What I have to look forward to...

So I've found some gorgeous pictures all taken within the limits of my mission. Let me share:

Droppin Some Knowlege About Obedience

So...This is basically what I said for my farewell talk. Thought I would share with whoever stumbles upon this blog.

     I want you all to imagine you have a friend. This friend goes around telling everyone that they love you, but they never tell you directly. When you text, call, or email this friend, they never answer you and sometimes don’t even read your messages. This friend comes to your house every weekend, eats your food, and then ignores you the rest of the time they are at your house. They talk badly about people they know you love. They will ask you for advice like they care what you think, and never follow the advice you give them. Is this friend really a friend at all? Do you believe them when they tell everyone that they love you? Of course not.

     But don’t we sometimes, as the imperfect human beings that we are, do this to our Heavenly Father? It is really easy to fall into the trap of thinking that love is something you say and not something you do. Love is an action. The Savior told us exactly how we can prove our love to him in John 14:15 when he said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

The Why and Some Unsolicited Advice

     I'm not really a blogger, but recently I wrote something for One Year, Six Months, Forever, so I thought I would share it here too. Just an explanation of how I made my decision and what I've done to prepare.

     As soon as President Monson made the announcement of the mission age change, a black hole opened up in my stomach. My first thought was, “Oh no.” I knew it was an amazing thing that would affect the world so much, but for me personally I was just dreading having that major decision pushed to the top of my list. Honestly, I had never seriously considered serving a mission because I still had 2 years before I needed to think of that. I knew it at least warranted my consideration, so I spent about a week weighing the pros and cons and praying about it. But truthfully, I’m the kind of person that if I’m to the stage of weighing pros and cons, I have really already made my choice. 

Writing Me in the MTC

So this will only be important April 4th- April 17th. But this is a quick lesson to all those who don't know on how to write me at the MTC from DearElder.com. Which is the only kind of mail I want at the MTC, actual mail probably won't get to me by the time I leave.
Make sure you choose the Preston England MTC instead of the Provo one when you send it.

Click here to go straight to DearElder.com

Helpful Missionary Blogs

Because I'm an internet junkie, I've spent a lot of time since getting my call just looking at different sites and blogs to help me prepare for my mission. Here are some of the blogs I've found:

Sister M's
Tips For Sister Missionaries
Sister Missionaries of the World
Sweetly Bold
Confessions of a Hipster RM- My favorite!
One Year, Six Months, Forever
The Ultimate Guide to Mission Success
Tips from Hermana Silva
Sister Kambrie Sales
And for scripture study/marking specifically:
The Redheaded Hostess
LDS Scripture Marking

Called to Serve

I was surprised, to say the least.
Seeing the words "England London" was the last thing I expected but the first thing I wanted.
I had pushed the hope of being called to England to the back of my mind because, really, who gets called to exactly where they want to go most?
Me apparently.
I can completely, 100% honestly say that I was happy to go wherever the Lord would send me. But when I would get asked where I wanted to go, and I did get asked that a lot, I would always say England.
So April 3, 2013, I will hop on a plane and travel across the pond to the England MTC and spend 18 months working my butt off to tell the people of England glad tidings of great joy.