Called to Serve

Like thousands of other youth in my church, when this announcement was made...

 I excitedly made the decision to serve a mission. A few months later I found a thick white envelope in my postbox which informed me that I would be serving in the Bacolod, Philippines mission.

Since then I've been doing a lot of praying, packing, reading, worrying, rejoicing, preparing, laughing, and crying- explained perfectly in this post from a fellow soon-to-be-missionary.

 Since I wanted to save my family the task of forwarding my emails home to everyone interested in my well-being, my mom will be using this to post portions of my emails and letters.

After making the decision last October, I'm down to nine days from starting this amazing adventure. If the Philippines are anything like what I've been hearing, I'm sure this blog will be filled with many stories of rats and bugs, intense weather and little running water, crazy foods (like balut) and rides in jeepneys... As well as the many many blessings and tender mercies from my Heavenly Father, friendships with my companions in this crazy journey, and the kind-hearted, humble people of one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

In the words of Anne (with an E) Shirley- 

I'm so grateful and excited for this opportunity to give 500 (ish) days of service and to be a part of this amazing movement of missionary work.