Constant Reminders of the Mission

Lately, it seems like there have been a lot of things reminding me of my days as a missionary in Oklahoma. I mean, there isn't a day that passes where I don't think of my mission, but the last few days there have been more things reminding me of the mission...

1. About a week ago, my current mission president's wife, Sister Taylor, posted in our mission group on Facebook. Part of her post read:

We are busy here planning for the 86 new missionaries we will receive in the next four or five months. Our biggest transfer so far is in March--we get about 21 extra missionaries more than the number departing. We are going from 19 to 56 sister missionaries--which we LOVE! The Lord is hastening His work and we really enjoy being a part of it. We hope to have all the new missionaries to move our complement to 216 before we go back to Utah at the end of June.

2. Last Thursday, my first mission president messaged me.

3. Friday night I got to visit an elder and a sister (who I served with on my mission) who were married over a year ago in their new place.

4. Sunday, Sister Taylor again posted in our mission group on Facebook letting us know one of the sister missionaries passed away in an accident.

5. Late last night, I received a message from a former SD missionary, telling me one of the girls in his current YSA ward received her mission to my mission also Spanish speaking, asking if I'd tell her about my mission.

6. Just while I've been writing this post, my trainer posted a pic on Facebook saying it's been 3 years since she came home from her mission.

Why are these reminders so important? Why should I remember my mission daily? To help remind me of the most important responsibility I have, which is to assist Heavenly Father in his work, "...to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39)

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve a mission, which changed my life. And I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven, who loves me enough to remind me of the big picture when I forget and who patiently waits for me to change when I fail to act on what I know.

So Much Depends On You

Yesterday, I got back from St. George earlier than I had expected and was able to make it to the last hour of my ward. Elder Haynie, our area 70, was visiting my ward, and he spoke during our combined Priesthood/Relief Society meeting. He wanted to point out 3 new things that were mentioned in this past general conference:

1. Age change for missionaries

2. The way we teach the youth

3. Do your own temple work

As we spoke of these three things, there was a sense of urgency felt, and Elder Haynie said a lot of powerful things...

Age change for missionaries:

We need to better prepare the youth to serve missions because they will serve at a younger age. We need to be better member missionaries and find more people for the missionaries to teach because the missionary force is going to grow a lot. In the San Diego mission, next week they will go from 184 missionaries to 250. He said that currently we have about 56,000 full-time missionaries, and the Church projects we we will have 90,000-100,000 soon. Our responsibility for missionary work went through the roof with this announcement. YSA wards are the units with the greatest expectancy for converts. We need to be able to put those missionaries to work because they will come prepared to teach and baptize. The Church is going to change in the next 15-20 years. 

The way we teach the youth:

Elder Haynie asked if we had heard about the change in how we teach the youth. Few of the YSAs in the room raised their hands. (I had heard because I had seen it online a while ago, I had been in my home ward at the end of 2012 as they talked about it, and Randal was recently called as YM's president, so I've heard him talk about it.) He told us to go online and check it out. We will be the top teachers for the youth. The demands on both teachers of the youth and the youth just went up.

Do your own temple work:

When doing temple work, we need to do our our family line. Name extraction is becoming harder, and we are taught that we need to do temple work for our kindred dead. One of the sealer from the San Diego temple was present and he said that he strongly believes that converts are blessed to be baptized in this life because they have family members in the spirit world who have accepted the gospel and have been waiting for hundreds of years for someone here to do their work.

Before the meeting concluded, Elder Haynie left time for Q&A. He said we will probably seeing more of this in stake conference and other similar settings. The first presidency asked members of the 70 to come to the next meeting with inspired questions. They were told that inspired questions lead to personal revelation. It was very cool to hear that because I have witnessed that many times, and I know that to be true! The time that sticks out the most is when Elder Bednar came to my mission. The entire time he was there, missionaries asked questions, and he answered. He told us that even if we didn't ask a question, we would receive answers to questions as we listened to the spirit speak to us. 

In Elder Haynie's concluding remarks he said, "So much depends on you. If I were you're stake president, I'd load you up. You have so much capacity to do good."

It was a powerful meeting! Our leaders are depending on us. The future of the Church depends on us. We have to step up to the plate and heed what we've been asked to do. I know our leaders are called of God. I know that with the Lord we have the ability to do the great things expected of us at this time as well as the great things that will be expected of us in the future!

Sold on St. George!

I keep telling myself I'm going to get better at keeping my blog updated, but then by the time I update it again I realize how much time has passed and all of the things I haven't written about.

First of all, Barnes & Noble (B&N) decided to keep me. I found out about a month or so ago. That is a huge tender mercy and blessing! I am so grateful for that! The thing is, it's only part-time, and they continue to cut back hours because we aren't making what we need to be. I still need to find another job because part-time at minimum wage isn't cutting it. Well, if I want to buy a car, move out, go back to school, etc., it won't be enough. 

This past weekend I went up to St. George with Randal, Eden, and Suzanne. We took Eden up because she will be going to hair school at the Paul Mitchell there, and she'll be living with Suzanne's parents, the Cole's. It was fun to get away for a couple of days! I think I was kinda spoiled in Rexburg because I would go to Utah pretty often. Now being in San Diego, without a car, I never go anywhere.

Anyway, it was fun! I've driven through St. George a million times, and I've stayed there quite a few times too, but this time was different, probably because it's Eden's new home. I got to visit friends from the mission and a friend from BYU-I. I just felt like I could totally move there and fall in LOVE with it! Sister Cole pointed out the B&N from her living room window, which is right by where she works at See's. Everything is right there, and it's so pretty! I looked up the population, and it's 74,000, which is about 3 times the size of Rexburg. It seems like everyone I ran into kept telling me why I should move there, and I was sold before anyone even said anything. I told Ede, the only thing that would have made our road trip better is if I was moving with her. Maybe someday, but for now I'm staying in SD.