[Sunday, 26 November 2000]
Dear Brethren:
I humbly accept the Lord’s call to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission.
In the time since I received my call, one thought has predominated my emotions. So often we work up an idea about what would be best for ourselves. So often what the Lord gives us is something totally different. But always, the blessings we receive from what the Lord gives us are far above and beyond the benefits we would have received if what we had worked up as “perfect” for ourselves had come to pass.
The Utah Salt Lake City South Mission isn’t what I had worked up as perfect for myself, but I know that my mission call is of the Lord. I know that it was given by revelation to his appointed servants, and I know that I will be blessed unimaginably as I serve Heavenly Father’s children in Utah.
Signature of missionary
[Endorsed by Bishop Harry E. Mahler, Pineville Ward, Charlotte North Carolina South Stake]
Thanks for sharing this. I’m having a lot thoughts about where i will be serving, and i have big desire on going outside my country, and i could be disappointed, but either way i know i have to trust the call, because Lord knows best.
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No matter what — no matter where you serve — you will have experiences you could have nowhere else. These experiences, and especially the people you meet, will — and this is an overused phrase, but in this case it’s completely apt — change your life.
One of the best experiences I had in the MTC was a Sunday evening devotional with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve. In his talk, he reflected on the impact his own mission had had in his life. He attributed every good thing in his life since his mission — and here he was standing before us as an apostle of Jesus Christ — to his service as a missionary. I decided then that I wanted to serve a mission that was good enough to have a similar influence in my own life. I was far from a perfect missionary. But I was good enough. And I can tell you that for me, too, everything good in my life has been the result of my mission.
Good luck! (And thanks for your comment!)
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