It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if, by a still small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I'll go where you want me to go.
-Hymn 270
This
popular LDS hymn has never rang more true in my life that it did when I
decided to go on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. I guess I could say that it wasn't even my decision at all. My
decision came though a lot of poking and prodding from the spirit (and
my parents) and eventually, I listened.
In October
2012 President Thomas S Monson made the announcement that the mission
age changed from 19 to 18 years old for the men and us girls could begin
serving at 19 instead of 21. Well, life changed for many that day.
Girls went crazy!
I remember I was sitting on the couch waiting for the new temple
announcements or whatever, and suddenly THAT happened. I turned to my
parents and in tears, told them I was going on a mission. That was two
years ago.
As time went on, that feeling faded away. I got
caught up in life and started to forget my decision. I was living the
college dream! Well, as much of the college dream you can live in
Rexburg, Idaho...I began to listen to others and not my own heart and
the spirit. It took "my world falling apart" (in a teenager's frame of
mind) for me to finally sit down and open up to what the spirit wanted
to tell me.
This past March, I was sitting with my sister
at the General Women's Broadcast in the I-Center. It was cold and
raining and I was a little bummed out with how things were working out
for me. During this broadcast (which had nothing to do with missionary
work oddly enough) suddenly I realized that I couldn't decide on a major
and things weren't working out like I thought they should because I
needed to go on a mission. The thought came to me with such power, I
knew that It was a message from my Heavenly Father through the Holy
Ghost, and I could not deny it any longer. I had to go on a mission.
A
few short months later, I was filling out paperwork and getting
interviews. Then two months after that, I received my call to Paris,
France. And now, in two months I'll be on a plane heading to Provo, UT
and then I'll be off to France where I will be living and serving for 18
months.
My decision to go on a mission wasn't
something that I came to overnight. I didn't have a miracle and suddenly
my eyes were open. It took two years of thinking, praying, and learning
to listen. It took me making a decision, doubting it, and then learning
to trust myself in making the right choice. Someone told me once that
once you get an answer to a prayer to always trust that answer and do
not try to change it. If it is true the first time, it will always be
true. I should not have doubted my original feeling of going on a mission, but because I did, it took me until two years later to finally follow the promptings of the spirit to get my butt off the couch and go dedicate a year and a half of my life to just doing the Lord's work. Now, I couldn't be more excited.
I was away at college in Idaho for nine months. I came home for Christmas, but that was the only time I was with my family my whole freshman year. Today, it finally clicked that HOLY COW that was already half a mission! It felt like I blinked and my freshman year was over. I imagine that my mission will fly by like that, maybe even seem faster. That thought kind of saddened me! 
