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.
No comments:
Post a Comment