So, A lot has happened in the week and a half it's been since I wrote last. I'm no longer in the Bronx, but my visa came and I am writing from Australia. Funny story...
So I had been working with some investigators and such, and was having a fair bit of success. The people in the Bronx were amazing, and I loved them. My companion and trainer, Elder Fuller had been steadily increasing the amount of work, we had been slowly but surely increasing the numbers for the area, and we were starting to see some real growth in our investigators. Then, as I was out getting lunch after the district meeting on Monday, I was at the Checkers off Fordham near the church, and I got a call from Sister Dennison who worked in the mission office. She informed me that my visa had arrived and that I needed to get my things ready because my flight left at 6 PMthat afternoon. This call was received around 2 PM. Due to the international nature of the flight, I needed to be at the airport by 4 with an hour long drive from the Bronx to JFK. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise that I had a little less than an hour to prepare my things and get ready to go to Australia. After getting the call, I waited for my food to come, ran over to a cee and cee department store, bought a suitcase, ran back to the church to pick up my backpack and say good bye to the rest of our zone, and ran home with 30 minutes to pack...
The rest of my mission can be summed up through reading my posts sent via email. The purpose of this post is to sum up some of my final feelings and bring some closure in my mind to the events that led to me finishing my mission early. Earlier today I read a blog post by another missionary who served in the same mission that I did. She went through a similar experience. She was so open and honest, and through her display of courage, I figured that I could do the same. (Her post can be found HERE ) To provide a short disclaimer, the things expressed in this post are entirely my own thoughts based on my own knowledge and experiences. They may not always be accurate because I don't know everything, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to investigate and form their own conclusions. In August of 2013, 5 months after I left on my mission, an ugly beast that had plagued me most of my life, decided to manifest itself in the most forward and unavoidable way. For most of my ...