Preparing for a Mission!

Preparing for a mission!

Little do my parents know, they have been preparing me for a mission my whole life. I was blessed to grow up with primary and young women’s but also in a home where my dad was always a worthy priesthood holder and my mom was a constant example of charity and selfless service. I relied on them and their strength and they assisted me in rooting myself to a firm foundation where my testimony has been able to flourish.

Being away at college, I have had to adjust and really reflect on my own testimony as well as my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Once I decided to serve a mission, Satan began working on me extra hard because it is the exact opposite of what he wants me to do. His power is real but I knew that I wasn’t going to let him win.

Winter semester was different because I had a mission call. I was a lot more careful about how I talked, how I treated others, what music I listened to, what I watched, and how I spent my time. I needed to surround myself with good things, closing off any opportunity for Satan to creep in. I made it a goal to not sleep in so late, in hopes to begin adjusting to the early morning missionary schedule. I studied my scriptures every day, and I mean really studied. I improved my prayer habits by thinking about what I was going to say rather than rushing through them and then listening afterwards for the spirit. I put President Bednar’s promise to the test and worked on family history for at least 10 minutes a day. In his talk titled “The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn” during October 2011 General Conference he said, “Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.” I testify that this is true. I have never felt so close to my Father in heaven and Savior Jesus Christ in my life.

I was so in tuned to the spirit that there was no way Satan could come near me. I tell you this because I know how it feels to feel too far from His reach. I know how it feels to feel like no one is on the other end of your prayers. I know how it feels to be low and weak because I have been there and I still have times when I experience those feelings. There were some days when I would break down in tears because I felt overwhelmed by my big list of “to-do” to keep Satan away from me. Bruce R. McConkie opened my eyes and gave me some peace about this matter. “Everyone in the Church who is on the straight and narrow path, who is striving and struggling and desiring to do what is right, though he is far from perfect in this life; if he passes out of this life while he’s on the straight and narrow, he’s going to go on to eternal reward in his Father’s kingdom”. Heavenly Father doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He knows we can’t be. As long as we have desires to become better and improve ourselves each day, the Atonement of Jesus Christ will make up for the rest.

February 14, 2015. A Valentine’s Day I will always remember. We had a long weekend so I traveled home to Las Vegas to go through the temple. What a special day. I was overwhelmed by the spirit and the love that I felt. I had many family members and friends come to support me in this big step. The temple truly is The Lord’s house on the earth. The peace and comfort you feel in there is something you can’t find anywhere else. Since then, I have gone to the temple here in Utah once a week. I have learned so much and have grown closer to my Savior. I’m grateful for the covenants I made there and the protection that they have been to me against the adversary.

Spiritual preparation is the big one but you have to be ready physically as well. At the beginning of this semester, I made a goal to do a half marathon before I left on my mission. I got my best friend, Brianna, to commit to it with me. We have been training all semester and let me tell you, some days it was so hard to go out in the freezing cold and run. This weekend, we will be running in the Southern Utah Half Marathon on my way home to Las Vegas. I’m so glad I have stuck to this goal and I can’t wait to be able to say, “I did it!” Running is a mental sport. Not only has it made me physically in shape, but now I am mentally stronger. A mission is a hard thing and after training for this race I know I can do hard things. I’m grateful I have a body that allows me to participate in activities like this and I’m grateful that I will be able to remember this process when I reach some difficulties while on my mission.

At the beginning of April my mom and my Oma took a trip up to Provo to get all my shopping done! It was so fun having them here with me for a few days. I loved spending time with them and I’m grateful they came up to help me get all my missionary clothes, luggage, and other odds and ends that I needed. Once I’m home from school, I will only have 2 ½ weeks before I leave. There aren’t many places to shop for missionary clothes in Las Vegas either. We had fun sleepovers, ate yummy food, and spent quality time together just talking and hanging out.

Preparing for a mission is a lot of work but I can promise you it will bless and improve your life tremendously. Recognize that you don’t have to be going on a mission to prepare for one. Our whole lives as Latter Day Saints are missions. My advice is the same as President Uchtdorf’s, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The 2^nd best time is now.” Don’t procrastinate improvement. We should all strive to be a little more Christ like, serve a little more freely, and find those who could use the restored gospel in their lives. We have the most precious gift on the earth, so go share it!

Opening my call!

Opening my call!

Here’s another perfect example of when my planning got the best of me…Provo isn’t very far from Salt Lake right? After I hit that submit button, I expected my mission call to be in my hands approximately 10 days later. PERFECT. My brother, Ben, was having his Eagle Court of Honor that same weekend and I was so excited that it fell just right and that I would be able to be there for it!

My roommates and I planned a big weekend together in Vegas! Everyone made arrangements to miss their Friday classes so we could leave Thursday as soon as everyone was done with school. Well, my mission call didn’t come on Wednesday like I planned. It was okay though because that meant it HAD to be here the next day. As soon as it got here on Thursday we would head to Vegas. Thursday rolled around aaannnddd no mission call. I was upset BUT it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we left Friday. The mail comes around 3:00pm so it wouldn’t put us too far off schedule. I sat in the Cannon Center lobby where mail was delivered all afternoon just waiting for it. We were all packed and ready to hop in the car as soon as I had it. The afternoon mail came and still no mission call. I was so upset. My plan was ruined. The Cannon Center gave me a 30% chance of it coming on Saturday so my friends and I decided to move forward with our weekend getaway and still go to Vegas. My mom was expecting us anyways and that way I could still be with my family and not feel as bad when I had to skype them to open it. I also could still attend Ben’s Eagle Court of Honor Saturday evening. We had a really fun road trip together! We made it to Vegas super late but we all were glad we decided to come.

The next morning we planned to go to the temple, take some pictures, and do baptisms for the dead. My mom made us a really big, yummy breakfast and we got all ready to go. All morning I had my phone close to me and waited for a call from an unknown number, because the Cannon Center told me they would call me if my call came. While I was in the shower, my phone started ringing! I poked my head out and it was an unknown number! I turned off the shower, covered in soap, and answered it, shaking! IT WAS A SALES PERSON. I believe Heavenly Father has a sense of humor and He did that for a good laugh. I had almost given up hope for a phone call when my phone rang again! This time it was an 801 area code which is Utah. I was freaking out! My hands were shaking, my voice was shaking, but I answered it and sure enough my mission call was at the Cannon Center in Utah and I was in Las Vegas.

You know me…I quickly thought of a plan to make this work. I call my 2 roommates Devin and Hannah and asked them to go pick it up for me. They are the best so then they offered to drive it down to my cousins in Cedar City! I call my cousins in Cedar and asked them if they could meet my roommates to get it and then drive it the rest of the way to Vegas. THEY ALL SAID YES! Shout out to Devin, Hannah, Luke, and Dakota! You guys were heroes that day and I will always remember this!

I announced that I would be opening my call at my house that night at 9pm. My friends and I had a nice morning at the temple. It was nice that we could still spend the day in Vegas, rather than driving back to Utah to get my call. We all attended Ben’s Eagle Court of Honor. My roommates got to meet my family and it worked out nicely that everyone was already on that side of town for me to open my call right after. Shout out to Ben for sharing his special day with me! Funny story…I was asked to lead the music at the Court of Honor. During the closing song my cousins Luke and Dakota arrived at the church with my mission call so they were off to the side in the doorway dancing with it in their hands while I’m trying SO hard not to laugh during the song, hahaha. We took lots of pictures at the Court of Honor and after we cleaned up, we headed back to my house.

A LOT of people came. Everyone added their guesses to a big map I had hanging up. I had butterflies the whole time, leading up to me opening it. It was overwhelming to see how many people were there to support me in this decision I made. I am so blessed with family and friends who take interest in my life and love me. You ALL are the best! The time came for me to open my call. I could barely hold anything because my hands were shaking like crazy.

As soon as I read the line, “Dear SISTER BOWEN”, I lost it. I cried through the rest of the call. Reading New Mexico, Albuquerque felt right. No one guessed it and everyone expected me to go foreign but something about it felt personal to me. Lots of people came up to me afterwards to congratulate me. My thoughts were all over the place. I didn’t know what to feel really. In my own head I wasn’t disappointed but I knew it wasn’t that “exciting” of a call. I prayed and prayed to feel peace about it and over time the Lord has helped me. These calls are made by prophets who are called by God. Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” I have a testimony of that. I know that Albuquerque, New Mexico is where I need to be. There are people there being prepared to meet me and I am going to be God’s instrument in bringing them closer to Him.  The people in Albuquerque deserve the restored gospel just as much as anyone else. I may not know the reason behind why I am only going 8 hours away from home, but I do know that Heavenly Father knows and that I can trust Him. I also know it won’t take me long to learn of the reasons I have been called to this mission. I know that even though I am going to teach others about this wonderful truth I have been blessed to grow up in, I myself will be learning and growing in ways that I couldn’t if I wasn’t going. The experiences I have during the next 18 months will shape me into who Heavenly wants me to be, as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and any other role I take on when I return home. I’ve heard it said that the best and strongest convert you will have on your mission will be yourself, but not if that is your goal. I’m so so so excited to find out what He has in store for me. Stay tuned for that and always trust where Heavenly Father takes you.

This is where it all began...

This is where it all began…

I grew up telling myself a mission wasn’t for me. When the age changed, of course I thought it was cool, but it didn’t change my mind at all. I had some rough patches my senior year of high school, to the point where my testimony was suffering. I came to realize that I wasn’t on track to accomplish my long term goals such as, making it to the temple. My life style wasn’t suited to getting there and Satan had me believing that I was too far gone to ever reestablish the close relationship I once had with my Savior and Heavenly Father. Though I longed for the chance to restart and get a clean slate, I didn’t know how.

I am a planner. In fact, I am a planner to a fault. I live for the future. Many of you probably know, I also never had ANY intentions of ever attending Brigham Young University. I didn’t want to be just another LDS girl who went to BYU after high school. I wanted to go somewhere different and unique. To accommodate with my parent’s wishes, I found myself applying for the Ambassador Scholarship at Utah State University. This was my niche. I had a lot of Student Council history and I was ready to continue that. I put all of my eggs into that basket and after 3 long, stressful cuts, I made top 50 out of 500 applicants. I had it in the bag. Heavenly Father had a different plan for me but when the top 50 got cut in half, and I wasn’t on the list, I didn’t realize it at the time. I was crushed. I had NO clue what I was going to do. I cried for 3 days straight. Sunday rolled around and it was my ward’s turn for ward conference. Still devastated, with so many questions, I sat and listened to our Stake Young Women’s President, Sister Julie Chauncey, talk about the power of “I am”. What you say after that phrase changes your outlook, self-image, attitude, and so much more. Sister Chauncey said one line that I will never forget. “HEAVENLY FATHER DOESN’T MAKE MISTAKES.” She probably doesn’t even remember saying that but I was instantly filled with the spirit and knew that I went through the entire process to become a USU Ambassador just to fail, for a reason. I didn’t know what that reason was but I knew eventually I would understand. MY “I am” was, “I am a BYU Cougar.”

I had the most amazing summer and with the help of my faithful and loving parents, an incredible Church History Tour, a best friend who eventually became my boyfriend, and most importantly my Savior and His atonement, even though my life was in so many puzzle pieces, I felt like it was slowly but surely being put back together. I learned a lot. One thing I would like to point out specifically is that I COULD start again and I WAS given a clean slate and so can anyone. We are never too far gone for Jesus Christ’s reach. Summer came and gone and I found myself at BYU. My boyfriend left for his mission in October and of course I had a plan. I would stay here while he was gone to get some schooling knocked out and hopefully be admitted into an Ultrasound/Sonography Program before he got back so that when he got home, we could get married and I would be ahead in school, have a stable job, and provide for us while he did his undergrad. Heavenly Father thought that was a funny joke. The thoughts of serving a mission bugged me like crazy my first semester at BYU. I prayed and prayed for an answer of whether or not I should serve but could not seem to make up my mind. I saw my bishop about my thoughts many times and always walked out, SURE, I wasn’t going and that I was just going to focus on school. One fast Sunday, I decided to fast for a confirmation that what I had decided was right for me. Monday rolled around and the signs and promptings to GO, came like CRAZY! One scripture that opened my eyes is found in 3 Nephi. To summarize its’ message, it is warning against not listening to the spirit. If we are too stiff-necked to heed the promptings of the spirit, we will be left to figure things out on our own. The moment I read that and understood what it meant for me, I realized that the never ending thoughts about serving a mission were promptings from the Holy Ghost and that The Lord needed my help. I was trying so hard to convince myself I didn’t need to go and constantly fighting the urge I had to do so. I couldn’t deny my feelings so I decided to start my papers but kept it on the down low, just in case I realized in the process that my first idea and plan was the right one. LET ME TELL YOU, once I started my papers, everything started going my way. I was at so much peace and the thought to stop the process NEVER crossed my mind. I knew this new decision was right because every time I thought I had decided not to go, I still had questions and curiosities fill my mind; but after I gave in and began the process, I no longer thought about the decision anymore. I surprised my parents and family by telling them my papers were complete, over Thanksgiving break. I blinked, and now I’m here…leaving in 30 days! Holy Cow.

I learned a lot from all of what I shared with you. Heavenly Father knows me and you better than anyone else, including ourselves. He has a plan for us and when things don’t go as planned, we HAVE to trust that He knows what He is doing. He puts people and events in our life to direct us in the way he wants our lives to go. It is all in the best interest of US! I know I was supposed to attend BYU my freshmen year of college. I have met so many great people, made memories that I will never forget, and strengthened my testimony and love for the true gospel of Jesus Christ tremendously. I have grown and I plead with you, just like I will with my investigators, you can come back and recover from anything, no matter how far off the path you feel. I have entered into the temple and I have felt of His power and unconditional love. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to fail. They love us and want us to return to live with them again. The trails in our lives are there to direct us, teach us, and strengthen us. Stay in the boat and hold on because I know firsthand that life is better when you do.