Called To Serve Him

Oh my gosh, crazy weekend!

Today it was announced that women can go on missions at age 19.  I'm almost 18 and a half.  The instant it was announced, I knew that I needed to go.  That was when I was called, or rather, when I realized that was being called.  Just the simple knowledge of this has pulled me out of my whole.  The last eight or nine months of my life have been really hard, I sort of lost myself.  The worst of it came this past week.  School has been terrible, classes that should be easy turning sour and concepts I used to know slipping out of my head.  Just the other day I was thinking, Why am I in school?  I'm not supposed to be here!  I set up an interview with my bishop, trying to get some help with things that I'm going through.  None of this made sense to me until today.

This is going to be an enormous change.  For me, for my friends, for BYU, and the entire church.

For me:  I'm going to spend 18 months of my life in the Lord's service.  Going on a mission was never something that  really considered, so this is a real change for me.  I've already taken a few prerequisites for the accounting program, and they usually advise you to wait until you come back to do that.  I'm not too worried.  I might need to retake a class or two, but I know that my sacrifice will benefit me in the end.  I'll need to take mission prep classes next semester and finish my GEs instead of accounting prereqs.  I'm actually really excited, it's going to be great!

For my friends:  We all suddenly have to decide what we want to do right now.  I know a lot of people who have said, "I'll go if I'm not married by then."  Well, suddenly then has arrived and we're not married.  Now we have to decide if we really wanted to or if we were just giving half hearted, cop-out answers.  We don't have to go, it's not a mandate, but why not? Why not serve the Lord?  He has done so much for him, why not give a bit more back than just tithing?  If we don't go, we might be judged, and while we don't want to care about that, obviously we do.  Our choice is to leave and serve the Lord, or stay and finish our education and find our husbands and start our families.

For BYU:  Suddenly, there are going to be a lot of freshman boys and upperclassmen girls that are going to be leaving in the next year.  There are going to be much fewer students for a while.  I talked to one of my friends about it and he was a bit worried about the dating pool.  For a while, the only girls at BYU will be freshman, RMs older than most single guys, married girls, engaged girls, girls who are not prepared emotionally or spiritually for missions, and the few girls who feel prompted to stay.  He is worried now that it will be even harder for him to find a good girl to marry, and that the competition from other guy RMs is going to be crazy.  Also, the freshman demographic will change as well.  There will mostly be girls, RMs, young guys that aren't 18 yet (they do exist!) and guys who choose not to or are unable to serve.  As an RA, I wonder how Helaman Halls will change.  Will there be RMs in the dorms?  Will they convert more of them to girl halls?  What happens to the wards?  RAs will have to step up.  There residents are now going to be either people preparing for and working towards missions, or returned missionaries that aren't used to college life.  Classes will also be full of these people.  Older, more experienced people will be participating in the lessons.  Everyone will have to step up their game.  

For the Entire Church:  The church is expanding explosively!  There will probably be 150 working temples in a couple years.  There are going to be thousands of new missionaries in the world, that means more missions, more mission presidents, and even more converts!  This is an amazing time for the church.  They are going to be more careful about who they send on missions, only the best will be allowed to represent the church, and Christ, who is the head thereof.

This has been such a long, amazing, life-changing day.  I have decided what the next two years of my life will entail, and set up the general framework of the two after that.  I am excited and ready to get where I want to go.

Until we meet again!

Crazy Score for the Day: 100 out of 10