I'm going on a mission.

yep. This is real. I'm going on a mission! 

Let's start from the beginning of when this whole process of going on a mission started. One word. Jerusalem. I learned so much about myself there, and I think it was one of the first times I have ever really, unconditionally loved a group of people outside of my family. I loved the people in the program, and even more so the people I met out on the streets. Most importantly, I came to know my Savior, and the more I did the more I had a desire to share my knowledge and happiness with others. Even though I still had over a year till I turned 21 I began seriously thinking about going of a mission for the first time. Fast forward to October 6th.

I am watching the Saturday morning session of General Conference in the Tabernacle. As we were waiting for the session to start I mentioned how the Tabernacle always reminds me of how Brigham Young would stand up in that building and just start calling men to move their entire life and settle a new town, or to leave their family and go on a mission without asking them prior to the meeting. Ironic that I was thinking about that right? Well, when President Monson made the announcement about lowering the ages for boys going on missions I immediately turned to whoever was sitting by me and said, "wait, are they going to change the age for girls too!?" and not too long after that my question was answered. I was so overwhelmed with complete joy and fear the minute he made the announcement. I'm not sure how that works, but I just started to cry(I've become such a baby since Jerusalem), and I knew right then that it wasn't a matter of if I was going to go on a mission but when I was going to go. General Conference was an answer to my prayers in a way I had never expected.

I have to admit though a mission was never on my mind growing up. I always thought go to college, and I'll be married before I graduate because I'll be so old and mature by then. right!? haha, such a lie. I'm the one in the family that struggles with sharing my feelings. I'm the one who cried for at least 10 minutes because I was too afraid to say one thing I had a testimony of (we'll just say I was old enough that that shouldn't have been so scary). I'm the one who doesn't really like talking to strangers, and yet I'm the one going on a mission. 

This mission is perfect for me, and there is nothing else I want to do right now than to share my testimony and love of this gospel with others. The Lord is sending me where I need to go, and even though I know it will be hard at times I am so grateful that I am being trusted with His message. My bishop shared this with me when I started my papers:

I am called of God.

My authority is above that of kings of the earth.

By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative 

of the Lord Jesus Christ

He is my Master and He has chosen me to represent Him-

to stand in His place, to say and do what He himself would say and do

if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.

My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts;

my words are His words, and my doctrine is His doctrine.

My commission  is to do what He wants done;

to say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness 

in word and in deed

of the divinity of His great and marvelous Latter-day work

How great is my calling!

-Elder Bruce R. McConkie