Week 78 - Grateful for my mission

I never thought this day would come but here we are and it's my last Pday. But a weekly email from Sister Baggett would not be the same without a miracle story, so we'll start with that! 

The best story from the week was a follow up on Bruce who I talked about last week. The Ward stepped up big time to make sure this Veteran's Day Service thing happened. A couple member families decorated boxes and a couple others made homemade cookies to give to the vets. They we met with the youth on Thursday night to put together the boxes and Bruce came and gave a little presentation on the importance of Veterans Day and he was able to meet and talk with many of the members. The youth loved his presentation too! 

So then we get all the boxes together and then Friday which was the actual holiday, we sat outside the Texas Roadhouse because they were giving free lunch to vets and had some scouts there to hand them all out! We were worried we had made too many boxes to hand out, but the 30 we made were gone within 15 minutes! Everything just worked out so perfectly and Bruce and some other Ward members started to plan of how they could make next year even better and bigger!! It was just such an incredible thing to see all the Ward come together to serve and help a man accomplish something he knew would be a good thing. It really is one of my favorite feelings to be able to help someone accomplish something they are passionate about.

Veteran's Day service with Tami, Sarah, Bruce and the boys.

As I've come to the close of my mission I have been feeling an incredible amount of gratitude. Before I left on my mission I felt It would be a sacrifice for me to go out for a year and a half and not think of my personal plans, to only think of others. I thought I was coming to Missouri to help others change their lives and so they would understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Little did I know then on of the biggest reasons I needed to be on a mission was so Heavenly Father could change my life, so he could help me understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those others things happened like I thought they would, but my mission has truly changed me. I'm still learning and I still have a long way to go but I am so grateful for all my mission has done for me. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that my mission really wasn't a sacrifice on my part, but it would have been a sacrifice for me not to come. A sacrifice of getting to know amazing people, getting to feel the spirit so strong every day, getting to see people change their lives, a sacrifice of time with my savior. It would have been more of a sacrifice not to come. 

I hope you all know that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, he is truly our Savior. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and when we read it we can feel the love from our Heavenly Father. I know that when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be happier than we ever can be with out it. I have had more support on my mission than I could ever dream of. Thank you to all of you, my mission would not have been the same without all of you. Love you all and see you later this week.

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

The Neilson Family

PDay lunch.