Called to Serve!

Well, the time soon came that my call was supposed to come in the mail. I had been out with the girlies on my Dad's side of the family for a long awaited get together at Red Robin. (I loved seeing my family again!) During this lunch, I had mentioned that "Maybe they were issuing my call that very moment! They could be thinking of me at that exact moment in time!" Well, the Lord is funny that way. Cause the very second I returned home, my bishop texted me and said that my call had just been assigned, and that I should expect it that next week! AAAAH! So, the next Wednesday came...
I went to work... and surprise surprise! The mailman came early that day!! I still had to wait though. Impatiently, as the picture below shows.

I watched the mailman drive down the opposite side of the street, turn the corner, come back, THEN GO BACK DOWN THE OTHER STREET, then stop to talk to my neighbor Glen for a while, then finally go to me. As the kind lady handed me my mail, she commented, "Wow. I've never seen someone so excited over a church magazine....." And then she drove off. Sure enough, there was no call in the mail she handed me. I was devastated to say the least. I laid down on the sidewalk and started crying. Then I heard my brother whisper to my mom, "SSh! But don't tell Alex!" I KNEW IT CAME TODAY!!!!! My neighbor had convinced the mailman to give him my call so he could see my reaction to not getting it. If I hadn't been so happy that it really did come, I might have been upset at him! But I had such great reason to rejoice! 

I received my mission call on November 27, 2013. I was called to serve in the Bolivia, Santa Cruz mission! I report to the Colombian MTC (located in Bogota, Colombia) on March 26, 2014 and I will be speaking the Spanish language!

It was a rough go of things in order to receive my call. I felt like everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong! But! The Lord has a plan, and in His timing things will fall into place. I had to continually remember Isaiah 55:8-9. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." I knew, the moment I turned in my mission papers that  I was worthy to be a representative of Him. I knew that this was what I needed to be doing in my life at this moment. I knew that He was pleased with me, and that was the greatest feeling in the world! A great great reason to rejoice!! The work is worth it! I promise! All good things will come! Sheri Dew said, "It is time to live up to the confidence that our Father demonstrated in us by sending us to earth now, when everything is on the line." I will live to prove to my Heavenly Father that his confidence in me will not be in vain! The Lord called me to this mission because He knows that this is where I am needed, and He knows that this is where I will do the most work. I am so unbelievably humbled to be called to serve among the people of Bolivia. I love them already!

 It is worth it! The week after receiving my call (December 5), I was able to enter the House of the Lord and make sacred covenants with Him. How great is the joy that being in the temple gives me. It is a joy that fills every space in your heart, and in your mind and body. There is no feeling that compares! I will never settle for anything less than the blessings found in the temple. Nothing Less! The temple gives me such a great reason to rejoice! It truly is the House of the Lord! I have been so blessed to be able to go through the temple so soon after getting my call, it has truly strengthened me in further preparing to serve the Lord! I also have been blessed with great friends and family that continue to urge me to attend the temple. When you attend the temple, it gives you so much strength to continue forward. To keep on keeping on! Second Nephi 8:3 says, "For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."

This really is the true church on the earth today! I am proud to be a member, and soon to be missionary,  of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

The Purpose and Inspiration

I have always found that I can express my feelings and my thoughts better through written words. For a while I have toyed with the idea of creating a blog for friends and family to keep updated on the happenings of my LDS mission, but then recently decided that I would probably want to continue writing after I returned home... So instead of titling my blog after the mission I was called to, I instead chose to base my blog, title as well as posts, on one of my favorite chapters of The Book of Mormon - Alma 26. I want to base my blog on the tender mercies and great joy that living the Gospel has brought, and will continue to bring, into my life.

I was born to WONDERFUL parents in February of 1995. I am the oldest of 6 children, 5 of which are girls.

Maybe you noticed there are only 5 children in this picture? My twin sister was stillborn and returned to her Father in Heaven after completing her mission of obtaining a body. As a family, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will be able to see Taylor again, and that our family is eternal. This knowledge has brought us such joy in our lives! Have we not reason to rejoice?

When the age for missionaries changed in October 2012, I had no desire to serve a mission. I was perfectly content on staying home, going to school, and finding my prince charming. no overly large shoes or uber long skirts for me! I had no desire to serve. Little did I know the plan that the Lord had in store for me. Many people have heard the saying, "We make plans, and God laughs." Yeah, well... that was the case. Throughout the next few months, I halfheartedly prayed whether to know if I needed to go on a mission. I didn't really search for an answer, and I didn't really care to TRY and search for an answer. One Sunday afternoon in February, I was given a mini Preach My Gospel after church attached to the words, "Bishop wants you to have this.". "Yeah, thanks. I'll use that for my future home. It'll be good to use in teaching my kids... right?" I thought as I tossed it into my scripture bag and went home to take a Sunday nap.

Do you ever have those dreams where you are jolted awake? Like when you fall off the edge of a cliff and BAM!! You aren't asleep anymore... and you almost had a heart attack. Don't you hate those? That was the case on the fabulous February afternoon I mentioned earlier... I was halfway asleep and I was jolted awake by the thought, "You need to go on a mission". Suddenly every answer to the halfhearted prayers I had offered hit me in the face! I had been receiving my answer and I was too distracted and not interested to realize that this was my answer! I needed to go on a mission!

I had a burning testimony of the Gospel. Every fiber of my being knew that this is the true and restored church on the earth today! With this answer that I needed to go on a mission, came the realization that I was being so selfish in keeping my testimony to myself. Yeah, I bore my testimony at church and at Girl's Camp and EFY, I sometimes put it on Facebook, but that wasn't enough. The people of this world DESERVE to know what I know! That this is where happiness is found! This is where families can be made forever! This is where forgiveness and peace come! This is where we can return to our Heavenly Father again, and be in His presence forever! They are children of God too! Why would I keep this knowledge to myself any longer? I wouldn't! I knew at that moment that I was going on a mission!

Alma 26 perfectly described my feelings. In verses 11-13: "My joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things;....Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?" 

The summation of my joy in my God and the testimony I have been blessed with can be found in verse 16... "Behold, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

And thus begins the Journey of a Lifetime.