Called to Serve

Getting a mission call is a big thing! It really is. It's the place you are going to be living and serving for the next two years of your life! So, naturally, there is a lot of anticipation, nervousness, and imagining that happens when you start those papers. Once they're submitted, all that multiplies by 10! Are you going to go here or there? What if you go to Europe! South America! What if you have to learn a crazy language!? Those are definitely many of the topics of conversation.

My Cousin, Elder Taylor, in Brazil.

What really matters, though, is are you willing to serve with all your "hear, might, mind and strength"? I didn't get called to another country. I don't get to learn a new language. I don't get to experience an entire new culture. Was I a little disappointed? Yea, I was. But that was because I hadn't fully realized what my purpose was! If I had gone to another country I may have been able to baptize people and help them come unto Christ, but, would they have been the right people? Would they have been the spirits I had PROMISED to find, and testify of the Living Christ to?? No, they wouldn't have been. North Carolina is where God wants me to be. When that realization really hit me, I got REALLY excited. I was going to go find, teach, and baptize those precious souls!!! And now I'm doing it! I'm searching everyday; testifying left and right about Jesus Christ. Nothing makes me happier than being able to serve my Savior and my Heavenly Father by spreading the knowledge of their infinite, unconditional love.

So, while all my friends are off in Italy, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador,  Mexico, Germany, Hungary, and Denmark, I have the amazing pleasure of serving my beautiful brothers and sisters here in North Carolina. As we all, as missionaries and members, magnify our callings  wherever we are in the world, we are doing Christ's work; we are spreading love, joy, and peace to the lost sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father! How amazing is that!?

And what is the most important thing to remember? It's that God loves you. He loves you, is watching over you, and is thinking about you constantly! He is pouring you out blessings all the time.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for god is love."

~ 1 John 4:7-8

The Good Shepherd

SNOOOOOOW!

SNOOOOOOOW! Finally. I have been waiting for Christmas since....well....Christmas, but it just didn't feel like coming until now. We got 6 inches, though! Not bad at all for North Carolina. It created a lot of concern and lead to all public schools being closed for over a week and both Duke and UNC for 2 days! Kinda crazy to us Westerners, but ok!

It was beautiful; everything covered in a gorgeous, flawless layer of pure white. I was on exchange, at the time, with another missionary (one of our Zone Leaders, not Elder Bodily), and we went outside right as we woke up to take some pictures.

I absolutely love the sound of the snow crunching underneath my feet and how it muffles the sound of everything. Everything seems to be at peace. It definitely reminds me of the many days, back in Sun Valley, Idaho, when I'd be up on the mountain skiing. You get to the top of the mountain and you get to look over the top of miles of snow covered landscape, then, you head down the hill just listening to sound of each cut that you make. Lots of those times are when I felt the strongest that there definitely is a God. Who else could create such a beautiful Earth?


The snow also plowed the way for Elder Bodily and I to follow Jesus Christ's footsteps and offer service to all those in need. We called our bishop right as we got home and asked what members of our congregation would need help shoveling their driveways so they could get out, and he gave us a big ole' list of people and a couple of shovels! Then, it was off to work!

We started at about 10 o'clock, and shoveled non-stop until 5:30 that night! We certainly got in our workout for the day...that's for sure...But it was worth it!

We were able to help 7 elderly couples from our ward and they showed us more love and appreciation than we deserved! We weren't looking for anything, in fact, one thing I've grown to love is doing something nice for absolutely nothing in return! There's a warmth in that kind of service that you just can't get doing anything else.

Jesus Christ gave us two wonderful scriptures to demonstrate the need for service. The first, is the thirty-first verse of the twelfth chapter of Mark, which reads "...Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

The second verse is in the seventeenth verse of the second chapter of Mosiah, saying, "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Both verses show us that service is something the Lord requires of us, but, when we find we are truly seeking to follow Him, it is not a burden at all, but something we do selflessly, as an expression of true love for Him.

With that, I am not only grateful for the opportunity I've had to give small acts of service, like I did shoveling, but I am also thankful for the wonderful opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, by being a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It is an amazing blessing.

An Apostle of the Lord

What an amazing week this last week has been! Elder Bodily and I were privileged to be able to hear words from one of the Prophets, Seers, and Revelators on this earth, Elder D. Todd Christopherson; an Apostle of the Lord.

Our mission was able to get together this last Friday and listen and learn from the wise, and spirit-filled, words of Elder Christopherson. What a wonderful opportunity it was! Whenever I have imagined these men, these Apostles, I have always imagined them having been given something more than the rest of us humans have -an extra gene or chromosome or something!- but, being able to hear his words and be in his presence, I realized that he is a child of God, on earth for the same reasons as I am, and has been called to a High and Holy Calling. He wasn't given anything special; no special powers or automatic Faith and perfect knowledge. He had to gain it all, just like I am, to be where he is!

"In a way, that's the goal of our lives; to submit our will to his."

One of the most powerful things I was able to learn from him, or to be clearer, that he said and the Spirit bore witness to, was about the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The infinite power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye

ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized

in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the

reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand

spotless before me at the last day.

~3 Nephi 27:20

The Atonement of Jesus Christ does much more than forgive us of our sins. Through the Holy Ghost and the Power of the Atonement the stains on our souls are completely removed; as if nothing ever happened. Kinda Awesome in my opinion.

Use this Gift! Every single day!