Monday, July 22, 2013

Farewell!

So on Wednesday, July 24th I will be leaving for the Provo MTC! Until my visa comes and I can go to the Madrid MTC, this will be my address:
Sister Casey Lynn Andrew
SEP04  SPA-MAL
2011 N 900 E Unit 235
Provo UT 84602

I would love to hear from you! My parents will be updating this blog with my weekly emails home! They will also update my address!

I am incredibly excited to have been called to serve this mission. I know I will grow in new ways and become the person Heavenly Father knows I can be.  So for my first post, I will share the last part of my farewell talk and my testimony. Enjoy!



Lastly, I just wanted to share one of my favorite stories that I’ve heard all year. To me, this story truly describes the purpose of missionary work. I heard the story from someone who had heard it in a Sacrament Meeting. There was a missionary who was just getting ready to receive his mission call. The night before he opened it, he had a dream about the pre-mortal life. In this dream, he was also waiting for a call, but it was a different kind of call—a call to Earth. A friend of his was also waiting with him. He did not know this person on Earth but in the pre-mortal life he knew that this was an extremely close friend. Both men received their calls. The man telling the story said that his call said that he would be born in the United States where he would be free to practice his religion and into a family that had the true gospel. His friend, on the other hand, got a call that said he would be born in the poorer country of Costa Rica. He was told that he would not be born into the gospel and that his life would be difficult. In his dream the man promised his friend that he would find him in this life and bring him the gospel. Then he woke up and later received his mission call. He was called to labor in Costa Rica. A ways into his mission he wrote to his home Bishop and what he wrote in the letter was, “I found my friend.” This story gives me chills every single time I think about it. Sharing the gospel is not simply about finding random strangers who need to hear the gospel, it’s about finding our friends, our brothers, our sisters. These are people we already know and love. We must be willing to take the truth to them.
I want to share my testimony that I KNOW that this is the one and only true Church on the Earth. I know that in no other place can we find such great happiness. It doesn’t mean life is easy, it just gives us an eternal perspective that helps us better understand why we pass through sorrow and hardship sometimes. I know how incredibly blessed I am to have the gospel in my life and I am so humbled that Heavenly Father has asked me to assist in the work and to teach His children. I know that through obedience to the commandments comes blessings. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that following its teachings brings you closer to Christ. I know that Joseph Smith truly saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and restored the true Church to the Earth. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today and is the Lord’s mouthpiece. I know that Jesus Christ died for all of our sins. Above all, I KNOW the Lord lives today and that He loves each and every one of us.

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