is long and it is the best. The Book of Mormon saves lives, let us read it, let us apply it, let us share it.

 Elder McGinn

 I guess I should add in that I love you all too... ;)