Background Story

Hello, hello and welcome to my blog. Thanks for reading.

This blog is going to be how you can hear all about my adventures as a missionary. I'll email an update to my family each week, and they will post it here. Thanks family!!!

Alright, so I'm sure you know by now that I am going to the Philippines Angeles mission, to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints for a year and a half. But let me tell you a little about something that you might not know: how I got to this point...

When I was 17 our small branch in Missouri was assigned Sister Missionaries. I loved and admired them so much. Over the next three years I spent a lot of time with them. I did everything from morning exercise to mission wide conferences. I often spent the whole day with the Sisters, going to all their appointments and helping them find new investigators. I loved that time in my life. I love all those missionaries so much, I learned so much from them, and they forever changed my life.

I had always had a desire to serve a mission, but being around missionaries all the time strengthened that desire tenfold. I had a count down till my 21st birthday years before I could turn in my papers. I made important decisions based on my plans to go on a mission. And I could often think of little else. 

When the time came I went to college, but continued to prepare for my mission. Finally it was time. A couple months before my 21st birthday I started working on my mission papers. I got my physical and dental examinations. I filled out all the paperwork. I had interviews with my Bishop and Stake President. At last my papers were officially in! I sent out a mass text telling everyone my papers were in. I had a hard time concentrating in my classes because I was just so excited! But instead of getting a mission call, I got a phone call...

You see I had torn my ACL a couple months previous and I knew I needed knee surgery for it, but I didn't think it would delay my mission so I went ahead and turned in my papers anyway. But some office from Salt Lake called my mom and told her I needed to have my surgery taken care of before I could turn in my papers... What?!?I actually took the news pretty well. At the time I figured it would just delay my mission by a couple of months, I could still be gone by the end of the year.

When I got home for college we set the appointments to get everything taken care of as soon as possible. When I finally got in with the Doctor who would actually be doing my surgery, I talked to him about a mission. I explained what it was, and how long he thought I would have to wait after surgery before going on something like that. He told me a year. A YEAR!!!!!!! What?!?!!?! Hadn't I waited for my mission long enough?? This news was a lot harder to take.

I was so confused with what the Lord wanted me to do. All the time I had been preparing to go on a mission I had prayed about whether I was supposed to go or not. I never felt like I got a solid answer either way. So I decided I would just go ahead and plan for it, and if it wasn't right God would stop me. Well... I wondered if this was Gods way of stopping me.

After struggling for a while I came to the conclusion that maybe I was not meant to go on a mission. I was trying my best to accept God's will, but I'm not gonna lie and say it was easy. That was a super difficult time in my life. Not only was I dealing with the physical pain of knee surgery and needing to rely on so many people for everything, but I was also dealing with the emotional pain of losing literally the biggest dream I had ever had in my life.  I learned how much I needed to just trust the Lord.

Eventually I returned to school in Idaho, figuring that God had other plans for me besides a mission. My knee's physical abilities were still pretty limited, but that didn't stop me from having so much fun. By a small miracle I was able to be on the Student Ambassador's council again. I love serving in that program so much!! I had great roommates, great classes and great friends. I was happy, but I still couldn't get a mission out of the back of my mind.

Then towards the beginning of my second semester (after consulting with the Lord) I began working on my mission papers again. Oh boy was I excited! It took way longer than I thought it would. I kept running into problems and I had to jump through so many hoops!  Again the Lord was teaching me patience. At last at the end of the semester my mission papers were in again. (Side note: I was excited about putting my papers in and getting my call, but not as excited as I had been the first time. I think my heart was afraid of getting hurt again and so sometimes I had a hard time believing it would actually happen)

But glory to God it actually did happen!! I got my mission call in the mail the first week I got back home from college. Once I had that envelope in my hands there were no doubts, only excitement. I tried to attach the video of me opening my mission call, but I could get it to work. So if you are friends with me on Facebook just go look up that video and you can see for yourself how excited I was :)My mission call could have been anywhere in the world, but I was lucky enough to be called to the Philippines Angeles Mission!!!!

Things don't always work out the way we plan, but I'm so grateful that they do turn out the way that God plans. I've had many experiences this last year that were worth delaying my mission for. And my testimony has also been strengthened that I'm going exactly where I'm supposed to go, exactly WHEN I'm supposed to be there. I can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has prepared for me in the Philippines.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life. It is what I center my life around. It is the source of all my happiness. I love my Savior and I am humbled to have this opportunity to serve Him. I cannot wait to share the happiness I have with others.