Happy B-day Mom!!!

MOMMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!
с днём рождение!!! That means happy birthday!!! I was just thinking about last year's birthday PARTY Cami threw for you...jeez time flies. Well, in case you're wondering your birthday and my 8 MONTH mark is on the same day!! It honestly feels like a dream. It was great to hear from you all today! Kyle is going to college?! AHHH that’s nuts! It makes me happy to hear that everything at home is going well. I LOVE hearing from my family! This week for me was the most memorable week of my mission, which is ironic b/c it absolutely FLEW by. After last week's emails form every single one of my family members, I felt your love and I felt your prayers. I hate trying to write it all down b/c it’s impossible to describe everything and how everything went down but pretty much if you want to see miracles, just look. I remember a letter Cami wrote me; in it she said to look for miracles every day, when I read that I thought to myself ok, but didn’t really put too much thought into it. Then this week opened my eyes. I started feeling closer to my Savior and as a result I started seeing more and more. I've come to a conclusion that the Gospel is just a more intense way to live haha. Higher highs and lower lows. What the Gospel helps me understand is that you CANT experience the highest of highs without experiencing the lowest of lows. Something I’ve learned on my mission is, you’re going to find what you're looking for. That goes both ways. If you look for miracles, you're going to see them. If you look for bad pictures on billboards....that’s exactly what you're going to see. I've started to try and apply that principle in my life, and it’s very interesting to see how much my attitude truly does change everything. I’m so grateful for the Atonement in my life. I still feel like I’m living below my privileges. The atonement covered/s everything. That includes all bad and all good. I'm trying to use the enabling power of the atonement more in my life along with the redeeming power of the atonement. We are our biggest critics. IN life you have to learn that you are not PERFECT, especially being on a mission where that’s what you feel like you have to be. The whole" no regrets" thing on your mission is kind of hard for me to grasp. From my experiences, the times that I’ve learned the most on my mission are the times where I look back and say, dang...I could have worked harder. Why? b/c when I look back at something that I did or didn’t do, I regret, BUT it makes me want to change and be better. Therefore helping me learn and grow. Also, none of us are perfect. Another thing that I’m beginning to learn is that we need not to demand perfection, that’s impossible. What we do need to demand is improvement. I love this Gospel and opportunity to serve b/c it’s helped me learn so much about myself and who I want to become. The mission is an MTC...Marriage training center. How can we tell if we were successful on our missions? When a mission president asked Pres. Faust how he could tell if he was a successful mission president, Pres. Faust said, “tell me where your missionaries are at in 20 years, that’s how you can tell if you were a successful mission president." Anyways, I just realized that my letter was all over the place, but those were just my thoughts that I’m having right now. I love you all so much. I’m having the best experience for my life and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Live every day to the fullest. Stop worrying so much about the future. When we do that, we miss out on today.
Have a great week!

- Старейшина Руни