During most of my life I never felt like serving a mission was something I needed to do. As a faithful member of the LDS church I had thought about it. I know the good my three brothers gained from serving and I wouldn’t have minded getting to experience what they did. Well, God threw me a curve ball last week.
My family was traveling back from a week long vacation in Moab. We were about an hour into the trip and I was reading a book. As I read the doubts of the upcoming school year filled my mind. I hadn’t heard anything about making it into marching band, I didn’t feel right about the student loan I was applying for, etc. I thought if only I could get away for two years and serve a mission. Then I would have another chance to audition for marching band and my tendinitis would be much better and I would have loads of teaching experience. But I had never felt the draw to serve a mission before…
I felt a strong overwhelming love wash over my soul. Love without doubt. I knew then that I had just been called to serve. Though doubts and fears filled my mind, I knew that God wanted me to go. These thoughts haunted me for the rest of the day and into the next. I knew they weren’t going away, so I had to do something about it. I told my mom I want to serve a mission. She of course got all teary eyed. She had seen me struggling for the last couple days but didn’t want to intrude.
I feel at peace that I am going in the right direction. It came on suddenly and at first I was worried that I hadn’t prepared fully because I haven’t taken any mission prep classes, but I felt again that love telling me that I am prepared. I need to go. I am so excited to go. I can’t think of doing anything else with the next 18 months of my life.
