Everything will be work out

Gatihng, pahngyauh! Family, friends. Let's be real, you're all family. Daih ga! Hm.

Well. Let's just avoid the obvious. I'm stoked to see you soon! It feels wrong to even write about coming home even with only a few days left. Haha.

I won't really try to explain the range of emotions that are all over the place. If you've served a mission, you understand and if you haven't you should! Really there are just no words. In English or Cantonese. Or any language for that matter. It's a little frustrating because it's some of the best joy and excitement while your heart is getting ripped out at the same time..

I feel like in your last email home you're supposed to have some amazing message that's all complicated and eloquent and fancy. It's like you're supposed to be able to somehow shove everything you've learned in the last eighteen months into an email.

And we all know how realistic that is.

But I will share a few things that have really shaped the last 18 months of my time of learning how to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

Number One. The message we share is one hundred percent a message of happiness and peace. I remember clear back when I was still at school at USU and I went up to Beaver for a last ski day. I went up by myself and had a good little conversation with Heavenly Father on my way up to the mountain. I was thinking a lot about my mission and the kind of missionary I wanted to be. I told Heavenly Father that I would promise right then to do my very best and that I was willing to do it His way. At that moment I just felt so much peace and had a reassuring feeling that if I would do that, then I would have a happy mission. Not a perfect mission. Not an easy mission. But a happy mission. I knew I'd make mistakes and I sure wasn't going to be perfect and there would be challenges and struggles, but at that moment I knew that if I did everything I could do, live by His rules and do it His way that I'd be happy.

I would say that I've had a very happy life in general, but these last 18 months I've really learned to be of good cheer and be happy in whatever circumstances. If you think about it, eternity is a real long time. If we don't figure out how to be happy in the moment then eternity is going to be hou sunfuh... (real tough.) So I'm grateful for that! I honestly loved every transfer, every companion, every investigator, every area (which was easy with only 2 :) and I can honestly say I've had a happy mission! I know that happiness is only available when we do things His way - and that goes for life, not just a mission! It's the real deal.

Number two. Obviously you're never fully prepared. Someone at the MTC said "you might be prepared, but not for what's going to happen!" Which is true. Haha but I feel like thanks to lots of friends, especially recently returned missionary friends, I had a pretty good idea of how hard a mission was going to be. But I was not prepared for the amount of pure joy and love I would feel as a missionary. It's indescribable. I love HK, I love these people, I love these missionaries I've served with, I love the members, I love the investigators, I even love chicken feet more than I thought humanly possible. But more importantly, I've learned to love my Heavenly Father and my Savior more than I though I ever could. I know that they are real, actual beings with real love that is bigger than we could ever imagine. They want to help us so much more than we even want to be helped!

Number three. Sometimes you come on a mission thinking that after you're done that you will be this "perfect person" with "everything figured out." Well spoiler alert, doesn't happen. I don't think I've ever been more aware of my faults and weakness than I have here in HK. But I'm grateful for that because it's taught me to rely on my Heavenly Father and slowly use how to apply the gift of the atonement that we teach about every day! A mission hasn't made me perfect and I still got a long way to go, but I feel what a mission has done for me is to open my eyes to see much more clearly where I'm at and where I need to get where I really want to go. And in the words of someone much wiser than me (Ann Thorpe) "a mission doesn't end, it just changes." I'm excited to continue this mission with all y'all. :)

We had a recently returned missionary who spoke in our ward yesterday. He spoke directly to us and told us never to give up and then in broken English said, "Everything will be work out."

Oh how we loved that.

Everything will be work out!

I promise that is so very true! It's true because the gospel is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true church on the Earth today. He has given us so many ways to draw closer to Him. Prophets, The Book of Mormon, commandments, it's all real, it's all true and it truly is the way to true happiness. We have a loving Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ truly is our Savior and Redeemer. It's so simple. That's why it's so great!

I love you more than you'll ever know. I can't thank you enough for the prayers, support, encouragement and love that you've given me. See ya real soon. :)

Love,
SisterRobinson