Rach: "Why don't you just get married?"

People always ask sister missionaries why they chose to go on a mission when it is not required by the church. Here is my story.

I was under some interesting perceptions as a young girl growing up in LDS culture. While I loved missionaries, I never got really acquainted with them. They would come over for dinner and eat a lot of lasagna, and our conversations unfortunately never led to my family actually sharing the gospel. We usually had elders in the ward and the occasional sister missionary companionship to come through. Unfortunately, I saw the sister missionaries through a certain stereotype. Why were these girls on missions and not getting married? In my mind there were just a few possible explanations:

WARNING - honest (though incorrect) thoughts coming up:

1. They were frumpy (online definition: A female with lack of concern for appearance. Often characterized by sweatpants, frizzy hair, grandma panties, and a pasty complexion).
2. They were socially awkward and therefore unable to find a guy to marry.
3. They had absolutely nothing better to do
4. Their families were "super mormon" and made them come.

Well guess what... I WAS WRONG! I admit it! To think, I had all of those years to prepare for my own mission but I was too busy judging the poor, sweet sister missionaries that cycled through our ward. I should've taken some time to get to know them and learn from their amazing experiences and huge hearts. Seriously. One of my new quests in life is to help girls go on missions. Why? because it changed my life and I know it will change every girl who goes for the better. Who wouldn't want that?

You may be wondering how I ended up on a mission when the last thing I wanted to be was frumpy, socially awkward, have nothing to do, and be a super goody goody mormon. I had, what our dear King Benjamin calls, a change of heart.

It happened my sophomore year of college. First of all, I was not looking to get married and I think that helped quite a bit. Commitment was not my thing you know. Boys were awkward and I had dated one too many "premie" guys. So, my wonderful best friend Megan and I moved into a new ward. We were warned before that it was an "older" ward and had a lot of sister returned missionaries. Oh great. Welcome to frumpland, right? Wrong. The girls I met in that ward changed me.

I was surrounded by girls who

1. were actually very classy. None of that yucky hair and sweat pants crap
2. had incredible testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the Restauration of the church, Jesus Christ, and lots of other important things!
3. knew how to teach.... and boy did they! I had never enjoyed Relief Society so much!
4. stuck to their morals
5. were beautiful (not just their sparkling spirits inside, but outside too!)

Needless to say, I was blown away. There they were, return sister missionaries, and they were the picture of what I wanted to be! Their common denominator... the had all served worthy missions for the church. It didn't matter where they had gone, they all had the same fire. I wanted it.

And thus began the journey of prayer, fasting, and pleading with the Lord to tell me if it was the right thing for me. As is typical in my relationship with Heavenly Father, He did not give me a direct answer but gently guided me through different people and thoughts. I remember it finally coming to a rather frustrating point where I just told God that I was going to prepare myself like I was going on a mission, and if it wasn't the right thing then please let me know. Well, as you can guess, God didn't intervene and I got to go :). Preparing was great, the mission was even better. It was the absolute best decision I had ever made.

My parents were skeptical at first and I know more than one person asked me why I didn't just get married instead, but I felt it was right and I was so excited to go and share the gospel. After getting used to the idea, my parents were fully onboard and my biggest supporters. Thanks mom and dad!

I got called to the California San Diego Mission to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.  I was admittedly a bit disappointed that it wasn't a foreign land, foreign language, and that it was a visitor's center... but I acted with faith, accepted the call, and went to go conquer San Diego! 

My mission did not, however, turn into a visitor's center mission. The Visitor's Center closed a week before I arrived for renovations and reopened a week after I left. My call was changed from English to Spanish speaking after 8 months. It was the best 18 months I could've asked for.

there it is! my mission call!