12. Six Months Home

Today marks exactly six months from the day that I returned from my mission in Texas. A lot has happened since then. I started college. I got a job. I got engaged. Pretty good for a six-month period eh? My mission president taught it to me like this:
Each of us are born with a fresh, clean whiteboard. As we progress through life we write things down on our whiteboard that reflect who we are -- for example, the type of music you like to listen to. You like to take naps when you are stressed. You enjoy dating. You say that one four-letter word when you miss a stop sign. Then, after 18 or 19 years of writing on your whiteboard, you enter the mission field. And suddenly, you can't do things like nap or date or say bad little words.
Father in Heaven then appears and hands you an eraser. He tells you that it cost him an unimaginable price. He then tells you that he can make your whiteboard more beautiful than you could ever imagine. But there's a catch: you have to erase it yourself. You have to erase your past-self by yourself. And so hesitantly you start to erase. You come to find that it's rather painful, and there is that one thing at the bottom corner that you keep telling yourself you will erase next.
Finally, hopefully, after a long and hard process, your whiteboard is erased and almost as fresh and clean as it once was. Then, Father appears again, puts his arm around your shoulder, and tells you it is sufficient.
He then pulls out a marker of His own and tells you that He has got it from there. He then begins to write things like, "There are answers in the scriptures." "There is power in the priesthood." "Prophets are real." "Families are forever."
And by the end of your mission, your whiteboard is full of beautiful, eternal, and supernal truths.
And you pray to God that you never pick up an eraser again.
That is where I am at these days. I would be lying if I told you that I haven't smudged a couple things. But they are all still there. And though it is a struggle at time, I know that Father in Heaven is there to retrace MY truths when they start to wear off.