WHY AND HOW DID I DECIDE TO SERVE A MISSION?
Good question.
It all started months and months ago. The announcement was made that girls only had to be 19 to serve a mission! Say what? You got it, I could have turned in my papers ASAP, but didn't really know what to think about it. I prayed and prayed and thought and thought. I honestly had no idea what to do and was pretty much just waiting for someone to tell me what to do. I wanted Heavenly Father to just direct me and to give some huge sign as to what I should do. However, I honestly wasn't doing that much to get an answer. I read my scriptures and prayed and thought about it, but I was so indecisive and like I said before, was just waiting for the answer or something to hit me like a ton of bricks. I decided to go back to school and keep thinking about it in the mean time.
To put it short, the whole process took about 5 months. Halfway through the process I remembered the scripture D&C 9:8. "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right."
So I made a decision and prayed about it. Yet, Heavenly Father knows the true intent of our hearts. He knew I wasn't really serious, I was STILL just waiting for an answer in the back of my mind. Finally after many months, I decided nothing bad was going to come out of serving a mission. I had been going through a rough time and wanted to just forget myself and serve others and give them what I have. So I took a deep breath, and "stepped into the dark." I used blind faith and decided to go on a mission. I prayed to Heavenly Father and basically told him that I was going to take action, and if I wasn't supposed to go on a mission then to please stop me before I got too far. I made the appointment to talk to the bishop and that was that. Little did I know, I was about to receive those signs I wanted.
I was scheduled to go home that weekend but wasn't going to mention the mission thing to my parents until I had had my interview with my bishop, just in case he had some insights or promptings that I shouldn't go. However, while I was at home my mom and I were talking and somehow the topic of missions came up. My mom decided she needed to tell me something. She sat me down and told me she had been listening to a song she had to memorize for Girls Camp, when she had the distinct thought that "Tenesia is going on a mission." She had no idea why she would think that and tried to just brush it off. Yet, when she told me, I knew that was my answer. I told my mom what I had decided. I know that revelation and signs can come to the people around us and that it was a confirmation to me that I was doing the right thing and that I should keep going with it.
That was that, I finished my papers and got my call! When my home bishop found out I was going on a mission he gave me yet another sign that this is what I'm supposed to do. He told me and my parents that when I had had an interview with him before I left back to school, that he had such strong promptings that I should go on a mission and he really wanted to tell me just to go on a mission, yet bishops aren't supposed to push or sway girls to go on a mission. He knew the time would come when I would go, so he was really excited for me when he found out that I had finally made that choice that he had known was best for me. Geez, if he had just told me long ago that that was supposed to happen it would have saved me a lot of trouble! ha ha just kidding, it would have taken away a lot of growing that I was able to make from going through that experience.
I know that church is true and I can't wait to share the gospel with the people of Arizona! I hope that I can be an instrument in God's hands and touch the lives of many people. I want to give everyone what I have, because I know I wouldn't be able to get through one day without Christ and the gospel in my life. I'm so grateful that Christ knows us so well and knows what we need in order to grow and in order to be comforted. I'm especially grateful for the atonement and the fact that we can be forgiven when we make mistakes and repent. I also know that the priesthood is so important in our lives! I have received so many blessings from men exercising their priesthood worthily. I know temples are so important and that saving and sacred ordinances are performed there and it is the House of the Lord. I love the gospel and the peace it brings me! I know I would truly be lost without it.
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