Hey everyone! 

I am going to start out this email by thanking all of you for your emails. I have received 50+ in the last week. Needless to say I have tears in my eyes while writing this... but they are not tears of sadness. My perspective on a lot of things has changed since I have been on a mission. The love that I had for my family has grown so much that I truly cannot even express the amount of joy it brings me knowing that we can live together forever. 

I appreciate all of your support and emails to me. I am so sorry that I cannot respond to them at the moment. I am so happy for my friends who received mission calls this last week! Congrats. I am so stoked for all of you!

A lot of you see no reason why my family was given this trial, but I promise you that the Lord has a plan for all of us. I have been sent to France for a reason. Before my mission I had a conversation with my sister Heidi and we talked about my mom and her not being there for me when I have a family of my own. But the thing is, I KNOW that when she passes on from this life, she will go and find my future children and love them and hug them just like she does with all of her grandkids now. I also KNOW that I chose to come here on earth, knowing beforehand the trials that I would face. AND it is how we react to those trials that matters. I can promise you all that if you act in faith, the Lord, our Savior, will provide a way.

My Mom is the strongest person I know and I have been raised on her faith and testimony. I stand with the 2000 strippling warriors when I say that "I do not doubt that my mother knew it."  Alma 56:48. 

I was so blessed to be able to talk to my Mom this last week on the phone. She had me smiling the whole time :)  My mom's love and faith is needed elsewhere and I am so grateful to have shared the time that I have had with her. I couldn't have asked for a better mother and I couldn't have been more lucky to have been raised in such a valiant family.

This is most definitely a challenge. But everyone should use this as a time to grow closer to one another and to help people feel the Love of Jesus Christ. I know that is what our Heavenly Father wants. That is what my Mom has done her whole life, and now it is our turn. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Charlie