Turning into a Leopard

First of all.  I am not dying, I do not have any weird tropical disease.

I am simply turning into a leopard.  Or at least that´s what I tell people.

What I have is basically a heat rash.  It happens when you take a white gringo from cold utah and make him sweat more than he has sweat in his entire life, in a matter of 7 weeks.

It is not dangerous, I just have to put on a lotion every day and bathe twice daily.  It should go away in 3 to 4 days.

This week was great.  First of all great because I stayed in my area.  I will be finishing my mission with Elder Hernandez.  All the other missionaries are trying to make my baggy, but I strive onward, leaving them all behind.

I am doing my best to make sure I work just as hard (or harder) than I have in all previous changes.  Thus the skin
condition for sweating a lot.

I am happy, happier than I could ever describe, and I am sad, sadder than I could ever describe.  I feel the ending, and at the same time, a beginning.  But I always feel the saddness knowing that I will never be a missionary here again.

So I follow onward, or as they say it here, Estoy en la lucha.  The fight against evil, and tiredness.

I am so grateful for my time here, I have loved it and I don´t want it to end, but all things have to end.

Please take care of yourselves, and I will do the same here.

I love you,

Elder Henrie

What was the most important thing you learned on you mission?

That when you stop worrying about what others think, and it only matters what God thinks, is when you are so happy nothing can cover it.

How did the Atonement change you?

It helped me change little by little, slowly recognizing weaknesses and making them strengths.  As I realized how much it cost, it helped me make sacrifices to help others.  As I understood what it has done, it made me eager to help others be changed by it.

Did you love your mission? Why? How did you develop that love?

Please don´t talk about it in past tense yet, I still have 39 days left.

I have loved my mission more than anything I can describe except maybe my family.  I have learned firsthand that there are wonderful people in all places, languages, and walks of life.  As I received so much love, It just became normal to give it back.  As I worked and helped people, and I saw how it helped them, I felt that joy that only comes from the spirit.  It became like an addiction, but a good one.  The children of God are happiest when they fufill their purpose, and their purpose is the same as his, to bring to pass the inmortality and eternal life themselves and others.

I also love it because I learned what is really important, and it basically is that you and your family are truly happy and bound by covenants that you are constantly living.