This is it, everyone. The end has arrived. My time spent for the best two years in the Oklahoma City Mission is up. My thoughts, as you might imagine, have been filled with nostalgia and reflection over the events that have gone on in the past two years. I thought about the Savior's mission in Jerusalem, especially the times when He entered into a new city or into a new environment and ministered to the people that needed Him at the time. What a sight to behold! The news of His presence and His fame was spread all throughout the land.
Another thought on my mind is the things I've learned since I've been out here in Oklahoma. I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that though I have learned a lot, I will always be learning and will continue to learn. So with that being said, why not pursue learning for the rest of your life? You may never know it all, but how much of an advantage will we have in the life to come? Tuesday was a great example of that. Our mission had Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge come out for a mission tour. He talked about his famous missionary talk, "The Fourth Missionary" and talked about how to teach people better. One thing I gained from him was learning to tell people the "why" of missionary work. In a church that focuses so much on the dos and don'ts, it's really easy for people to miss the point of why we must live the gospel the way we do. In Preach My Gospel it talks about how people will more readily accept the gospel if they understand what's being taught, and that people need a reason to live the gospel--that reason is change through repentance.
It's pretty good that Elder Corbridge came to our mission this week, because missionary work has come to a close since then. On Wednesday we were informed officially that our ward would be losing a set of elders, and since I depart the mission this week, the obvious choice is our area's companionship. Elder Tanner is also leaving, and he's going to be a Zone Leader in Norman. The Assistant to the President said that it would be up to us as to how the areas would be divided. The sisters will be taking over our area and most of our investigators, less actives, and recent converts. The other elders are also moving out of their apartment into our apartment, and the mission office will be closing the older apartment. Since we received that news, we've spent many hours just in the past few days getting the area ready to be handed off and the other apartment ready to be closed. We still have a ways to go, and a lot has to happen in the next few days.
A few events with investigators did happen, however. We were able to teach Stephanie the Word of Wisdom and hand her off to the sisters. We also set a baptismal date with Dayton, our 13-year old referral. Saying goodbye to Memery and Zavior is going to be so hard... Zavior is going to be devastated when he finds out both Elder Tanner and I are leaving. He will be such a great example for his family.
Interestingly enough, I ended my mission the same way I started it when I came out to Oklahoma: storms. The rains came and the tornado and flash flood warnings were announced. Wednesday through Saturday we had torrents and the most tsunami-esque weather I've seen out here! It's a surprise that no tornadoes touched down over here. I will always remember Oklahoma for its unpredictable weather.
To end this week, I got to go down to Sulphur for one last visit. I got to have lunch with Michelle and Tammy McElvany. In so many ways they stayed the same, yet in other ways they've changed completely. I'm so incredibly blessed to have been able to meet the people that I did, and that I didn't get to miss out on the opportunity to serve a mission for Heavenly Father preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
These really are the most amazing and best two years of my life. I'll see y'all in Utah!
—Elder Garner
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