Elder Jesse Bergman Cooke: ONE LAST LETTER November 22, 2010

Dear friends and family,

It's the last time I will be writing you from Lithuania. I am sad to leave and excited to see all of you.

They need to make a new word in English that describes how I am feeling. Hopefully you can just know what I am talking about.

I received an email from president Dance asking me to send him an e-mail talking about my mission and the miracles I have seen and the changes i have noticed in myself.

I thought that for this letter i would just send you my letter to him as well:

Our arrival to Riga as Missionaries for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Jan 21, 2009

Dear President,

Well I guess it's about that time. In a way it has felt that these two years have gone by in a blink of an eye and in another way it seems like i have never in my life NOT been a missionary. This has turned into an entire way of living. It has left an effect on me of eternal consequence. One of the greatest changes I have seen in myself is a love for truth. I love this gospel more than I ever have. I love the simplicity and power of the light we have received from modern day revelation.

My testimony has grown in such wonderful ways that I can't describe it any other way than just bearing it. It's all true and I know it. I thought I knew it, but I didn't. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he has redeemed mankind. We can gain power from that sacrifice through diligent obedience to the laws of God. It is the only way to true happiness. I have seen this so many times out here. I have seen people learn the designs of God and begin to live accordingly and because of that they have been blessed every single time. I have also seen the other side of that process. When people fall away. It has not been a terribly fun experience to see but it has helped me grow in ways that I know will be needful later in life. That is how to accept peoples free agency after doing all that you can do. But we keep faith.

That is one thing that will remain priceless to me. How to keep going when things get tough. The harder it is to do something the more heart you have to put into it and thereby showing the true makeup of your character and faith. When it has been the hardest for me and i have stuck it out with faith and not complaining (as I was more compelled to do before I was a Baltic missionary) I have seen the most miracles and felt the most successful. This last transfer I have felt the workings of the spirit so strongly. I feel a large part is due to the faith of me and my wonderful family. It has been quite an experience and has been an incredible ending to a dream of a mission.

I am leaving my area with the wonderful feeling of success. This young man Dainus will get baptized here and if I had come for two years just for the change I have already seen in him then my mission was not in vain. It is so wonderful that so much more than just that was accomplished. I would not trade these years for anything. They have been full of lessons that I feel have greatly changed me as a person.

My commission I have given to myself is to never forget these lessons and to live up to the knowledge that has been revealed to me while I was a set apart servant of God. I could thank you for a good paragraph now but I will save that for our interview in a few days. If anything know that I love this place and I love you and Sister Dance. See you on Thanksgiving.

Elder Cooke

To all my friends and family. Know also that I love you all and am so grateful for the crucial part you played in this process with your prayers and love and support. You are all so dear to me and I have missed you all. It's now time to leave the work here but the work will continue back home. I would ask you all right now to be patient with me as I try to improve myself each day. I am not perfect but I am trying. See you all soon.