¿Por qué?

One of my favorite questions to ask all of my companions was "so why did you decide to serve?".  I absolutely LOVED hearing their responses.  And the best part of it was that not everyone had or has a huge story or some grand experience that led up to going on a mission, but they are all there for a reason.  And its because they found that reason and moved forward in faith.

I wanted to share why I decided to go on a mission.

I feel like this is an interesting topic these days with the new announcement by President Monson.  But I know that the decision to serve a mission should be a personal one between you and the Lord.  Because, honestly, who knows you better than him?  Um, nobody.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE to plan.  I mean LOVE.  Maybe too much.  I live by lists and my Google calendar.  That being said, I also love setting and achieving goals and just knowing where my life is going.  Going back to Octoberish of 2010, I had just started my Junior year at BYU.  I had been at school for a few years, but I had reached this point where I didn't really know what I was doing.  I didn't know where I would be in the next couple years and it really started to bother me a lot.  This might seem crazy, but it really got me thinking into what I wanted to with my life and what I had been doing up to this point.  And weirdly, all of a sudden the word mission just kept coming up in my life.  Like ALL the time.  It was seriously kind of weird.  I'd find myself talking about missions to a good friend and his wife (who had both served missions), or a lesson in Relief Society by a returned sister missionary, or just a random experience that would somehow be connected to a mission in some way.  And I didn't put it all together at first, but soon enough I started realizing this might be just be something the Lord was trying to tell me.

I went to my cousin's wedding reception in Salt Lake that fall, and who do I run into?  Sister Eggroll!  A girl that had served her mission in my home ward in Maryland a few years before!  (and had taught my family how to make homemade egg rolls).  I had run into her on campus a few times, but I hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to her.  But, that night I got to talk to her and I was just glued to her side, asking her all about missions and my dilemma about going.  She of course was totally for me going on a mission and she even told me that she was probably a biased opinion and not the best source (but it's what I secretly wanted).

After talking to Sister Eggroll that night, I had the push I really needed to start seriously thinking and praying about what the Lord wanted me to do.  Even though that experience really helped kickstart the search, it definitely didn't mean the next few weeks/months weren't a really hard time for me, because they were (and probably for my mom and roommates too!).  There was a lot of thinking, talking, fasting, reading scriptures, and praying.  Lots of it.  Oh and maybe a few too many phone calls crying to my mom...  And it didn't help anything that I can be very indecisive about certain things, and this was one of them.  To make a very long month sound short, I eventually received the answer I needed.  The answer I needed to know that the Lord needed me on a mission at this time in my life.

And then I started my papers.

It was seriously one of the most exciting times in my life.  I had made this huge decision and started to move forward in faith.  And the best part of it was constantly seeing the little positive confirmations in my life that this was what was in the Lord's plan for me.  And the cool thing is those little positive confirmations didn't stop then, but continue to show up in my life almost everyday.

the future Hermana Crowder !

more on opening my call soon!