The last remarks of a dying missionary.
Here we are. Two years of missionary service. Who would have dreamed they would go by so fast? I only wish that I had more time. I feel the true weight of my calling as a missionary, and I realize that I didn't always appreciate how important the work I am doing is.
It hasn't been easy. In fact this has been the most emotionally, physically, and mentally taxing thing I have ever done. Elder Fox and I were having a conversation the other night about how it just feels like a dream sometimes, that we are here in pretty much the farthest corner of the earth, speaking a language most people have never heard of, walking through hills and rice patties to interrupt people in their daily lives to tell them that in 1820 a 14 year old boy prayed in a grove of trees, saw God and Jesus Christ, and proceeded to restore the gospel to the earth. Worth it. I would do this again in a heartbeat. No question in my mind. No matter how depressed and blue I have been, no matter how frustrating it is to try to teach people that won't understand, I would do it again to experience those good moments. I feel, sometimes, like Nephi. 2 Nephi 32:7 "I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance. and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, now understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them i plainness, even as plain as word can be." Unfortunately, it is time to move on.
I know I am still a long way from being perfect. In the words of Elder Fox, "If Joseph Smith was a rough stone rolling, I'm a brick sliding." However, I am determined. I have felt the comforting hand of the Lord in my life, and I will never go back.
I know that my Redeemer lives. I have not seen Him, nor touched the nail prints in His hands, but were I to do so I don't know if I could know any more certainly that He lives.
I love you, and I hope you know that I wouldn't have made it here without you. I am forever grateful for that, and I hope that some day I will be able to repay you but for now my gratitude will have to suffice.
And now I, Elder Galbreath, make an end to my speaking and bid thee farewell, until I shall be brought forth triumphantly, flying through the air in a 777 and am brought forth to meet you in an airport terminal.
Tsarovy
Elder Galbreath the fifth
