Called To Serve

Tomorrow on September 4^th, 2013, I will begin my service as a full time missionary to serve in the Germany Frankfurt mission. It’s strange to think that just a year ago I had the desire to serve a mission and now I am here….a day away from leaving. Preparing to leave has been the strangest thing. It’s hard describing to people how you can be so extremely happy and excited but also sad at the same time. Or how you just can’t wait to be out there but also wishing you had more time to prepare. The past few months have been full of contradictions. But as I think of my life as a missionary I can’t imagine the next 18 months of my life any other way. The Lord has definitely prepared the way for me to serve a mission. My family and I have been blessed even as I have prepared to leave.

On My 23rd, I received my call in the mail. The fate of my future was held within a white envelope. People always asked me if I had any impressions of where I would be going. I had one dream that I would be called to north Florida?! What the?! So random…but other than that I really had a strong feeling that I would be going stateside. Secretly, I had always wished to go to Germany! I took 4 years of German in high school and my dad served his mission in Hamburg. But I never wanted to tell people where I wanted to serve because honestly, to me, it didn’t matter. I wanted to go wherever the Lord wanted me to go. I looked forward to that feeling you have when you open your call and you know that is where God wants you to be. Well I opened my call surrounded by my family in a small practice room where my mom teaches voice lessons. As I pulled out the call I immediately knew it was a foreign call because there was a ton of papers (passport application). I started reading the paper and I became very emotional (big shocker!). I read the words, “You have been called to serve in Germany Frankfurt mission.” To be honest I was completely shocked! I never thought I would go to Germany. But it was a testimony to me that God was completely aware of the desires of my heart.

This is the video of me opening my call. I’m a little hesitant to share, mostly because I’m embarrassingly emotional, but also because it is something very personal to me. But I love watching videos of others opening their calls! And when I was waiting to receive my call, it really helped calm my nerves. So here it is….

I can’t even describe how much I know I am supposed to serve a mission. Sometimes I am afraid to leave my family or to be in a new country or learn a new language. But I know that I am not alone in this work. This gospel has brought so much happiness into my life and I feel so grateful to my Heavenly Father. There are many reasons why I choose to serve a mission but the number one reason is because I love God!

This quote has been a comfort to me over the past few months:

“The perfect place to begin is exactly where you are right now. It doesn’t matter how unqualified you may think you are or how far behind others you may feel. The very moment you begin to seek your Heavenly Father, in that moment, the hope of His light will begin to awaken, enliven, and ennoble your soul. The darkness may not dissipate all at once, but as surely as night always gives way to dawn. The light will come.”

– President Uchtdorf