A Letter to the Boys at Scout Camp

This weeks e-mail is a message to the boys in our stake who will be attending scout camp. The stake president requested that the stake Young Men's president collect letters from missionaries currently serving to insire the younger boys in the stake to want to serve missions. Here is what Elder Paul had to say to them:

Dear scouts under the authority of President Ivie,

I am currently sitting in the middle of Moscow Russia in an internet club where a bunch of russian teenagers are playing computer games and cussing their heads off. How cool is that? I have made so many lifelong friends, both missionaries and russian people. I have grown spiritually in a way that I could never imagine. Right now more than any other time in my life I realize what is really most important to me, I have a clear idea of what I will do in my future, I am learning and speaking the coolest language in the world, but most of all, I know who Jesus Christ is and what he wants me to do. The blessings that come from serving a mission are more than you can ever imagine. My family is blessed, as well as my friends. Serving a mission is the greatest fun in the world. More fun than hanging out with friends back home, more fun than dumb girls, I would even go so far as to say that it is more fun than scout camp.
In the first are where I served in north Moscow in one of the biggest branches in Russia, I had the opportunity to get to know and to help activate a 23 year old kid named Vitaly. Coolest kid ever! We got him stoked about serving a mission and we got him back to church. Right now he has put in his papers and he is waiting for his mission call! The other week I saw his mom in the church building and she thanked me for helping her son come back to church and decide to serve a mission. That was one moment on my mission that I will never forget, a mother's thanks for helping her son do what the Lord called him to do-that is, save lives in the kingdom of our father. No greater joy will you receive than reuniting in heaven with those you helped towards Christ while you served on your mission.
Cherish the time you have now to prepare to go on your missions. If there is one thing I wish I could have done better, it would be to study more before my mission and prepare myself better through reading my scriptures daily, reading preach my gospel, and talking to my nonmember friends about the Doctrine of Christ.
It is my wish and my prayer that you will prepare yourselves, and be worthy to go on the greatest adventure of your life, and unite in the army of god for the salvation of souls. Have a nice camp.

Elder Paul