It only takes 18 months....

The question is often asked , "how long does it take to fall in love?" not the here one day gone the next, new, exciting, everything is all good kind of love, I am talking about the even when there is no electricity, pumping your own well water, working in the typhoon rains, come Hell or high water (and sometimes we got both) , stick it through to the very end, makes you want to be better and help others feel better, no going back kind of love and I have a little theory about that......Yesterday I was able to reconnect with one of the Elders that was in the M.T.C. going to the Philippines at the same time I was. He was about 3 Weeks later than me and my district. They were an amazing, very obedient district and I became very close with all of them. In the conversation we had yesterday via Facebook, he couldn't believe how rural the areas were where I was assigned so he asked that I post more of my pictures. I have been home 6 months come Thursday and I still haven't even really unpacked! I know it is shameful but sometimes I just don't want good things end! Daddy made me a built in book shelf for Christmas and I promptly filled it to overflowing with the stuff from the mission. I told all my friends that once I get it painted I am having a huge party and we are all gonna chill and enjoy the splendor....that was 4 months ago. The truth is I will have to put my stuff away and finally house all of my books in that space and that means packing up the best 18 months of my life and putting it under my bed......I don't want to let go. I don't want that wonderful part of my life to come to an end. I told Beckstead, excuse me Kendall, yesterday that I kinda get sad when I look at them and that is why more of them aren't up on my Facebook. But if I had been really honest I would have just said that the pictures are so lame compared to the memories that I really don't enjoy them like I thought I would. Don't get me wrong, they spark other memories that I had tucked away or remind me of details but I feel like that is such a miserable illustration of all the things I was blessed to be able to experience. To see that light bulb finally click in a persons eye and to see them embrace the pure love of Christ is, at very least, life changing. But to be able to be the one who experiences that Christlike, pure, untouched love for a nation, a culture, an area, a lifestyle, a people, or more specifically a person and their family is to know God's choicest blessings. I was changed more than I changed others. I was influenced more than I influenced others and I felt more than I helped others feel of individual worth and the love that My Father in Heaven has more for little ole me. Kendall was one of those that helped me learn, along with Alex, Randy, Tonu, Pita, Michael, Sione, Darius, Dallin, Mum and Dad, Jacob, Kris, Tyler, Jet, Derek, Jared, Dexter, Amy, Rachel, Taryn, Erika, Michelle, Meripa, Mary Ann, Mary Rose, Kala, Ayen, Mercy, Ida, Patricia, and the list could go on for miles. How dearly I love these, God's choicest of children, and how fortunate I was to be able to grow with them. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder but I believe that shared experiences make hearts grow together. One purpose, one faith, one path, one trial after another, one more memory. I have never been so grateful that we can take them, our very own history, with us when we meet Him again. Serving my Heavenly Father and His children is the single best thing I have done in my life so far. Don't get me wrong, I hope that eternal marriage and raising children in the gospel will bring this kind of eternal improvement as well, but to date I can only speak of things I have experienced. But I have also realized, thanks to my friends Kendall and Sione that good things do end but better things come. Good things do end but that doesn't mean that we have to forget them or that those relationships we make here end, that is the beauty of the gospel. The eternal perspective. So the question remains, "how long does it take to fall in love?" and my only answer is......just 18 months.

~AzK~