Wherein I Get Called on a Mission... Finally

Lets roll the clock back a few years, to 2006. As you may or may not know, I spent spring semester in HI as a visiting student. It was a time that can only be described as... Awesome. So very awesome.

Also, I was there a few months before my 21st birthday. Up until very recently, the age for Mormon girls to serve missions was 21 (it was just lowered to 19. Which I think is a great idea.) Anyway, I had never given a thought to serving a mission while I was growing up. I don't really know why. My grandmother served a mission in her 70s, some of my young women leaders had served missions and talked about them. I always wanted to travel and go to France, but I don't know, I never thought about serving a mission, I didn't really want to. Then, while in Hawaii just a few short months before my 21st birthday it was on my mind a lot. What ABOUT serving a mission? Do I want to? Should I? Could I? Do I want to? Needless to say, a whole lot of praying ensued... but the feeling I kept getting was, "........." yeah, mostly it felt like nothing. I wondered, "what does this MEAN?!?!?!" Then I decided that the Lord probably felt that either way my decision would be a good one. So I really thought about it, did I WANT to go on a mission? The answer right then was, "no... not right now." I wanted to finish school first. By then I'd be 22 and I decided I'd revisit the question then.

Fast forward to December of 2007. I graduated and moved back home, and I'm pretty sure that at some point between Hawaii and that happening someone took my head of and put it back on upside down. I was a wreck guys. A total wreck. About life in general. When I thought about going on a mission, getting a job, or when the heck I was going to retake the LSAT and apply to law school I generally ended up breaking down into tears. This was a phenomenally awesome time in my life... Anyway, I ended up back in Provo after a few lost months, I got a job, moved in with some awesome ladies and generally was much happier than I had been previously. I retook the LSAT. I applied to law school. I decided to go to Vermont. I decided to try and get into BYU. I got my heartbroken and went to Vermont. I started law school. Then, my summer after my first year I went to Yakima, WA. For some reason I found myself once again thinking about a mission, and wishing I had gone after graduation. One night the Relief Society had a meeting wherein they talked about missionary work. It was that night that I thought about the insanity of serving a mission at the "ancient" age of 26 or 27, with massive amounts of debt, and a law degree... and knowing that I really wanted to. I wrote it down. So I wouldn't forget. That night in my prayers I essentially said, "now I want to. I really want to, but the only way this can happen is if You help me. So, if You want me to go, I know You'll make it work out."

Underlying all of this was the aching pulse of wanting to go to France, and never getting to. Then I finally was able to. After France I started taking steps for missionary stuff, and all of my financial issues have worked out for the best. So I came home, and took the bar. Then I felt sad all of the time. I have felt like I'm waiting for my life to begin, and it isn't moving anywhere, and maybe moving backwards a little bit.

Today my mission call finally came. It felt like it took forever to get here (partially because it did). I was nervous to open it. I didn't know why. I had really honestly tried not to think about places I "really" wanted to go. I just wanted to know WHERE and WHEN, even if it was the Provo, Utah English speaking mission. People need the gospel there too. After all the waiting and waiting I was going to know. All of my wishing I had gone earlier, wishing I had done so many things differently, and here was this envelope. So, with a goodly amount of family around me, including my sister on Google hangouts, I opened it up. To find out that I have been called to serve in the France Lyon mission.

I don't know why but I have felt great relief wash over me. I tried not to hope I'd get called to France because I seriously did not want to open my call and feel any disappointment. I wanted to just go where He wants me to go. Maybe relief isn't the right word. Its more like I just know that the Lord is the one who decided where I need to go. He wants me in Lyon, of all the places I could go, that I would go to willingly, that is where I am going. I am so happy. I feel a kind of peace I haven't felt in many months.

All my twists and turns in life have brought me here. I went to law school. I took the bar. I passed. I went to France. Now I am going on a mission. My life is like a bucket of awesomeness, and although not all as I planned, so amazing.

So, would you like to know more about what it is I'm so excited about? Click here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You are a bucket of awesomeness and you are also a part of my bucket of awesomeness. I am so happy for you and proud of you and excited for you. Je t'aime. Tu est ma belle fille et je suis fier de toi.
Love, Mom
Brian & Kyla said…
Well, I'm glad you didn't serve after you graduated with your bachelors or else I never would have lived with such an awesome roomie :) Congrats on your mission call and I'm so happy you're feeling so much peace.
Ruth said…
So incredible that you get to return to France!

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