My Spiritual Guardians

I don't know if or when anybody will read this, but if you are right now, I challenge you to read this through to the end, because it shares the events that have most recently helped to change my life.
I once heard that if we allow our lives and hearts to be changed by the good things we learn in our lives, then they will always be changing. It has been my goal for years now to be changeable, to allow those good things to help me grow into someone better on a daily basis, and to take advantage of every opportunity for my life to change.
I just came home from one of those life changing experiences. The LDS church has all sorts of programs and camps that help Spiritually uplift its members. The youth have an annual Youth Conference, a three day camp in June that teaches and uplifts the youth attending. I'd like to share how my life has been changed by this year's Youth Conference:
Everyday I look around me and see the tender mercies of the Lord. Manifestations that he is there, and he cares about his children. At Youth Conference I witnessed probably the most obvious of the tender mercies the Lord has given to me. Something more monumental than anything I've experienced before. When my brother left for college last year, I didn't know what I was going to do. I felt so lonely without him and scared of high school without him to turn too. He was my normalizer, the only one who always knew how to handle my emotional struggles. I soon found a new friend that was able to take his place as a sort of confidant and protector in my life. All the time I marvelled at how much alike he and my brother were, especially in how they helped me. This good friend of mine was a phenomonal listener and became one of my closest friends. But of course, this friend was also older than me and graduated this year. As the summer began I came to the horrible realization that although I had learned how to be my own normalizer, I did not think I could endure my last year of high school without that constant, strong, spiritual friend. But the Lord knows my needs, and knows what I can handle. He has had a plan for me from the very beginning, with all those wonderful guardian angels in my life all lined up and ready to go when I need them. So, of course, I have found next years guardian. At Youth Conference I developed a bond with my younger brother unlike any we had had before. This bond I know is what will allow him to take the place of my friend, and my brother before him, as the "Spiritual Man" in my life. This experience at Youth Conference I know was the transition from a strong reliance on my friend to one that is gathering momentum with my younger brother. Already I can feel our trust growing. What's more, is I have found that even while the Lord is blessing me with people to depend on, he is at the same time teaching me to be self-relient. With my older brother, I had him everywhere I went. School, home, church, and even social activities. Last year my friend was only ever at school and at social activities we did together, or just a phone call away, but at home I learned to become more independant. Now I will have my younger brother, who will always be at home, but not at school, and who is younger than me. The fact that he is younger is very interesting, and such a blessing. The best way to be sure you've learned something is to teach it. My brother has many of the same struggles that I have previously endured, and I know that even while he is there for me this next year, I must be equally, if not more so, there for him. And I see no better way of prepharing me for leaving home in a year than that.
Of course I learned so much more than this at Youth Conference, but this was my personal life changing experience. I saw many other lives change as well, and perhaps I will write about them in the future, but for now I think that they are not mine to tell really, although witnessing them has impacted my life more than they probably know.
I know that my Savior cares about me, so much that he was willing to suffer everything I have suffered so I can live with my Father again in exaltation. I know the Lord has a plan for me, and if weren't able to endure to the end, he wouldn't have given me the plan he did because he wants more than anything for me to return to him. This is why I can trust that my best will always be enough, and that gives me faith. Faith to believe. Faith to endure.