Blessings from My Mission: A New Perspective on the Plan of Salvation

Yesterday I learned that a very good friend of mine from the mission passed away. Elder Whitney and I happened to keep following each other to different areas, so I was lucky enough to be around him for nine months of my mission. His death has reminded me that “the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen” (1 Ne 1:20). A few weeks ago, I got the feeling that I should call Elder Whitney, although I didn’t really know why. We chatted for a while and then I mentioned that I would be in Lehi that weekend which would put me a lot closer to him than usual, so we agreed to meet up. I didn’t really know why it was suddenly so important, but now I know that the Lord, knowing all things, knew his work here was coming to a close, and He was merciful enough to let me see him one last time.

If I had not been taught the plan of salvation and been able to bear testimony of it to others on numerous occasions I think this would be a lot harder for me to cope with. I don’t have to wonder if I’ll ever see him or any of my loved ones again. I don’t have to wonder if we go somewhere else after we die, or if death is the end. Instead the thoughts that have been crossing my mind for the past two days has been, “I wonder what he's doing right now. I wonder who he's seen since getting to the spirit world." Because I know his spirit is very much alive and that he's happy and probably very busy right now. That knowledge and understanding of what’s ahead changes everything.

In the final weeks of my mission, I started to think about how in a way, a mission is sort of like a miniature lifetime. A missionary leaves everything they know to enter a world that’s completely foreign to them, just as we left the presence of our Heavenly Father when we were born to come to earth. Just like we can’t see our Heavenly Father, we don’t get to see our families while we’re serving, but we do continue to communicate with them via email, which I guess you could sort of think of as prayer. And when a missionary’s time in the field draws to a close, are people sad? Absolutely. It was always hard for me to say goodbye to a friend who had completed their time as a missionary, because I knew that for a while, we would be separated. But I knew it wouldn’t be forever, and I never wondered if they had just disappeared--I just knew they were busy doing something else. I think death can be viewed the same way. Yes, we’re sad when loved ones leave us, because they’re important to us and we don’t want to be apart. But that’s as far as our grief needs to go, because our separation is only temporary.

And when the time comes for us to depart this life, I believe it will be a lot like returning home from a mission. Yes, we will be leaving a lot of loved ones behind, but we will also be reunited with just as many loved ones who have been anxiously awaiting our arrival.

But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, 

and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

Mosiah 16:8

Blessings from My Mission: Sisters

I have been telling myself for about six months that I needed to write another post.

It's funny how life gets in the way of those sort of things when you're back at home. All of a sudden you have a million other things to do, and it's easy to let things like journaling and blog writing and emailing missionaries slip by you. 

But this Friday, September 11th, marked two years since I went into the MTC (which is just insane to me, by the way) so I decided to do what I've been meaning to do for a long time and share a little more about my mission and my life right now. I think the main reason I've had a hard time getting around to doing it is because I keep telling myself, "No one's going to read it anyway, so why bother?" But you know, even if recording my thoughts on here only benefits me, I'd say it's well worth it. And I wanted to continue this blog, because overcoming your fears is a life long journey, not just something you face on the mission, and finding courage has become pretty important to me. 

I wanted to share with you in a few posts some blessings I have seen from serving my mission. Why? Because there's just so many. Honestly, I'm astounded at how often I continue to see blessings from my decision to serve. In fact just yesterday, I found out with the help of one of my old companions and some ward members that a family I taught in Meridian was just baptized. Even though I taught them nearly a year ago, this family has held my heart and I have often thought of them and wondered if they were still being taught. I'm ecstatic to hear that they were finally able to take that step forward in their spiritual progression! 

But today, I really wanted to talk about the blessing of sisters. That might seem a little strange, since serving a mission took me away from my sisters, but keep reading and I'll connect the dots. A few weeks ago I got to spend the weekend with my older sister, celebrating her birthday. We went to lagoon, ate ourselves sick at Tucanos, played lots of cribbage--it was basically the highlight of my summer. And I was thinking how funny that was, because honestly, when I was little she and I couldn't say one nice thing to each other. But now she's my best friend in the whole world, and like Betty and Judy Haynes from White Christmas there's not a thing that can come between us! I'm seriously so grateful that I have her, and I've grown even more grateful for it now that I'm home.

It's kind of the same way with my little siblings, too. I wasn't home a whole lot in high school and the last thing I'd be doing on a Friday night was spending time with my siblings. Now that's what I prefer to do. I can be completely crazy around them, and that's the best part. 

Because of my mission, my appreciation for the family unit has really grown. It's probably Heavenly Father's most genius idea. They're like friends you don't have to pay who are stuck with you for eternity. Ha ha! Too bad for you, family! You're never getting rid of me! 

But really, after coming home, it wasn't as easy to reconnect with all of my friends as I thought it would be. A lot changes in two years and with some people, you just don't have much in common anymore, or they're not living nearby so you don't get to see each other. So it was such a relief to be able to return to my family, where things were pretty much the same, because no matter how much time passes I will always be their daughter/sister, and that's what keeps us tied together.