Catherine Elizabeth: Called to serve..

Dear Sister Sowter

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labour in the Oregon Eugene Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Centre on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language.

So this happened and it was the best thing ever. Words cannot express how happy these sentences make me or how they will change my life. My future starts here and I am so excited!

My testimony of the gospel is a simple but honest one, and seeing as for the next eighteen months i'm going to be doing nothing but talking about my beliefs and sharing my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ what better place to start practising than here? So here we are. I know that Jesus, my redeemer and Saviour lives and that he knows and loves me. I know that if we let him he will support us, carry us and lift our burdens as we endure to the end. I believe that families can be together forever and that our loving, kind Heavenly Father has created the most wonderful plan for us to all experience joy and happiness here in mortality and for all eternity. I believe that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet here on the earth today to help lead us and inspire us with words of encouragement and knowledge. I believe that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and that the Scriptures are our guide through life. The gospel is true people!

I'm so excited/terrified to get my name tag and to share the message of peace, joy and happiness with the people of Oregon. Excited because the gospel is true and I love it! And terrified because eighteen months is a long time and missions are hard and what if they don't like me or my accent?? I don't handle rejection well, I really just want everyone to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives so we can all be happy. Ok? Cool.

Honestly I still can't believe i'm going on a mission. It's never something I aspired to do when I was growing up. I thought they sounded like too much hard work and sacrifice. They're tough, emotionally and physically. Early mornings, exercise, no naps, limited contact with family and friends and no entertainment, regular rejection... if you know me even a smidgen then you know the idea of early mornings and exercise is literally my worst nightmare. And now i've voluntarily signed myself up to do exactly that for 24/7 for eighteen months. Some might call me crazyyy...

And they'd probably be right!

haha.

Despite my reservations, I know it's the right thing for me to do. It's the answer to many prayers. Over the past few years I have prayed and pleaded with the Lord for my life to just sort itself out already. I couldn't understand why things were so difficult when I was trying my best and doing everything I could. Let me tell you, getting rejected from jobs for no good reason is the worst. But I know now that the Lord was preparing me to go on a mission. I wasn't getting those jobs that were perfect and I would be so good at because I was needed for a different purpose. My journey to go on a mission started in January and I have hit every single bump along the way (literally). Doctors refusing to sign your medical? Been there. Papers being accidentally deleted the night before you Bishop goes on a three week holiday? Yep i've got the t-shirt. It's taken it's toll emotionally, there were so many times where I wanted to give up, when I just sat and cried and when I worried over how inadequate I am to serve. I still feel that way. Whilst everyone else is gushing over how exciting it is, "Oregon can you believe it?" i'm starting to freak out a little (read: a lot) . I deluded myself into thinking that three months was a long time to prepare. Hahaha how wrong I was. There is so much to do. Visas and vaccinations and ohmygosh missions are expensive to prepare for and I don't know enough of the gospel to teach it, and AMERICA??!

A m e r i c a ! I can't get my head around it. People don't go on missions to America. And yet me, miss anti-america is going over there for 18 months. The Lord must have a wicked sense of humour. But whilst I confess my confusion about this to every single person I meet I also know it's 100 percent where I need to be. When I read Oregon, Eugene in my letter I cried. And we're not talking the ladylike single glistening tear on the check (name that movie, Lydia i'm looking at you!) but full on ugly sobs. I tend to cry when I get emotional. It's unfortunate. But despite the tears, I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. It was suddenly and overwhelmingly confirmed to me by the Spirit that this is exactly where I need to be. I have work to do there. And the more I learn of the mission the more perfect it seems to me. It has really confirmed to me that mission calls are inspired from the Lord and that he knows me personally. As my lovely sweet friend Georgia wrote me after I received my call, it's like Doctrine and Covenants 58:4 "For after much tribulations come many blessings..." Oh how I have struggled to get here, but the blessings for enduring my trials and having patience and faith in the Lord, are more than I could ever imagine.

I'm not going to lie here, I was glad I wasn't called to serve in England. And that may be wrong of me. A mission isn't meant to be an adventure, a holiday, a cool place to tell people you've been. It is not about where you serve but about how you serve. I, along with the 85k other LDS missionaries out there in the world, have signed up to dedicate our time to the Lord, to serve and to love Him and His children. Some people wonder why at the age of twenty three i'm deciding to sacrifice so much and uproot my life, but they don't understand just how much my Saviour gave up for me, and that the only way I can fathom beginning to repay my debt is by my complete devotion to Him. So yes, everyone keeps telling me how pretty Oregon is (I know, I can't stop looking at pictures on pinterest, someone take it away from me), and that may be a lovely positive bonus, but that is not why i'm going or what i'm most excited about. Seeing a mountain is probably going to blow my mind but serving my Saviour is far more of an exciting adventure to me.

CLICK RIGHT HERE TO WATCH ME OPEN MY CALL. This is literally the only way blogger would allow me to upload the video. But it's still the best. I've watched it on repeat to many times. Thank you to Elder and Sister Preece.

Please excuse the horrible mess I look like in all the pictures, it was an emotional night..