About Me and Why I Chose to Serve

I was lucky enough to be brought up in the Church.  I have such a strong testimony that this Church is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Every year members gather worldwide twice to listen to the words of our Prophets and Apostles.  They convey what our Father in Heaven wants us to hear.  During the second Conference of 2012 the Prophet Thomas S. Monson made a very big announcement.  He let everyone know that the age for boys to serve missions was now a year younger, 18.  This meant boys could go on their missions right after graduating High School.  This was a huge deal, and then Thomas S. Monson continued and announced that the age for young women to serve had changed as well.  It was previously 21.  But the new age was 19.  A huge change!

Living in Hong Kong we come together to watch Conference the week after it comes out, because if we were to watch it live we would be awake starting at 1 am.  So when this change happened I was asleep.  I woke up on Sunday and logged onto Facebook.  It was a very surreal experience for me because I was looking at so many posts from my Mormon friends saying that they were leaving for their missions/submitting their papers in 8 months.  And I was very confused because these friends were my same age, if not younger!  Luckily, one my friends linked the video to the section of the Prophet making this statement.  So of course I watched it.  I thought, "No way!!"  So I looked up the the full talk given by Thomas S. Monson.  I watched the full thing and was so shocked.

I had always thought that serving a mission for me was kind of out of the question.  21 was SO far away.  Women in the Church are not as encouraged to go on a Mission as the men.  But after watching the video, I was sitting on my bed.  Amazed.  That's when I felt it, it ht me like I had just walked into a wall.  I realized that after graduating, I would be 19.  I had the strongest feeling that God was specifically giving me a calling. Asking me to go.  I felt so at peace.  But I was still CRAZY SURPRISED.  I walked into my parent's room and convinced them that this was real life and that the age had changed.  My dad asked me, "And so?"  I replied, "This literally changes everything!"

That was it.

I knew that day I was going to do whatever I had to in order to honor that feeling I had.  My life was changed, I told my counselors at school that I was deferring from college that week.  I committed with myself that I was going to prepare myself so that I could serve.  My family and close friends have been so supportive :)  Whenever I feel discouraged or that I'm not good enough, I remember that God loves me and he needs me to serve.  I remember that surreal peace I felt wash over me when I realized what this announcement meant for me.

As a note ... in one year the number of Missionaries serving around the world has gone from 56,700 to 83,300.