Yep, the very last email! The next post in Lawrence's words will be a blog post straight from him! This was received on 2/8.
Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your love, letters, prayers, pictures, packages, support, care, for everything you've done to make this such a wonderful mission, and for everything you've done to make this missionary feel wonderful!!!!!! I really can't thank you enough for how faithful you've all been in writing me and telling me about how your lives are doing. Every so often I hear from other missionaries how their family hasn't written for a long time and then I think about how wonderful my family has been that I've never really opened an empty e-mail inbox. It's because I have the best family in the world :) !
This is indeed the fateful last e-mail I'll be sending from Argentina so I had better make it a good one. I was thinking about sending pictures but then I realized that ya'll will be able to look through my entire collection of pictures pretty soon. This way I'll have more time to write as well. I hope all of you have been reading each other's e-mails to me as well. It's so great to see everyone's personality as they write. I can see you talking to me as I read your e-mails. I loved especially this week when Dad told me about his spreadsheet that he made to calculate how much time I have left on the mission. I know I would have done something like that if I was waiting for someone else's mission. There's just something about spreadsheets that make numbers so much more vivid. Lisa's pictures have always been wonderful and have helped me to feel so much closer to ya'll. Julie's always had great funny stories and adventures to tell about everything from tons of snow to being a Word Processor. Jennifer has helped me to remember High School and what's going on in California. Mom has been so good that she basically never missed a week writing her e-mails! She's shared her strong testimony of this work and has build such a great connection now that we have this wonderful country, Argentina, to share. I know we'll be talking for hours about all of the funny experiences we share and how Argentina has made such an impact on our lives. There's no place like it anywhere else in the world. I'm going to miss everyone and everything here but God always puts us where He wants us to be. He has wanted me to be in Argentina but soon He will want me to be back with all of you.
Through every experience I've had here I've just gained a stronger testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church on the face of the Earth. There has been no religion, thought, or organization comparable to the very hand of God which has guided this church. No evil man could have written the Book of Mormon and no good man would have. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restauration and no man can honestly deny the power that he had and has. A single man could not have accomplished what he accomplished without the very help of God, our Heavenly Father. The Holy Ghost testifies of the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon to all who are willing to listen and make the sacrifice it implies. All who are willing to truly search will learn of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon but those who seek to find fault in the book must fight against the very power of God. For trusting in the flesh of their own arm they will not be able to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ but will only destroy themselves against it.
I, as well as many other members of this church, have paid a high price to gain and strengthen a testimony of Jesus Christ and His teachings. Would the price have been any higher, I would have paid it just the same. There has been no more fruitful period of my life than these past two years. No school, no job, no training, and no experience could have produced even a fraction of the change that this mission has caused in me. I can say with all the power of my heart and spirit that I know that Jesus Christ lives. He is the Savior and the Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament. He speaks to His prophets. He speaks to President Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, and all twelve of the Apostles. Jesus Christ formed one church and that church has been restored to the Earth. I would rather lose my life than my testimony of Jesus Christ because I would not truly lose my life but gain life eternal with every one of you in the highest realm of the Celestial Kingdom, in the presense of God Himself. I hope every one of you have a testimony of Jesus Christ but I know you do. I have felt it in your e-mails, letters, and packages. I love every one of you and though I will miss Argentina I look forward to seeing you. Give me these few more days which God has seen prudent to give me and then I'll return.
Have an excellent week!!! See you soon!!! I love you!!! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Lawrence Williams, Jr.
P.S. I might be able to check-in on a cyber next Monday for a few minutes so send any requests of something you can only buy in Argentina. The scriptures say "Ask and ye shall receive" :) .
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