Come Unto Christ in Colorado Springs: Never Forget Your Mission, Never Forget God's Love

So, we dropped off Elder A at the airport Thursday morning. I had dropped off Elder M about a month ago, but we didn't go inside with him (don't worry, he was an experienced flyer). This time we went all the way to the security checkpoint. The last time I did that was over 18 months ago when we dropped off Elder L off. That was different than now. I met him the day before, and I was only 4 months out. This time I knew the missionary, and I knew I'd be the next missionary going through that airport. Don't worry, I'm not trunky, it was just a fact I noticed, and it made that experience much different than the first. We keep on working hard, and we don't stop until they release us. For those of you who don't know, we sometimes call being released dying. We have a whole mission life lingo. But remember, missionaries never die; They just regroup at home.

The night before we dropped Elder A off, we got to go to Tucanos with President Rehm. I don't think I've ever eaten so much meat in my life. I gained personal insight into the Word of Wisdom that night when it tells us to eat meat sparingly.

We also had zone conference this week. My last one was supposed to have been two transfers ago, but because of rescheduling because of a mission tour coming up, they changed zone conference. That was actually a nice little treat for me. I really like zone conferences, so it was nice to have another one before I went home.

We taught C this week. He is the non-member husband of a member. They came to church a few times before that, and we started teaching them this week. Most of the questions were first about Church organization. The next time we met with them this week, we taught the Restoration, which I'm told they loved (I was on exchanges).

I realized today that this will be the second to last time I will be sending out emails as a missionary. I want to let you all know that my mission has changed me. If you have doubts about serving a mission, don't. It will be one of the most richly rewarding experiences of your life. I thank my God for the blessing of a mission. It's funny, we usually start off on our missions saying, "Now I'll finally repay God, or at least show my gratitude by giving something back." But the whole time, we aren't repaying Him, or even really giving Him anything, He's just showering more blessings upon us the whole time. We start out thinking the mission is our gift to Him, and we find out at the end that it was His gift to us all along. This is a true principle for any act of service, any calling we serve in, any assignment we accept from the Lord. I can't express my gratitude for Him and his infinite generosity. As President Uchtdorft said in the 2015 Christmas Devotional, "This is the One whom we worship. This is the Generous One." Of Him I testify, in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Until next week, see the beauty all around you.

The Lord's Soldier,

Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts