Visa Update

Hey Family!

This is just a quick letter, don't forward it on or anything. Here is the official email of my reassignment, just thought you might want to glance over it. Thanks for the awesome package! I'm excited to talk to you all in two days on Monday!!!

-Jordan

Attention Missionary:

Please review the attached document concerning your visa.  If you have further questions or concerns, please contact your current Mission President.

Sincerely,
Missionary Department

Dear Elder Hawkes:
By now you are aware that your visa to Taiwan has not yet been approved. While this is undoubtedly a disappointment, please know that we are doing everything possible to secure your visa. We will notify you immediately when it is received. We ask that you and your family members not do anything, such as call or e-mail the consulate, to try and secure your visa more quickly. Such actions may actually slow down the visa process already in place.

While you are waiting, your mission experience in the United States will prove to be a great blessing in your preparation to serve in Taiwan. We encourage you to work hard, remain focused, and be involved in all aspects of missionary work. A you serve the people in the California Modesto Mission, your testimony and ability to teach will increase, you will set the pattern of study and hard work for the rest of your mission, and you will come to love the people.

Both your initial mission assignment and your current mission assignment were made by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If your visa is not granted by the time you are halfway through your mission your current mission assignment will generally become permanent.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your family as you dedicate yourself to preaching the gospel to those who are seeking and ready to accept your initiation to come unto Christ.

Sincerely,
Brent H. Nielson
Assistant Executive Director

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Hi Jordan:

So you know, before we got this email, I did work through Ming Shun (Dennis) Tsai of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco to see what I could find out about the hold up. He quickly identified the problem (emailing me a copy of the problematic check mark) and asked us to get the doctor's signature over the fix. I then called the Travel Office to get clarification on whether that was an MTC form or the original physician's form, but they were already well ahead of me. Bottom line: we did "intervene," but of course we didn't have this letter at the time and so I just went ahead and tapped whatever resources were available. (Mr. Tsai is the one who invited us to the Utah-Taiwan event the other night.) Hope it gets straightened out soon, and--regardless--we're sure you'll "bloom where you're planted."

Talk to you on Monday!

Love,

Dad 

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Dear Family,

It was awesome talking to you this morning! Sorry this is just a short email letting you know I made it to Modesto California safe and sound. I've already seen a semi high-centered on the concrete barriers on the side of a freeway and heard a interesting man tell me they sent us on missions at this time in our lives so that we would be isolated from the world and therefore further strengthen our brain-washing. Yep, I forgot about the world. Well, I'm not sure when I'll send a more substantial letter but most likely soon! The mission president will send a picture of us at the airport. Love you!

-Jordan

Letter from Willy Su

This is an email from Willy Su, who I told you all about. Don't send this out, just read it if you are interested. Thanks Family!

-Jordan

麻煩你了! 幫我傳達給他們 :) Thank you :)

Hello ! missionary, I'm Willy Su ,How are you guys? how's mission study? I want say thank you. Last time you guys taught me in TRC, you let me know the gospel is real, I'm learning a lot, and of your love, now my family is stable ,they are awesome :), because they accept me. I'm so sure BOM is true and gospel is true, I know God will give me a way, and NOW I FEEL FREE :D, I love them and love you guys. Because of you, I'm the person that I am today, thank you .

Hope I have a pleasure to share more with you guys !!! :) 

哈摟! 最近好嗎? 傳教還順利嗎? 我要先跟你們說謝謝，你們上次在TRC的教導讓我感受到福音的真實性，也讓我感受道你們的愛，現在我的家庭非常穩定，他們非常棒，因為他們接受了我!，因為我知道福音是真實的，我知道天父會給我一條屬於我的道路。我現在很自由，我很愛他們也很愛你們，因為有你們的幫助才有現在的我，愛你們。

希望我可以跟你們分享這件事情的過程，我不會忘記們了!! :) 謝謝你們。

蘇福文 Willy Christopher Su

Deferred to Modesto, California

8/5/15

Dear Family,

I assume you have noticed that I am sending an email during a somewhat interesting part of the week. Today I got a letter that I have been temporarily reassigned to the California Modesto Mission because my visa didn't come through. It should just be a very short time, maybe not even a full transfer. They haven't made it clear if I will be speaking English or Mandarin but I have to assume the latter. I still leave the 10th of August, but my flight is much earlier in the day and instead of around 10am I will probably be calling from 6am to 9am if that isn't too early. As of right now, that is all the information they have given me, I can fill you in on anything I learn on Monday when I call. Until then, I'm willing to go wherever the Lord wants me to go and I guess there is something he wants me to do in Modesto, California before I head to Taiwan. I hope everything is going great at home and I'm excited to talk to you this Monday!

Skyping Willy Su

8/3/15

Hey there Family!

Quickly, I feel bad that you have to keep sending out emails every week so if you want to you can just log onto my account for me and put all the contacts that want an email in a group on my account, or send me all of their emails and I can do it. Either way, I just feel bad. And Derek wants on the list: 'derek.ashliman@myldsmail.net'. Sounds like a way fun trip to Yellowstone! I'm about to head out on my 22 month trip to Taiwan! A week from today I will be on a plane to Taiwan. My flight leaves at 11, so if it works for you all I will be calling around 10 on Monday the 10th. I have a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan, a two hour layover, and then the final 3.5 hour flight to Taiwan!!! Today it was raining buckets so it really made me excited to get out there. I also got a haircut and boy did she cut it short. The Chinese is alright, not as well as I would hope, but it's going good! I don't think I need anything else before I leave. I'll try to send a package from Taiwan right after I get there! It's the middle of Monsoon season so it will be crazy in respect to rain. So after the experience with Willy Su in my big email, I'd like to say a little bit more about what happened. That night, I was looking for my wallet because I hadn't been able to find it for like half a week. I literally looked everywhere! I was starting to get scared, and then I was like, "Hey! I haven't even said a prayer yet! What kind of a missionary am I?" So I said a quick little prayer in my heart and the next place I looked had my wallet. Well, I guess I better start praying sooner. That night, a bunch of missionaries were keeping us up. They were up and talking after lights out, and it was making me pretty upset. I thought to myself, "Hey! Why not just go tell them to be quiet and be exactly obedient and maybe it will change their missions!" I thought it was some missionaries upstairs so I went out into the hall to find to my disappointment that it was the other room that had Elders in our district, so I knew them well. I figured I might as well tell them though, so I went and knocked on their door but they didn't hear. I walked back to my room, Elder Jensen walked out the door right before I walked in, and then guess who comes around the corner to find me alone in the hallway? MTC Security. They were doing the rounds to make sure everyone was in bed, and the only reason I was out of bed was because I was trying to enforce the rule he then promptly enforced on me. It was really ironic and pretty funny, but I slept well after. Teton pictures looked amazing! So jealous of you all floating down the river in the big yellow kayaks with beavers swimming alongside (and Mom I'm sorry you 'forgot' your swimsuit, what a shame you couldn't swim in that cold water)! Next email will be from Taiwan with a ton of pictures!!!! I love you all!!!

-Jordan

Brothers and Sisters,

First off, I was thinking that it is the start of a fresh month and the upcoming of new events. For many of you, school and college will be starting and life will get crazy again. For everyone else, I'm sure that the situation is very similar. The point is, I am not sure how many of you continue to read these emails home, and frankly I don't very much care. My hope is that every once in a while you will need a little uplifting thought, a little encouragement, and that you will take the time to read what one of thousands of missionaries in the world has to say before you click the delete button. And even if you do click the delete button before reading the rest of my emails, I hope you will remember these few simple things:

-God loves you

-Christ loves you

-The Holy Ghost loves you

-I love you

I am convinced that if you never forget those four things, you cannot go astray. You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I know that the other three are even more concerned with your eternal welfare. Of all the things I have learned in my life, it is that you are never alone.

This time next week, Monday the 10th, I will finally be on a plane towards my place of work and sacrifice for two years. I certainly am not perfect, I certainly am not prepared, but I am certainly excited. I hope that you will remember me in you prayers, but especially the other missionaries in the world who are laboring so hard for the salvation of everyone they come into contact with. By my next email, I will be facing enormous feelings of doubt, discouragement, and frustration. I hope we all remember that promise given to us from our Savior Jesus Christ that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I know that if I whole-heartedly consecrate myself to His work, that those feelings will become easy to bear. I also know that if you do the same, you will receive the same, along with Heavenly Father's choicest of blessings.

As another matter of importance, I have had my first real 'mission experience'. We were skyping a Brother named Willy Su from the other mission in Taiwan. He is a recent convert to the church, and the day before we skyped him he told his family about his involvement in the church. As typical to Taiwanese culture, his family told him he was not welcome as part of their family until he abandoned his new found belief. It was at this time of doubt, discouragement, and frustration that we came into contact with him. We got to know him a little bit in what Chinese we could in a room full of other missionaries skyping, and then he told us of his current predicament. We tried to help him, and there was one point in the lesson where I asked him if he thought that if he displayed how happy the Gospel made him, would his family accept him again? To which he replied in the negative. I told him I knew his family loved him, to which he got uncomfortable and disagreed. "Well," I said, "I know that even if they don't love you now that they will." We talked a little more, and invited him to pray and study the scriptures to solve his problem. After the lesson, my companion Elder Facer sort of chastised me for telling him his family loved him, because in many of these situations their families don't actually love them. He told me that it was an ignorant thing to say. So I went on, feeling horrible about the lesson and the unnecessary

 pain I has caused Brother Willy Su. That night, I prayed for him, and that the hearts of his family would be opened. Two days later, our teacher had a message from him. He said a miracle had happened. That night, he too had prayed and had followed our commitment. The next morning, his family forgave him and let him continue to attend church, even if they didn't agree with it. My heart was filled with joy at the receiving of this news. I knew that the Spirit had helped us in that lesson. I don't know if what I said was good or bad, but I knew that because we have been exactly obedient here at the MTC, our companionship had the Spirit with us in that lesson. Even if we didn't know it at the time.

Well, I've watched many Elders from Viewmont come and go, and it's finally my turn. To the Elders that have yet to come, sorry, except not, because I am really sick of eating chicken burgers. Good luck. May we all have a few more spiritual experiences in our lives, a few more moments of charity, and a few less chicken burgers.

Love,

Elder Hawkes

Headed Out

7/27/15

Dear Family,

I think I'm all ready to go in the package department. Just excited to get out there! I get my flight plans and Chinese nametag this Friday. Only two weeks left!!! We looked at the temple on the church website on a little google map they had, and it was absolutely crazy that I am going to be there in only two weeks. So apparently there are some traditions I should tell you about once I get there. They have a duck brain and eyeball challenge for dinner, they make us run from the mission home to the Chang Kai Shek Memorial (~1/2 mile), make us hand out 5 Book of Mormon's the first day, and they make us quite literally stand on a box and teach people. Sounds super exciting huh? Apparently there are 7.1 million people in the Taipei Basin alone. Plenty of people to teach huh? Well, I found Elder Bezzant (Kelly Sharp's nephew)! He is pretty awesome. There are so many Chinese elders and sisters here now that it is hard to keep track of him or anyone else here. It's funny because we take up two huge tables in the middle of the MTC Cafeteria. Thanks for all of your awesome letters this week! I loved reading them! I will probably just buy a calling card here so I can call you in the airport. Elder Facer had to go to the dentist last week, so we left the compound!! In a car!! It was weird because I never realized how much we treat missionaries like celebrities in Utah. Everyone was so friendly and I talked to the people in the waiting room for forever! Hope everything is going well back at home! I love you all!!!

-Jordan

Brothers and Sisters,

Two weeks left till I leave Provo and actually get started sharing the Gospel with everyone I meet! I mean, I could share it here too but I don't think it would be as effective. So my companion Elder Facer was just released as District Leader yesterday and my other companion Elder Jensen was called to replace him. Either I need to step up my game or stop falling asleep in Sacrament Meeting... Just kidding. They are awesome and I am glad to have them as my companions. Language is coming alright. Although the other day an elder in my district was in a lesson and accidentally said, "You can know these things are true through the Power of the Pineapple." Shengling and fengli aren't very close to each other, but it still made for a funny story.

Cultural Observations:

-I have only gained 6 lbs here (ignoring the 30 lb swing from muscle to fat)

-There is a mysterious grate under construction in the middle of the sidewalk here that workers keep going into

-Chicken burgers are gross no matter how many times you put it on the menu

-The MTC (Missionary Training Center) choir is about 3 times bigger than the MTC (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) choir

-My shoes smell horrible

I hope you have come to know and love the MTC as you have read my bright opinions of it these past 7 weeks. It really is an awesome place though and it is so amazing that so many people are gathered here to worship there God and to prepare to preach His gospel to the ends of the earth. I do have to tell you one quick story. Most missionaries come home telling these awesome stories right? Well I already have one!!! So during dinner last night I got up to get a refill on my 2% milk, and Elder Darrington asked me to refill his Mountain Berry (Blue) Powerade. I agreed, seeing as it was an easy task and I was going there anyway. So I go to the first drink station, which has two nozzles for Powerade, but it only had Fruit Punch (Red) Powerade! So I walked to the next drink station, which had two Blue nozzles. I filled up my milk, placed his cup under the Blue nozzle, pressed the button, and water came out. It was out of syrup. Next nozzle was too. Well, I decided that I might as well continue my journey seeing as I was at the MTC and was trying to gain the Christlike attribute of Charity, right? So I went to the next drink station, and, only Red Powerade. Next drink station? It had Blue Powerade. I finally filled up his cup with fresh ice and brimming with the treasure of victory and started the trek back to quite literally the other end of the cafeteria, excited to relate my tale. I told him the valiant quest I had undertook, handed the drink to him, and he thanked me. Then, gesturing to a drink station about 20 feet away, "But I thought you were just going to go to that one." It had both milk and Blue Powerade. So what is the point of this story? I would like to take a quick look at the Two Great Commandments. First, 'Love the Lord thy God.' Second, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' Wait, it said neighbor. I think sometimes we forget just how easy that commandment is. God isn't asking us to serve that one person clear over there that has tons of problems and is really out of your way, he is saying that you should serve quite literally your neighbor. Right next to you. If you go help that one guy clear over there and skip thousands of people in the process, you've missed the point. Service is the most humbling way to express our love and gratitude towards and for our Savior Jesus Christ. May we all look a little bit closer to find someone to serve. I love you all!

-Elder Hawkes

Girly Mandarin and Today's Stripling Warriors

7/20/15

Dear Family,

Sorry, no pictures this week, I can send some next week of an amazing sunset if you want, but you probably have seen your fair share with your own eyes. So apparently I am only supposed to write letters on Preparation Day, so it will probably be lest often that I am able to write to letters to all of you... We should get on some sort of schedule too so I'm not receiving letters after I sent a reply if you know what I mean... Anyways, I also forgot all of my extra razors I think... What should I do? Can you even send those in the mail? If I did leave them they would be in the middle drawer in the bathroom... Haha I guess I packed more for a campout than a two year mission. One more business item, what should I do with these extra dress shirts? Send them back or just hang on to them? My bad on the miscommunication... How have things been going? The language is coming steadily, and I'm preparing to get my flight plans a week from this Friday! I'm so excited! I mean, it's going to be harder than ever being in a place where I can only barely communicate with everyone, but I'm excited to leave the compound and actually start sharing the Gospel with people! Today is my first day skyping actual people from Taiwan, so wish me luck. The other day in TRC, we taught one member from Mainland China that was absolutely crazy. She spoke incredibly fast, and had a weird dialect so I barely understood a single word she said. Pretty humbling. Apparently, the Taiwanese accent is pretty feminine, so by Asian standards I will come home speaking girly-Mandarin. Awesome. But I've also heard it isn't hard to switch from that to the Mainland accent. We will see. As of right now, I definitely can't worry about switching between accents. I hope everything is going well at home! Happy 24th of July this Friday!!! Let me know how all those parades, fireworks, etc go! Thanks for sending me all those awesome letters!

-Jordan

Brothers and Sisters,

6 weeks in to my MTC experience! It is so weird seeing so many Viewmont Elders come through and leave while I continue to stay. Finally I got a few foreign language speakers to keep me company like Elder Colton Richman. As it turns out, there are 1,997 missionaries currently at the MTC. We truly are the modern-day stripling warriors (or at least I like to think so). One Elder in my district kind of jokingly said something that I thought was awesome. "Do what makes you happy." While he meant it in the 'eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we die' sort of way (we were talking about which food at the cafeteria was the lesser of two evils), it really struck me. In this life, that's all we are really out to do right? To do what makes us happy. Not in a temporal and temporary sort of way, but in a spiritual and everlasting sort of way. We do things so we can be happy. Going to church, while in the moment seems horrible at times, can in the long-term bless us so much and make us so happy. Nothing makes me more happy then the Gospel, even if it isn't in a 'fun' sort of way. And you can have fun in our Gospel if you really try and remember your purpose here on earth. I took Elder Darrington's advice and got cereal for dinner instead of pink chicken with rotting guacamole slathered on it. Oh and we found a mouse in our residence! It keeps sneaking into our room under the door. Some other Elders found it the other night and chased it around the hallways until it went into an empty room. Maintenance was called and soon oreos and a mouse trap were on their way. Happy 24th of July!!! Our pioneer heritage is something incredible, and I hope that you all will take a moment from the fireworks and read about your pioneer ancestors or even just the history of the church. I have been reading "Our Heritage", and I don't think I ever really realized just how much our church had to struggle through it's early years and just how much Satan was trying to bring it down. Though the trials were hard, those that carried the Gospel in their hearts and Christ in their countenance across the nation to the Salt Lake Valley were extremely blessed and we should all take a moment to remember their sacrifice.

Direct Translation of the First Vision:

I saw a (classifier) light pillar, right at me head top, compared to sun's light still bright, gradually descend down come, until it rested upon me body top. Light stop at me body top at that time, I look and saw two (classifier) personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description. One of them pointing to other towards me speak, calling me name, this is My Beloved Son--Here him speak.

Not exact, and I could break it down even further, but you get the gist of Chinese. Literal translations are pretty funny. Even though the direct translation is pretty funny, this First Vision is one of the crowning events of this dispensation--one of only three times God the Father has spoken to man on Earth in the scriptures. Ya, it's important. I have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, and I know that he was sent here for a specific purpose: to restore Christ's church here on this Earth in these, the latter days before Christ's Second Coming. I am on a mission, pun-intended, to share that message that the Gospel is restored with everyone I possibly can. It is the one, true path that we may take to return to God. It is the only way to receive true happiness. We all can receive a testimony that this is true by the Power of the Holy Ghost, who I have come to know and love even more than I thought possible here at the MTC. The Holy Ghost is like a drill that can build our testimonies. At first, we have to go to a neighbors house and borrow his drill right? We can use one, but we have to return it. We don't have the right to keep it forever or to use it whenever we want. So, we go and buy ourselves a drill after we are baptized. Now it is ours. We have the right to use it whenever we want and in whatever way we please, and it is ours to keep forever. Quite a gift isn't it? But we have to remember where we put it--we have to remember our covenants and commandments and live worthy of that gift. End of analogy. When we repent, we can be forgiven through the cleansing fire of the Holy Ghost which has been made possible by Christ's Atonement. I taught a lesson about repentance yesterday, and I really love the all-encompassing scope of the Atonement. Not only can our sins be washed away in the eyes of God, but in our own eyes as well. Our guilt, our pain, our sorrow, even the memory can be washed away. Through the Atonement, our weaknesses can become strengths. Even more is possible, but I'll leave that for you to find. I hope we will all remember that we don't need to look back at Sodom and Gommorah. We need not wish we hadn't repented, we need not remember the guilt and pain we felt, we need not remember we failed. We must remember that through Christ we are made perfect, through Christ we can see our sins and guilt washed away, and that if we continue forward, not looking back, we will live again with our Heavenly Father. Thank you for taking the time to make it thus far into my somewhat all-over-the-place letter, and I hope that you have both learned something and made a commitment to change one thing about your life to come closer to God. I love you with all my heart, and you personally are in my thoughts and prayers.

Elder Hawkes

Halfway Point

7/13/15

Family,

Sorry, it's hard to be specific on anything because I have so little time at the emails, but that package was perfect thank you!!! Every time I sit down I could just type for forever because I have so much to say, but all the important things go out the door and my mind just goes blank. It is a weird experience. If you could condense all the emails into one that would be great though, I'm having a hard time keeping track of which emails I've read. Other than pictures, which I assume you have to split up among several emails. It was awesome seeing your float dad!! I didn't know you had one! I got to see the video of Sarah too and that was pretty funny. Hope you had a great birthday Christian!!! I'm grateful for all of your letters, I apologize I don't have time to reply to them right away, I try to write one a night but I am so busy that I hardly have the time to do so. Chinese is coming pretty well, I know how to say quite a bit, and we teach lessons to our investigators (teachers) almost every day in all Mandarin. MTC is pretty boring and monotonous, so not much to report on that front, but it has been exciting seeing so many of my friends come through! 8 of my district is going to Taiwan and 3 are going to Hong Kong. My mission president was only here for a few days, so he is already out there working hard. Biggest surprise was how self-sufficient we really are, there is no one to patrol us. Keep writing letters, gotta go! I love you guys!!!

Brothers and Sisters,

Last Friday marks my halfway point in the MTC. That is so crazy! The Elders and Sisters in one of the districts of our zone that were halfway done with the MTC when we got here are leaving tomorrow morning, and Taiwan is beginning to get real. Kinda. I'm not kidding when I say that the MTC feels like the whole mission though. It feels like in 4 weeks from now I'll hop on a bus and head home. It doesn't feel like I still have 23 months to go, 22 of which will be on the other side of the world. None of this feels real. Hearing Elder Vaughn's story about committing someone to a baptismal date is just so surreal. I can't believe that I will be doing that in a few months. I have officially settled into the MTC routine, and now it's just day after day after day. But hey! I'm learning a ton about myself and the Gospel so no complaints here. We watched Elder Packers funeral on Friday as an MTC, and I would like to share a few things I learned from the talks that were given. While I was listening, I wrote down a lot of attributes that were mentioned about Elder Packer and then thought about how I could apply them into my life. Not to sound morbid, but I asked myself how I could incorporate those principles so that at my future funeral in 80 years, people will say those same things about me. "[Elder Packer] was a master teacher", "he wore out his life in the service of the Lord", "happy to teach this side of the veil or the other", and "taught what he lived". All of those things are attributes that we could better work on. Elder Packer really was a 'Master Teacher', and as they mentioned as well, the majority of his teaching came through his amazing example. We too can teach through our example as we teach what we live and wear out our lives in the service of the Lord.

Cultural Experiences:

-the outside world is a strange place, some sisters had to get medication the other day and they said they saw a DQ on the way there!!!

-don't exercise before bed, sleeping at the MTC is hard enough

-oh and by the way, my companion Elder Facer sleep talks

-the showers are always empty on the third floor

-if you want to shut down an entire building and relocate like 300 sisters, release a bat in the upper floor\

-the Chinese word for hymn book sounds exactly like 'sugar-bun'

Another thing I've noticed about the Gospel is that we are just adding. We really aren't taking away anything from anybody when we teach the Gospel. We aren't saying, "Hey! Give up Catholicism, Buddhism, or Islam and join our church!" Well, we kind of are, but we aren't replacing their religion, just adding to it. Adding more testaments of Christ in the form of the Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, or the words of our living prophets. We aren't saying, "Give up your God." We are saying, "Here is a better understanding of what God really is and how you can worship Him." We aren't trying to change people's culture, relationships, or way of life unless that change is for the better. I hope this makes sense... One of our investigators (actually our teacher) says she is already happy in life and she doesn't need to be happier. Well, she doesn't understand her potential then, because through this--the only true Gospel--can we live up to the fullest potential God has given us. We can all come towards Christ through whatever religion, philosophy, and science we believe in, but only to an extent. We all be good people without the Gospel, but only to an extent. We can all be happy without keeping God's commandments, but only to an extent. No matter how happy, smart, kind, caring, loving, or anything you are, you are limited. Through the Gospel Christ established on this earth and restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, we can reach beyond those limits and become like God himself and live in His presence for eternity. What a promise. At what cost? Allowing God to add more of His blessings, more of His love, and more of His Gospel to us. I hope we will all allow God to give us more light and knowledge so we can reach further past our limits. I pray that you all have the commitment and dedication to live His standards and have faith in Him. As always, if you have any concern, I would love to talk to you about it. I know this is the strait and narrow path that returns to God. It can be more 'straight' and less 'strait' if we rely on each other and especially the Atonement. May God's light be with you always, Christ's example ever in your goals, and the Holy Ghost consistently your companion and friend.

- Elder Hawkes