6.30.15 LAST EMAIL

I wanted to send you a couple awesome emails I received from friends this week:

Hey man, I know this is your last p-day and then you are home!? How do you feel?? I’m proud of you, brother, and really know that you changed a lot of lives while you were in the mission and that you served the Lord diligently with all your heart and soul.  I know it and I love you for it and I am grateful for your great example.  You are an amazing man and now it’s time for the rest of your life! It is a lot harder than the mission and A LOT more dangerous. Just make sure that you review those goals you set.  Go over them regularly and you don’t vary. Don’t worry about being that awkward return missionary.  It’s a good thing. Being normal is overrated, so be awkward and be careful. Be overly sensitive and selective about the things you do, watch, and listen to. I know you will do great things, man! I love you and am way stoked for you!! I hope you appreciated the last few days of hard work and now you are ready for more work!!! I love you, man, and can’t wait to see you!! Hey, when is the family reunion and where?! I wanna see you, fool! Let me know the details! I’m proud of you man!!   - Tim Rampton

Wow, that's crazy! Enjoy your last week - work hard - seriously, God will use you up until the very last possible moment to spread his word. Haha I got to teach two people on the airplane ride home! Totally wasn't expecting that! But it was a really neat experience. 

Seriously I've never driven so carefully in my life! And my brother thinks he's going to drive it when he gets home. . . haha he's crazy :P 

Well when you're in Utah, look me up! :D (385) 626-9475

So there's just two things I wanted to share with you that helped me a ton coming home. . . 

First, everybody has their personal opinions of when you should "adjust" and "be normal" again. If anything anybody says goes against what Pte. Smith has said, just ignore them. Hahaha I still haven't met someone as in tune with the Spirit as he is! Don't stop doing what you know you need to do. 

Second, God does not ever want us to "be normal" and let go of the mission! There's a difference between adjusting and letting go or conforming. It's the difference between moving forward and moving on. When He decides it's time, the Lord can help you move forward - not move on. God knows! And he'll still be with you and guiding you when you get home! In the mission we catch a glimpse of who we can become eternally, and it's so exciting and motivating. But at home, it's harder to keep that vision cuz Satan and the world want us to be normal and blend in. So whatever guidance Pte Smith has given you, and whatever personal revelation you've received, just hold onto that and make it happen. It's easy to conform, but that doesn't make it right. 

So yup, haha sorry if that sounded preachy, but those are the two things I've struggled with the most since being home and even though I'm still kinda figuring out how to deal with it, these things help. So take it for what it's worth :) 

Have a great week! 

6.30.15 last email

It's the last... email ....Eeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So...this week went by crazy fast! I've basically been saying goodbye to everyone, inviting people to be baptized so that they can go to the temple, and working with the Home and Visiting Teaching lists that our leaders give us. 

We had Family Home Evening with the Ayala family. Hno Ayala is still our Elders Quorum Pte. We always have the best Family Home Evenings when we're with them. He had us write down some of the things that are of great value to us that we've learned on the mission. Then when we were done, we read something that an old stake pres gave them when they were both in institute. It was a list of things that a missionary comes home with (besides souvenirs). A bunch of the things were things that I wrote down and a bunch of the other things were things that I didn't even think about but that are true. I thought a lot about how blessed I am to have served a mission. I also thought about how much those that don't serve a mission miss out. Hno Ayala gave me the advice to never forget what I've learned on the mission. He said, ''cherish what you've learned. It is EVERYTHING that the Lord has given you to help you get back to him. What you've learned on your mission is the key to happiness. Never let anyone make you think or feel that what you've learned is good for nothing.'' It was another amazing lesson with him and his wife. 

So what I've been thinking and feeling. I'm really excited and ready to come home! I'm amazed at everything that I've learned and can't believe how blessed I am. I know that I've learned all that the Lord wanted me to learn in these short two years. I've been working really hard through these past couple of months on growing up and becoming more spiritual. I've made some progress but at the same time, I still say dumb things, crack dumb jokes, and I act like a 7-year-old sometimes. I enjoy arguing with people for fun and I fake overly judge people because I think it's hilarious. Idk... I hope I'm weird when I get home. I don't really care too much what others think about me, but I do care about what the Lord thinks about me, what I think about myself and what you guys think about me. I know that I have a lot more to change. It's pretty crazy though that I've been praying about these things and I've gotten emails like this from people. I can't wait to work together on becoming better people. I know that you guys know that I know that you know that I'm not going to be coming home perfect. I'm pretty sure that Mom's going to say a couple times,''2 years and the kid learned nothing (shaking her head)'' but just know that I'm willing to keep changing with you all. Let me know everything I need to do to be better. Please think about what I need to do better to get closer to my Heavenly Father though...not what I need to do to ''be more normal''. Remember, for as spiritual as I may seem when I get home, I still think that farts are funny, girls are cute and that we're aloud to say whatever we want as long as it's a quote from a movie we've all seen. But I love what was talked about in Stake Conference and I'm excited to follow the counsel that we've received from our leaders. If there is one thing that I've learned it is that we HAVE to follow our leaders. I've done it my entire mission and it has worked out every time. 

Thanks for everything though...we're going to have a bunch to talk about when I get home!!! I don't have much time but I'll be seeing you soon. I have a bunch more that I want to write but there's no time. I love you all!!! Thanks for everything! 

All my love,

Elder McRae