What a Perfect, Divine Choice

What can I say.

Wasn't it just yesterday that we started? That I grabbed you so tight in the airport and hugged you, realizing that 18 months was a short time compared with the blessings that laid ahead? Hasn't this past year and a half flown by? I almost feel like they are sending me home early, because it feels like yesterday that I was in the restaurant eating breakfast with Dad, super nervous with my stomach churning, it`s seems like yesterday that I got here to Mexico and learned how to work with pesos and it seems like yesterday when I cried and cried, not understanding a word of what they were saying, just yesterday that I started hoping and praying that nothing would happen to my family those 18 months that I was going to give to the Lord.

And oh, how I am given them to Him. I am given Him my heart. My health. My body. My mind. My strength. I have walked thousands of miles, braved hot summers, learned patience as the doors slammed in my face and the people spit at my feet. I have given him my soul as every morning I sought Him in my studies, I grew to love Him more as I read Jesus the Christ, I became a better me as I realized that weaknesses were not the same as sins, and that the mission was an opportunity not just to change my weaknesses, but rather, to change ME. And how He has changed me.

I am more convinced every day that we are part of HIS true and living Church. I am more converted every day to my Savior and Redeemer. It is through Him that we can be saved, and only Him. I understand more how the church works, and why. I have grown to love people more that I have ever loved before, I have gained another family here in Mexico.

How I will miss you, my dear Mexico. How my heart breaks to leave you. The humble people, the venders in the streets, the traditions and abrazos and besos that come with every greeting. The food and smells of the streets, the language and the animo that comes from a culture such as this. I will miss the bus rides and the little stores, the gates that protect all the houses, the natural friendliness and acceptance that all have for us.

Most of all I will miss putting on that plaque everyday. I will miss being a emissary of my Lord and Savior. I will miss serving His children. I will miss it so much. I will miss meeting new people everyday and testifying to them of the love of God and the Restoration and how it can bless their lives and their families.

I will miss it so much.

How did it pass by so quickly?
But I know the Lord has called me home. So I will go and do, and I will put His will before mine. But I will be forever grateful that an apostle of God saw my face and felt the prompting to send me to Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. What a perfect, divine choice.

Our 18 months have come to an end. It has been a beautiful journey, with more blessings than I can count. It has been hard, but VALE LA PENA. so worth it. Thank you for your constant love, support and prayers.

Christ lives and loves us, He has conquered all. This is His true Church and President Monson is His living prophet. HF has a perfect plan for every single one of us, and has made it SO EASY and SO POSSIBLE for us to return to Him. The Book of Mormon is perfect and true, and is what sets us apart. Lives change when we center that life in Christ.

I will never regret having served a mission. It has been, without a doubt, the best, most painful, quickest, most rewarding, year and a half of my life.

I love you. I love Jesus. I love Heavenly Father. I live for them. I live for you.
I will see you soon. Oh, what mixed emotions.

for the last time,  and with lots of love,
Hermana Burton