Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages! I am very excited to say that I have submitted my papers to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that my call should be coming either this week or the next!!!!!!!!!
"What is this mission thing entail?" some of you might be thinking. Well, I'll tell you. Serving a mission be spending 18 months serving somewhere in the world. I'll be teaching people about Christ, trying to help better their lives, and performing service. I don't know where; that information will come with the letter that has my call. I could go almost anywhere in the world. Basically to almost any place found on this list: Mission.net Current Missions List . I'll be one of about 80,000 people out serving others.
Right before I leave to go wherever it is that I'm going, I'll be set apart as a missionary. Missionaries are encouraged to keep in contact with friends and family but in order to avoid distractions, these communications will be limited to letters, or depending on the mission, email. I'll be assigned to a companion (another sister missionary) and we'll stay together until either of are transferred. I'll get up at 6:30 am every morning, go teaching, and then be in bed by 10:30 pm. I might be learning a new language or I might be speaking English. I could be staying in the States, or I could be leaving the country.
Maybe right about now you're wondering why I've signed up for this and why I'm so excited about it. I'll tell you!
I'm excited to serve a mission because I'm excited to be able to go out and have the chance to spend a year and a half that's dedicated to serving people.
I want to serve a mission so I can teach people about Christ. I've seen the difference that Christ has made in my own life and how much happier this Gospel has made me. "Gospel" means "good news" and for me, that's exactly what it is. Christ's gospel is the most joyful kind of news that there is. So I want to go out and share as much of the good news as I can!
Love is why I want to serve a mission. I want to go out and heal people. And I believe that the best way to do that is to bring people to Christ because as our Savior, He is the best healer of all. I want to help people to feel Christ's love for them. I want to teach them and I want them to feel God's love. I'm not going out to baptize. That's just something secondary to me. I want to go and spread God's love and to teach and to heal. I feel like I am supposed to go to be an extension of Christ's open, loving arms and share His invitation to come unto Him. I'm going to do the work of the Lord, I'm going to love, and I'm going to heal.
I'm going because I feel called to this work and I want to be obedient. I have a testimony that there is a God in heaven, that He is our Father, and that He loves each and every one of His children and that includes you. I believe with all of my heart that Christ lives. I know that He is my Savior and Redeemer as well as my greatest friend and supporter. I have received a witness of the truth of The Book of Mormon and the LDS church. I believe that prophets are called of God and that God continues to bless the earth with revelation. I believe that God has a plan for our ultimate happiness. I testify that there is a God who cares and loves you and waits to bless you. I have seen the hand of God in my life and I hope that through my mission, I'll be able to show God's love to the world. I cannot wait to find out where I'll be called. Of course I'm nervous, but I have faith that wherever I go will be place that I am needed and that I'll be able to do whatever needs to be done if I rely on the strength of God.
In interviewing with one of my church leaders for my papers, he brought up 1st Corinthians 1:27 which says that God calls the "weak things of the world" to do His work. While that may not seem very complementary to be compared to the "weak things of the world", I find it immensely comforting. I am not going out on a mission and leaving everything that I know behind me to go talk to strangers for a year and a half because I think I'm just that amazing. That's not it. For one thing, I don't really like talking to strangers. Especially not about something so deeply personal as my religion. So that's not it at all. Instead, I recognize that I'm really very weak. But God doesn't expect me to do everything on my own. It is His work that I'm going out to do and so He will give me the strength to do it.
This mission will be one of the most challenging things that I will ever do but it will also be one of the best decisions of my life. And so, I'm sitting here, waiting for my call to come, impatient, nervous, and absolutely ecstatic. I cannot wait to find out where I'm going and to meet the people I'll be serving!
Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them!
Love,
Elicia
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