A few months ago, I decided that I needed to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Well, let's be honest. I tried and tried to convince myself not to go, but it didn't work out so well. After many ups and downs, and (as my parents and roommates can attest) many, many tears, I finally submitted my application. I got my mission call a few weeks ago, and looks like I'll be headed to Hong Kong this summer! I'm going to the Missionary Training Center on July 5th, where I will spend 3 months learning how to speak Cantonese and how to be the best missionary I can be. I'm excited and scared out of my mind, but, best of all, I feel at peace with my decision. Here are some choice pictures (courtesy of my wonderful cousin, Laura) that really capture my feelings about this mission call:
I'm pretty sure I hit every emotion on the scale in about 5 seconds (which you could probably tell from my overly emotive face). Let me tell you, it has not been an easy ride so far, and I'm quite sure that it gets harder before it gets easier! But that's life. I don't know why I need to go on a mission, but I know how I feel when I think about going, and I know it's God telling me that I'm on the right path. Sometimes you have to go through hard things in order to grow. The goal is to let those hard things make you humble and Christlike. You have to avoid letting trials lead to cynicism. And above all, you have to have faith in the big picture. I love this quote by C.S. Lewis:
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
We're here on this earth to learn faith, and we wouldn't be able to learn it if we knew the end result of every trial, every adventure, and every choice. We have one idea of what we can become, but our Heavenly Father knows us so much better than we know ourselves. He sees a beautiful palace, while all we can see is a sweet, little cottage. Faith comes in when we let our cottage go, and let him get to work.
