Hello everybody!
This email will be a little different than usual. It is my last day in the mission field! And I was asked by my mission president to write for him what my mission means to me. I hope that this adequately expresses how I feel. It's kind of long, so if you don't want to read it all you can just scroll down to the bottom and read my testimony at the end:)
Everyone can now get ahold of me at michaelsfrancis@gmail.com ! For those of you on missions, please keep forwarding your weekly emails to my new address! For those who aren't, you can also contact me on Facebook at Michael Francis and on Instagram at michaelfrancis97 (I think... it has been two years hahaha).
I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers, your support, and your love that has made my mission such a life changing experience!
What does my mission mean to me? How does one express the answer to such a powerful and soul-searching question? Well I might've found it to be a bit easier, had my mission not been so meaningful and so life changing as it has. And I believe that as the years go by and the effects of my mission change the course of my life, it will come to mean even more. But for now, I will try to adequately express the depth of my feeling and the extent of just how special and how sacred my mission is to me.
This email will be a little different than usual. It is my last day in the mission field! And I was asked by my mission president to write for him what my mission means to me. I hope that this adequately expresses how I feel. It's kind of long, so if you don't want to read it all you can just scroll down to the bottom and read my testimony at the end:)
Everyone can now get ahold of me at michaelsfrancis@gmail.com ! For those of you on missions, please keep forwarding your weekly emails to my new address! For those who aren't, you can also contact me on Facebook at Michael Francis and on Instagram at michaelfrancis97 (I think... it has been two years hahaha).
I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers, your support, and your love that has made my mission such a life changing experience!
What does my mission mean to me? How does one express the answer to such a powerful and soul-searching question? Well I might've found it to be a bit easier, had my mission not been so meaningful and so life changing as it has. And I believe that as the years go by and the effects of my mission change the course of my life, it will come to mean even more. But for now, I will try to adequately express the depth of my feeling and the extent of just how special and how sacred my mission is to me.
King Benjamin posed a powerful question, "How knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" My mission has been so sacred and so special to me because as I have served the Lord, I have come to know Him so much more.
As I have served the Lord, I have come to love and treasure the scriptures and the time I get to spend studying them. The scriptures contain within their delicate pages the very character and nature of Christ. The words of the scriptures are endowed with power. By feasting upon them and by treasuring them up in our lives we come to know Christ's character. We come to know also how we can develop that character in our own lives.
As I have served the Lord, He has taught me His gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of items that we must complete in order to be saved. It is a pattern of living that cleanses us from our sins and gives us the strength to resist sin. It is the only pattern of living that will prepare us to dwell in the kingdom of God. It is the only way back to our heavenly home. I have become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ on my mission, and I will continue to deepen my conversion by exercising my faith, repenting, renewing my covenants through the sacrament and thereby earn again the promise of the Spirit throughout the rest of my life.
As I have served the Lord, He has granted me the gift of charity. I have come to understand so much more deeply and powerfully the love that God has for His children. He is ever involved in their lives, and He cares immensely for each precious child. In His love, He has prepared a way for every single child of God to return to His presence. He has given me the eyes to see them as His children. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.
As I have served the Lord, he has taught me of His character and attributes and has helped me develop them. When we do what the Lord does, we become like He is. I have learned from His faith, His humility, His patience, His hope, and He has helped me develop greater faith, greater humility, greater patience, and greater hope. As I turn to the Lord in my weakness and rely on His Atonement, He has given me the strength to put off the natural man and become more saintly. He has made my weaknesses strengths.
As I have served the Lord, I have found the Savior's teaching in Matthew 10:39 to be true. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I have strived every day of my mission to lose myself in His service, and He has rewarded me immensely. Words cannot express the gratitude and the joy that I feel, knowing that I was able to be an instrument in His hands to bring some soul to Him. At an early time in my mission, I wrote the following poem called The Servant's Prayer:
As a humble servant I implore thee this day,
For thy will, O Lord, which I long to obey.
I come before thee, brought low by my pride,
In thy spirit and love oh I yearn to reside!
How grateful I am for my favor in thy sight,
For thou art my life and my eternal light.
Countless nights thou hast filled my poor cup,
Through angelic hosts sent to bear me up.
Forgive me, I pray, for my mounting sin,
But know, Blessed Father, I will never give in.
To thy strength I will turn from my error and wrong,
That through thee my weaknesses might be made strong.
With thy master's touch shape my broken heart,
For I am the clay, and the potter thou art.
A tool in thy hand, Lord I long to be,
That I might help bring precious souls unto thee.
Oh how He has shaped my broken heart! He has changed my life.
I could continue forever on all of the things I have learned and the lives that have been blessed through my missionary service, but I will just finish with how as I have served the Lord, He has made Himself known unto me in a greater degree. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that He lives. He suffered and died for the pains and the sins of the world, that all might come unto Him. He submitted perfectly and entirely to the will of His Father, completing all that He was sent to do. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. All that I am and hope to be is because of the Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him so much. I want to give everything to Him, because He gave everything for me. God lives. This is His work. I know it, and it has changed my life forever. That is what my mission means to me.
-Elder Francis
1) the three amigos. I sure love these two. (P.C. To Daniel Rivera, best ward mission leader ever)
As I have served the Lord, I have come to love and treasure the scriptures and the time I get to spend studying them. The scriptures contain within their delicate pages the very character and nature of Christ. The words of the scriptures are endowed with power. By feasting upon them and by treasuring them up in our lives we come to know Christ's character. We come to know also how we can develop that character in our own lives.
As I have served the Lord, He has taught me His gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of items that we must complete in order to be saved. It is a pattern of living that cleanses us from our sins and gives us the strength to resist sin. It is the only pattern of living that will prepare us to dwell in the kingdom of God. It is the only way back to our heavenly home. I have become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ on my mission, and I will continue to deepen my conversion by exercising my faith, repenting, renewing my covenants through the sacrament and thereby earn again the promise of the Spirit throughout the rest of my life.
As I have served the Lord, He has granted me the gift of charity. I have come to understand so much more deeply and powerfully the love that God has for His children. He is ever involved in their lives, and He cares immensely for each precious child. In His love, He has prepared a way for every single child of God to return to His presence. He has given me the eyes to see them as His children. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.
As I have served the Lord, he has taught me of His character and attributes and has helped me develop them. When we do what the Lord does, we become like He is. I have learned from His faith, His humility, His patience, His hope, and He has helped me develop greater faith, greater humility, greater patience, and greater hope. As I turn to the Lord in my weakness and rely on His Atonement, He has given me the strength to put off the natural man and become more saintly. He has made my weaknesses strengths.
As I have served the Lord, I have found the Savior's teaching in Matthew 10:39 to be true. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I have strived every day of my mission to lose myself in His service, and He has rewarded me immensely. Words cannot express the gratitude and the joy that I feel, knowing that I was able to be an instrument in His hands to bring some soul to Him. At an early time in my mission, I wrote the following poem called The Servant's Prayer:
As a humble servant I implore thee this day,
For thy will, O Lord, which I long to obey.
I come before thee, brought low by my pride,
In thy spirit and love oh I yearn to reside!
How grateful I am for my favor in thy sight,
For thou art my life and my eternal light.
Countless nights thou hast filled my poor cup,
Through angelic hosts sent to bear me up.
Forgive me, I pray, for my mounting sin,
But know, Blessed Father, I will never give in.
To thy strength I will turn from my error and wrong,
That through thee my weaknesses might be made strong.
With thy master's touch shape my broken heart,
For I am the clay, and the potter thou art.
A tool in thy hand, Lord I long to be,
That I might help bring precious souls unto thee.
Oh how He has shaped my broken heart! He has changed my life.
I could continue forever on all of the things I have learned and the lives that have been blessed through my missionary service, but I will just finish with how as I have served the Lord, He has made Himself known unto me in a greater degree. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that He lives. He suffered and died for the pains and the sins of the world, that all might come unto Him. He submitted perfectly and entirely to the will of His Father, completing all that He was sent to do. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. All that I am and hope to be is because of the Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him so much. I want to give everything to Him, because He gave everything for me. God lives. This is His work. I know it, and it has changed my life forever. That is what my mission means to me.
-Elder Francis
1) the three amigos. I sure love these two. (P.C. To Daniel Rivera, best ward mission leader ever)
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