I have been given much. Where much is given, much is required. I'm excited to work hard and look forward to the next 18 months. But before then I have one busy week ahead of me before I report to the MTC June 4th.
Here are the links to the conference talks I used. If you have a few minutes they are a great read.
I didn't do well at taking pictures with everyone. If you have them, send them to me :)
A portion of my talk in which I shared a summary of my decision to serve a mission. This probably isn't what I ended up saying but you'll get the general idea:
In the General Women’s meeting Sister Burton asked the
question: what does it mean to you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
That question is pretty easy for me to answer at this point
in my life. When my told my sister Haley (who is currently serving a mission in
Nicaragua) what my topic was she said this “Think about what it is going to
mean to be a disciple of Him 24/7. There isn't a day for 18 months where you
don’t wake up with the same purpose, find the lost sheep. Love the people.”
It wasn't really in my plan to serve a full-time mission.
Even when they lowered the age in which girls could serve I still wasn't really
sure that was something I was gonna do. A year ago as I finished up high school
and watch some really close friends and my sister receive mission calls I kinda
caught the wave. The idea of a full time mission felt more appealing to me than
it did before but I didn't want to serve a mission because that is what my
friends were doing. It took me a really long time to get answer.
I went away to the most incredible year of school at Utah
State University and it was there that I grew up enough and strengthened my
testimony to the point that I was able to receive an answer about serving a
mission. I started my mission papers the very first week of school and worked
on them until January. It was a pretty bumpy 5 months. I never got a big smack
you in the face kind of answer. Instead it was gradual. I would little by
little work on papers and I would feel good about it. Then I would doubt and
pray and again feel good about it. And then before I knew it I was holding a
white envelope with my name on it.
I receive my mission call in January 15th and
working on mission papers was just a warm up compared to the ups and downs of
the last 128 days that I've had a call. I can’t count to the times I've asked
my Father in Heaven if He is sure. What I've gained from the last almost 6
months with a mission call is that there are never unanswered prayers. Every
time I kneeled in prayer in some way or another I got the same answer. There
are a lot of people here though that don’t know it who delivered those answers.
So I might be scared but I’m holding on with everything I have to the answer I
got and am taking this road on the path of discipleship.
I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I know that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me. I know that living the way my parents have taught me makes me happy and that is way I am going on a mission- Because being a disciple of Jesus Christ matters.
