The summer before I went to school I was often attending a lot of my friends mission call openings and farewells. I had little thoughts about going on a mission but it never really occurred to me that I was going to go until August 4th of 2016. I was over at one of my friends houses (Megumi Anderson) and we were just sitting in the kitchen talking about everyone leaving and missions in general, when I told her that I was considering going. As I verbalized that it REALLY occurred to me that I did need to go. I then pulled out a scripture that a friend of mine showed me while we were in the Salt Lake Temple (Tate Shepard - Jamaica). D&C 122:7 This scripture is one my friends like to call a "mic drop scripture"
I then began passionately talking about how I felt about this scripture. After I finished talking about this scripture, Megumi simply responded, "Allison. You need to go on a mission," and I immediately said back "I do." So on this emotional roller coaster about whether to go or not, I KNEW I needed to go on August 4th of 2016.
I came from a special group of young women in the Kerrybrook ward. This picture is of the girls I grew up with in the ward.
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Many are already serving or leaving to: Washington, Canada, Brazil, Cincinnati, Brazil, Cali, Indianapolis, Georgia, Japan |
As I was up at Snow College this last year, I found a new/strong love for the temple (which was only a hop and skip away from campus) Being able to go to the Manti temple every week really helped me throughout school and other things, ESPECIALLY my mission papers. Going to the temple really kept my head up and reminded me what The Plan is for us. The Manti temple is beautiful, and I strongly recommend going there if you have not.
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Austin, Matt, Malia, Me |
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My awesome sister, Jennifer, currently serving in Mongolia. |
At the beginning of my mission process I set my availability date for August 20th, just enough time to spend with Jennifer before another year and a half of not seeing each other. As I kept moving forward with my papers and interviews, I woke up one morning with the thought... "Dang, I can't wait that long." So my next interview I moved my availability date to May 20th. I depart on July 12th to the Provo MTC, 16 days before Jennifer gets back.