Mission Papers are in! Read more about it here! :)

I have made the decision to serve my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) as a missionary for 18 months after this semester. I realized that a lot of you may not be familiar with missionary service, so I thought I would take the time to explain what I will be doing and why. As a missionary, I will be devoting all of my time and energy to serving the Lord and teaching others about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will work alongside another female companion, and we will visit and teach people together. Along with teaching, missionaries participate in a lot of service in the communities they are assigned to. They strive to help others understand God's plan for our salvation and come to know their Savior Jesus Christ. Since most of my time will be devoted to this work, I will put aside school, dating, and employment for the 18 months that I am out serving. I will have a day each week in which I can write letters and e-mails to family and friends (I'd love to hear from you!), but most of the time I will be focused on my assignment to serve.

I have been working on my application to serve as a missionary for the past few months, which has involved dental and medical evaluations, interviews with church leaders, and several other preparatory steps. I officially am submitting my paperwork this weekend!! This paperwork will be sent to the Mission Office in Salt Lake City, Utah. The leaders of the church review all the applications and prayerfully assign each missionary based on revelation from God as to where they are needed to serve. This decision will be made sometime next week, and I will hopefully receive my mission call in the mail about a week after that!! I am so excited to find out where the Lord needs me to serve Him! There are 405 mission areas all around the world, so there are many places I could go! (Guesses start now!) No matter where I am called to serve, I know that it is where I am meant to go and that I will be able to serve the people there with help from God. I know that God has a plan for all of us to bring us back to live with Him because He loves us so much!  I can't wait to share this knowledge with other people, wherever that may be. When I get my call, I will be assigned to report to a Missionary Training Center (MTC) on a certain date sometime this summer. While at the MTC, I will learn how to teach the gospel and be a good missionary. I may be learning a new language as well, depending on where I am assigned to serve. After a few weeks at the MTC, I will be off to whichever mission I am assigned to and will start my service as a missionary! I am so excited about this opportunity to serve others and to teach people the truth that I know. I recognized that this is quite a different experience, and it is going to be one of the greatest in my life. I hope you will ask me any questions that you may have, I would love to talk to you about it! Please don't hesitate to ask anything you may be wondering about. Also, thanks to everyone that's been reading my blog; I've been learning so much by writing it and am grateful for the opportunity to share what I'm learning with others.  If you enter your e-mail address at the top of the page, you can subscribe to my blog too! Thanks everyone, I love you!