Connor's Last Missionary Letter!!

I really can not believe that I made it. At times it seemed like I was going to be on my mission for the rest of my life. I really can not believe that this is my last week. We were able to have a baptism this past weekend also. His name is Adam and he is 19. He plans on serving a mission and is just a steller guy.

I have been trying to go around and say goodbye to a lot of people. It really sucks as I hate saying goodbye. I have made a lot of friends out here and just sucks having to say goodbye to everyone. Luckily though I will be able to keep track of them through social media.

I have learned a lot on my mission. Like a freak ton so much I can't even begin to describe the lessons I have gone through. I am tired though, like really tired. Maybe because it is the end but I am just feeling like I'm worn out. Give it the last push this week and then I'll be coming home.

I do want to work quickly dad. What is the starting pay at C.C. Creations. I'll work there if it is better. Going to have to figure out what I am going to do up at Logan though.

WHAT IS THIS BEING RELEASED THE DAY AFTER I GET HOME? Tell the Stake President that I can call him that night and get released then I will come and debrief with him the next day. I don't want to have to spend all day at home living the mission rules, sorry but that would suck having Mary Jane (my computer) sitting right there and not being able to touch her. I know cruel and unusual punishment and this is definitely it. She is the only girl that has been faithful two me for the whole two years;)

Thank you guys so much for everything that you do. Thanks for paying for me to serve a mission. It has been a great two years. I love you guys so much.

Connor

September 30, 2013

Elder Connor Hinckley,

I've called you Connor Boy in all my letters, but I feel it is fitting to write this last letter to Elder Hinckley because that is what you are and what you have become. This is it. You did it. I have a solid feeling of peace I hope that you do as well. I feel like you have done something of great worth, something significant that you might not even completely understand yet. I'm so thankful that you served your mission. I'm so grateful that you stayed on your mission despite all the awful times that it would have been easier not to.

Uppermost on my mind has been the growth and expansion of your testimony of the divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. From your letters I have felt that your testimony entered much deeper territories and that has and continues to thrill me. I think I need to serve a mission:)

I just want you to remember that we love you!! And are so proud of you!! Since the day you were born, that has been and ever will be true. I don't really understand a parent's unending, unconditional love. But I feel it. It is a gift that comes from our Heavenly Father.

We have prayed for you. That has been a constant in our lives. Every morning. Every night. And a lot of in-betweens:) I have thought about the changes that will come with you returning home. I don't want that to change and I feel like I need to be more consistent about your sisters. Why does that have to stop. But, you might find we accidentally still pray for your safety on your mission when you have family prayers with us:)

We have missed you for so long. Two years is a long time:) Our world has not been the same without you close by. I miss your spontaneous laughter and our private jokes. Jaylen and you will have to duke it out for the funniest Hinckley in the family;) I long to wrap my arms around you again - to comfort your heart, to feel your strength, and to know that you are safe. But I haven't wanted to say that because underneath it all I HAVEN'T WANTED YOU TO COME HOME.......YET!!! Because I KNOW that you have been doing what you need to be doing. This has been such an important aspect of your life's journey that I haven't wanted you to miss any part of it. I wanted you to experience that more than I wanted you to be with us. The growth that you have experienced these last 2 years has been a mother's dream come true. I'm not sure sometimes if I want this phase of your life to end. And I'm not just thinking about you. For while you have been growing in faith, we have been growing because of your mission. You have blessed us far more than you even know. I testify of that. Just you being where you were supposed to be has helped us more that you can know. Through your mission and the things that happened while you were there I have learned that a loving, compassionate, all-wise God really is in charge:) not me:):) No one learns to trust in God the way a missionary and his mom do;)

All I can hope now is that after two years both of us have learned the lesson of missionary service well enough that when you return to "the real world" our first response to trials and life will continue to be turning to the Lord.

The value of a returned missionary who is truly converted, is priceless.
I saw this talk on lds.org this morning and thought I would send it to you. It is from Gordon B. I thought that was fitting to get a little advice from a relative:)

Quite a few years ago I was in an airport and happened to meet some returning missionaries. Their families were there. They were picking up their baggage, and I said to one of them, “What’s all this you have?” He said, “These are gifts I am bringing home.” And that has given me the title of what I would like to share: “Gifts to Bring Home from the Mission Field.”

1. A knowledge of and love for God our Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). There is no greater gift that comes to anyone in this world than a certain, reassuring conviction that God, our Eternal Father, lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that. I think it is so very, very important.

2. A knowledge of and love for the scriptures, the word of the Lord.

As a missionary, I read each evening before going to bed a few chapters of the Book of Mormon, and there came into my heart a conviction which has never left: that this is the word of God, restored to the earth by the power of the Almighty, translated by the gift and power of God to the convincing of the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. I thank the Lord for the testimony which I have of the truth of the word of God as found in these sacred revealed books. And I would hope that every missionary would leave his or her field of labor with a conviction in his or her heart that these things are true.

3. An increased love for parents.

I have attended hundreds of missionary meetings over the years. I love to hear missionaries speak of their love for the Lord, but I also love to hear them speak with great appreciation and love concerning their parents. Boys who had been careless and indifferent stand on their feet and with tears in their eyes thank the Lord for their fathers and their mothers. In these days, what a salutary and wonderful thing it is to hear a strong young man stand up and speak with great feeling concerning his father and his mother, saying things he would never have said before in all of his life. Every boy and girl ought to come home with an increased love for parents.

4. A love for the people among whom they labor.

I love the English people. No one can sell the English short in my mind because I labored with them, I lived with them, I was in their homes at their firesides, I learned to know their hearts, and I learned to love them.
I have learned to love the people of Asia. I spent 11 years among them, and I love them. To me, I love them as much as I love anybody because of the experience I have had as a missionary, as it were, among them.
There’s something wrong if a missionary doesn’t come back with a great love for the people among whom he labored.

5. An appreciation for hard work.

Every missionary ought to come to realize that work, work, work is the key to getting things done, the key to success in life. There is no substitute for work, for getting up in the morning and getting at it and staying with it to get the job done. I don’t know of a greater asset for whatever lies ahead in life than the capacity to discipline oneself to work.

6. The assurance that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is available to each of us when we live for it.

The availability of inspiration—each of us, if we live for it, if we cultivate it, can have it. I love these great words of revelation, these words of promise: “God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost” (D&C 121:26). What a precious gift to bring home—the assurance, the certainty that if we live for it, we have available to us that which comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.

7. An understanding of the importance of teamwork.

No one can do this work alone. We work in pairs. “In the mouth of two or more witnesses shall [all things] be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). We work together. There is no place for prima donnas in the mission field. Our efforts are largely team efforts, and what a marvelous thing it is to learn to work with other people.

8. The value of personal virtue.

I think there is no greater thing concerning future integrity that a missionary can learn than the value of personal virtue. I think there are fewer words greater than the promise given under the inspiration of the Lord as set forth by the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” That’s the commandment. And then the promise: “Thy confidence [shall] wax strong in the presence of God” (D&C 121:45). That’s the promise to those who walk in virtue.

9. The faith to act.

“I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way … that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth” (1 Nephi 3:7).
We ask tremendous things of missionaries. It is so hard for shy and diffident young people to do the things we sometimes ask them to do. But what a marvelous thing that they try. They have the faith to do, the faith to act, the faith to go forward and make the effort. And what a marvelous gift that is to bring home.

10. The humility to pray.

Recognize that there is a power greater than ours, that no matter how good a man is, he is not good enough, that no matter how wise he is, he is not wise enough, that no matter how strong he is, he is not strong enough for all of the things which he will face in life, and that there is a source of power to which he can go with the assurance that he will be listened to and that there will be a response.
These are 10 gifts that I would hope every missionary would bring home with him or her—not a lot of tinsel, not a lot of dolls, not a lot of rugs or furs or dresses or plates, but these great, enduring, wonderful things. God bless you to keep the faith, and while doing so, enjoy with great happiness that which you are called to do.

So no Disneyland souvenirs, though I think the amount of games you sent home was a quite a lot:):)
I count down the days til we get to see you again and I can wrap my arms around you and hear your voice and your wonderful laugh.
Love always and forever as your humble mom!!!