A Mission?

 I'm going on a mission!

18 months! From March 2013 to September 2014!

I will leave behind many things, cell phones, the internet (except to send weekly emails home), tv, movies, dating, most music, as well as other things which aren't coming to mind right now...

Why in the world would I choose to do this?!

In the October 2012 General Conference President Monson made an announcement that has completely changed my entire life. He declared that the age requirements for missionaries for the LDS church had been adjusted, and that female missionaries could begin serving at age 19 instead of 21, which has been the previous protocol. I turned 19 just two months before this announcement, so this was particularly striking to me. The mission decision had previously been something that I had been contemplating, but with an attitude a little along the lines of "anything could happen between now and when I turn 21". Suddenly the decision of whether or not I was going to serve a mission was right before me, and not in some distant destination.

Obviously, choosing to serve a mission, putting your entire life on hold for a lengthy period of time to serve the Lord, is a HUGE commitment/sacrifice/decision. For a few weeks after the announcement I thought long and hard about what it was that I was supposed to do. I prayed to God, telling him that I was willing to do whatever it was that he wanted me to do, and that I trusted Him to guide me. After a lot of thinking, prayer, and discussion with my parents, I made the decision to begin the process of turning my recommendation papers in. I have since received my call, to the lovely Canada Montreal mission, reporting March 20th.

This decision is huge for me. I can imagine that many, particularly not of the LDS faith, are confused as to why I would decide to do such a thing. What you have to understand, is what being a member of this church means to me. It isn't merely just a really great organization that I'm a part of. It's not just an awesome support system that teaches good morals as to how to be a good person. It's so much more than that. My beliefs, my knowledge of this gospel (and when I say gospel, I mean the 'good news', entire message of the church) is such a monumental component of who I am. A lot of the things that are posted here summarize what I'm trying to say pretty well. It really is like finding the cure for cancer. I want to share the message of the LDS church with EVERYONE! The beliefs of the church are the cure for all of the ills of life today.

I could talk for days about why I'm serving a mission... and the good news is... That's exactly what I'm going to do! Every letter I send home will be a testimony of why I'm doing what I'm doing, and it'll be put up here for you to read.  I hope you can make some sense of it, and know that I'm doing what I'm doing because I want to serve other people. I want to do all that I can to make them happy, to give their lives fulfillment, and share this wonderful thing that I am so lucky to have in my life.

Yay!