Week 100...Every Good Thing Comes to an End

December 5, 2016

Every Good Thing Does Come to an End

Welcome to the Weaver Report…

So this is it people. My time as a missionary is really coming to a close and I can hardly believe it. I'm not really sure how to feel because I mostly just feel tired. The stress never goes away! I just keep trying to help the zone and help the missionaries out, and then there's the stress of just making sure I end strong. The worst part is that Elder Villota's back is doing horribly and this week was anything but ideal for us, but we still baptized! Nicole and Josefa entered into the waters of baptism this Saturday night and I had the amazing opportunity of baptizing them! I'm sad to say it, but it looks like they were my last baptisms in the mission. This doesn't mean that I'm going to go into cruiser mode and just coast until the very end! I'm going to go FULL GAS VOMIT up until the moment I walk up those stairs and see you guys in the Denver International Airport! 

The baptism was a little stressful. The girls didn't actually get to the church until 8:20 and the service was set for 8:00. We baptized them at 8:50 and ended at 9:15 and then we blazed out of there to get to the pension on time at 9:30! Obedience with exactness! There is no excuse! The cool thing is that the spirit was still super strong and it was a super spiritual night for me as I got to baptize for the very last time on my mission. My hope and my dream is that I can baptize Marisol before I head out to BYU! It's not my last time being wet in December! 

I gave my farewell testimony in church yesterday because this coming Sunday is Stake Conference here in San Antonio. I talked about a lot of things, but I mostly just talked about pride and how pride is truly the pitfall and grand stumbling block to all of our lives. I finished the Book of Mormon again this week as well, so I expressed how interesting it is that in the beginning of the Book of Mormon it starts with the pride of Laman and Lemuel and ends with pride as the Nephite nation is destroyed. I expressed how out of all the things that the Book of Mormon teaches us, I think that one of the key principles that God wants us to grasp out of all the Book of Mormon is that pride kills progression and pride kills exaltation. I finished by saying that while my testimony hasn't changed much from the time I was a greenie up until now in terms of words, I can now say that the words I say in my basic testimony have much more meaning and much more importance in my life then what they had when I first started the mission. The reason is because God has truly changed my nature and has molded me into the man He wants me to be. I now have a very different perspective on the world around me and I can truly say that I have lived my mission without regret, not because I've been perfect, but because I've repented sincerely and I can truly say that I understand repentance and I understand this gospel in a way that I simply did not understand when I first got into the mission as a punk, self-centered, 19 year old teenage kid. That being said I just want to say that I know that this gospel is true, I know that José Smith was and is a prophet of God and that he was an instrument in the Lord's hand to restore the true church, I know that The Book of Mormon is true, I know that Christ lives and that He loves us with an infinite love, and I know that the Atonement works, I know that Heavenly Father lives and loves us as well and that's why he's created a perfect plan of happiness so that we can live with Him and our families forever. The mission has been the best two years FOR my life; they haven't been the best 2 years of my life, but FOR my life. I can't even begin to express how I feel, but it is all summarized with the simply assurity and knowledge that I know that Jesus Christ lives and that this is His church and His gospel. I love Him more than I can put into words and that's why these 2 years have been OH SO WORTH THE PAIN AND THE EFFORT! I know I have 1 more P-day left, but it looks like I won't have much time to write next Monday! 

I love you all a ton! Wow will it be cool to see all of you again! It's going to be weird going home to cold and snow! 

Elder Weaver 

 

This is the family Connor baptized last year, and they will be going through the temple in January! The dad just baptized his youngest son last week. He LOVES this family!

The last baptisms of his mission! Nicole and Josefa!