Elder Ryan Phillip Lawter

Hey everyone!!!

Things are going pretty good here!!! We've been having a lot of small

successes a little bit at a time. You know when Elder Hill and I first got

here it looked like our backs were up against the wall and that we were bout

ready to take a climb on Mt. Kilimanjaro....aka tall..or so I hear... but

it's been amazing the support and love of the members and even people that

we dont even know just wrapping their arms around us and taking us in like

we were their own. We have dinners pretty much like every night...which has

it's pro's and con's especially since I'm headin home next month but you can

tell that the members just already love us and I'm sure it's the same for

all the missionaries passin through here in Ramona. But as I've started to

come down to "my last days" it's been kind of a surreal thing to overcome.

There's a lot of emotions definitely coming on a mission and leaving home

but I think there might be more emotions leaving your mission then going in.

My mission has been an experience un like any other. It's been filled with

ups but then again it's been filled with a lot of downs and trials but

through it all looking back it's seemed that I've forgotten the little

everyday trials and can remember only the miracles, the joy, the happiness

of it all. Most of the progression that I've done in my life has been

here... on my mission...so how can you be disappointed with the results. But

I've been thinking a lot of the word enduring and not only to endure but to

endure it all well. There's a lot of things in our lives that we "endure" so

to say...maybe it's enduring through sorrow, maybe grief, maybe a person,

maybe a chick flick for us guys (momma mia) and maybe a kill everything you

see movie for the girls (no such thing) because we want to make the person

who we go with happy. So if these things deserve the terminology as endure,

sacrifice, give up something...then why do we do it? Why do we subject

ourselves to these kind of things. Maybe it's just cuz we're weird and like

to have sucky times....or on the other had because we know what lies on the

tomorrow of endurement..."the greener grass on the other side".  When the

Prophet Joseph Smith was incarcerated in the Liberty Jail during probably

the climax of the persecution the Saints faced in Missouri and at probably

so history says one of the worst winters recorded it brought the Prophet to

the point to ask where God was...why was there so much suffering? and when

was it going to stop? and then the answer came "My son, peace be unto thy

soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And

then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt

triumph over all thy foes." The answer didn't come right away...but the

answer did come and at the time that it was needed the most and at a point

that everything seemed hopeless. And that is when He delivers. At the time

when we really need Him the most. So my mission has been a lot of enduring;

with spanish, investigators, and a lot of unseen factors too but through it

all I've felt the Lord's hand for sure in my life and sustaining me more

than ever but on a bigger sense to everyone that is passing through times of

trial and suffering...never give up or never give for it's after the trials

of your faith that you receive the witness. And as the Apostle Paul said

"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things,

believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians

13:7). It's not easy...nothing in life is easy or is it suppose to be easy

but with the peace and serenity of God it's possible and not only possible

but bliss after it's all said and done. Remember the promise the Lord gives

and take that and run. So think again what Paul said to his son "Thou

therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ".... and "If we

suffer we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us"

(2 Timothy 2)

All is well. Trust in God and always trust in good things to come.

All my love,

Elder Lawter