Missionary Month

So my ward is doing missionary month. We have three weeks of three different challenges, but I am just doing all three challenges all three weeks. One of the challenges is to stop using social networking sites, and I think blogger counts for that. However, missionaries can write home once a week via email and that is usually on Preparation Day, which is typically Monday, so I am writing a letter on P-Day via my blog.

Hey everyone!

Life has been great. I haven't written on here in a while, but that's just because I am lazy. Oh and missionary month. Anyway, I am having a great time with missionary month. I haven't watched TV and I've only listened to church approved music and I haven't networked socially for five days, and will continue in a like manner for another 16. It really has increased the amount of the spirit's influence on my life.

I am so grateful for the gospel. I wish I could write everything that has happened that has strengthened my testimony in just the last two weeks, but I can't because I only have a half hour (the amount of time you can be logged into LDS mail). 

We can go for just today, if you'd like. Today I started out with a great lesson in seminary. It is so good to just enjoy the influence of the spirit while messing around with a bunch of other kids while learning the gospel. Then, when my friend got stuck in the snow, one of the biggest spiritual giants I know, Brother Joel Wright, came and pulled her out. He didn't even wait for me to ask, he just did. Then when he left, he didn't wait for a thanks. He just did what he knew was right then kept traveling on.

Lately I have felt at a spiritual decline, but the past two weeks have been so great. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and beyond that, I am a firm believer of Christ's gospel. I am so grateful for the atonement that gives me a reason to hope. 

I am going on a mission and really, I can't wait. 

I can't wait to leave everything I've ever known behind. 

I can't wait to move out of the only house I've ever lived in. 

I can't wait to go to a foreign home and feel out of place but then make it my home. 

I can't wait to work and walk until my feet are sore and my skin is sunburned. 

I can't wait to be free from the stresses of school and girls and family and media to take on a stress of eternal significance: bringing others to Christ. 

I can't wait to be yelled at, mocked, spit upon, threatened, and rejected. 

I can't wait because this gospel is true and what else would matter? 

Where I am when I am a missionary is where the Lord wants me. I will be a true, complete, full-time missionary. I want to lose my life in the service of God (I don't mean I want to die, just that I want to forget myself). The gospel is true. I am called of God to be a representative of His son, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ to preach His gospel to the world. To be hated and loved by those I serve with all my heart. To be a beacon of truth and a guide to eternal, real, almost tangibly full happiness.

And I can't wait.