Everlasting Beginnings

This last transfer in the Washington Vancouver Mission has been a crazy one. I have had to say goodbye to another companion (my 6th in the last 7 transfers), watched great missionaries/friends go home, and witness the Lord hasten the work by calling two English assigned sisters to speak ASL and Spanish. While reflecting about the reasons for these changes, I remembered President Uchtdorf's talk "Grateful in Any Circumstances". My favorite quote from this talk says this:

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.

 

"Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless‍ and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny.

 

"The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful.

 

"How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

 

I have a testimony that these changes that have taken place here in Washington are not true endings. It is only part of the everlasting beginnings. God has a plan for us. It is an infinite plan. These small changes that take place in our life is only part of that plan in preparing us for the eternal progression he wants us to have. I am so grateful to know that our Heavenly Fathers plan is a perfect one.