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zachary.trayner@myldsmail.net

Monday, May 13, 2013

1

Fam, Welp, down to the last week in the mission! Next week I`ll arrive back in Texas to spend some quality time with mom and pops. The mission has been so amazing. I really can say I`ve seen miracles as I`ve served with the Lord. I would like to share what the mission has meant to me as this is the last week I`ll have to share it as a missionary. More than 3 years ago before I left out to the MTC and the mission I had a testimony. I think I`ve always had a testimony of the restored gospel, but while in Argentina I started seeing miracles and by my obedience and diligence I became converted to the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. The time in my first area (8ish months) was a time that I know the Lord gave me to be able to change my heart and become the person I have become today. I then faced a lot of trials which made me recognize my weaknesses as I moved forth to my next areas. In the end I realized I couldn`t do the work alone and that I needed to fix some things in my life. I believe that to have been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I knew that as a consequence for my actions I would have to return home, but I had faith that it was what the Lord wanted and that if I did my part He would make up for what I couldn`t do. As I returned to Texas I felt the full weight of the consequences of my decisions and found myself feeling utterly alone, as I didn`t know anyone other than my parents. I remember that the stake president invited me to a ysa pool party at his house and I went and felt super awkward and then at church on Sunday nobody even really said hello other than the ward mission leader to ask if I would be attending there for a time. Despite those trials I was able to put my confidence in the Lord and continued doing everything within my power. On the outside I wasn`t sure if I would finish the mission, but on the inside I knew it was what I had to do and what I desired most. I passed through a time of depression, but at last the Lord helped me to associate myself with other people that lifted me up and I was able to lift others as I continued in faith accompanying the missionaries. The Lord made my burdens light. I struggled to return to the mission field, but with time I was ready to leave again. I had a very strong to desire to return to Argentina, I really had left a piece of me there as I had to leave without goodbyes without feeling that my work had finished. I waited 6 agonizing months in the hope that the Lord would help me receive my new visa to be able to go, but I realized that that wasn`t the plan God had in mind for me. I accepted to be reassigned, unknowing if the 6 months I had served in Texas would count. As I received my call to Chile, I knew it was an inspired call, because I, myself, had ruled out the possibility of serving outside the US. My time here in Chile has possibly been the most trying of my time in the mission, as I served in Illapel in a very small branch helping out in the branch presidency and many other assignments, but the Lord helped me through. Here in Ovalle I thought that I had the family I had always prayed for, but now they have rejected the message, but I don`t complain. I know it is for something, and that the Lord has been able to use me as a tool in His hands in this work, and that is what has brought me the greatest satisfaction. The mission is a life changing experience. The purpose of this life is to go through experiences that help us to become more like our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, but we have to work at that and trust in the Lord because He knows better than us. How grateful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him that we can achieve happiness, peace, and receive forgiveness in this life. It is only through Him that we can be reconciled unto the Father and receive all that He hath if we are faithful. Love you family! I will be seeing some of you next week and others of you a little bit later! Thanks for all your support during these 3 years, you all have changed my life forever and I know you`ll always be by my side to help me along.

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