Monday, May 19, 2014

My decision to serve a mission

I am leaving to the California Oakland/San Francisco mission on Wednesday. I just wanted to tell the story of how I decided to serve a mission.
First, let me just say that during my senior year I had a very strong impression that I needed to attend BYU-Idaho in the fall for college. I now know that one of the main reasons I needed to go there was so I could figure out I needed to serve a mission. So a lot of things started happening while I was at school that I didn’t really get the reason for until the beginning of November. The things that were happening were things I didn’t really think too much about. Missionary work was just sticking out to me with EVERYTHING. During conference, every time missionary work was mentioned, it stuck out to me. We would talk about missionary work in church, in my book of Mormon class, and I even taught a lesson on it in Relief Society. I figured that the reason I was so obsessed with missionary work was just because I had a lot of my best friends out on missions, and I had just watched one of my close friends convert to the church the summer before. I just really loved missionaries. Then in book of Mormon class we read this scripture. It is 3 Nephi 5:13 and it says “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” When I read this verse, it hit me hard. It is probably the most powerful a scripture has ever been to me before. I was overwhelmed and became emotional. And I know what you’re thinking... this was the moment that I decided to serve a mission. Actually though, it still didn’t cross my mind once. I never had a mission in mind. I just thought it wasn’t for me. So when I read this, I knew I had to share the gospel. I just didn’t think about doing it in a full-time mission. But throughout all this there was other things going on. Like, I all of the sudden had no idea what I wanted to do for my major. Long story short, I started panicking and called my dad one day. I didn’t like the feeling that I had no idea what I wanted to do for my life. My dad had always wanted me to go on a mission, and knew I didn’t exactly like it when he brought it up. But he slightly mentioned that maybe I was so confused because I wasn’t supposed to be worrying about school right now. I was supposed to serve a mission. That got me thinking a lot about all the events that had happened the past month. I started to realize that all those moments where missionary work seemed so important to me, it was the The Lord trying to tell me through the Holy Ghost that I was supposed to go on a mission. All those times I was loving the lessons on missionary work, it was really the Holy Ghost trying to tell me something. I wanted to be sure though, so I prayed, talked to my bishop, read my patriarchal blessing, talked to a couple of my good friends, and me and my family fasted. The answer came to me very clear when I got an email from my best friend on one Monday. I knew I was supposed to serve a mission. Now. So then I immediately started my mission papers, and here I am today!
I am so excited to serve the Lord. I can't wait to share God's love.(:



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