Why?

That’s the question everyone wants answered. Why have you chosen to do this? Why have you chosen to give up eighteen months of your life to serve an eighteen month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? It’s a valid question among other questions I often get like... Why would someone like me, a girl smart enough to keep going to school, decide to go on a mission right now? Why so long? How could you leave your family so long?

For me the answer is simple. I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church and I want to share that knowledge with people that are willing to hear the words of God. I know what happiness it has brought to my life and I want to give other people the chance to have the same happiness that I do. I want them to know that they are children of a God who loves them and has a plan for them.

As for school and my family…school can wait. It has to wait, because I have received personal confirmation that serving a mission is what I’m supposed to be doing right here, right now in this moment. It wasn’t an easy decision, and not one that I was overly excited to make in the beginning, but I have felt impressed through prayer my service as a missionary is needed now. My family loves me. They won’t forget me and they support me in my decision, because they love me.

I’ve been called to serve in the Huancayo Peru mission, a Spanish speaking mission in South America. I don’t know anything about the people there. I don’t even speak the same language as them, but the moment I opened my call letter I have felt a love for those people that I have yet to meet that I can hardly explain, after all how is it possible to love a people you don’t even know? But I do. I love them and I’m so excited to be able to serve them and share the message of the restoration with the people of Peru.