Mission Baby!
I never ever wanted to go on a mission. Ever. I always thought I would never be good at it. I thought there were plenty of other girls out there who could and would do a much better job than me! Yet, here I was, telling my family I was going to go on a mission! It seemed as if I had no choice. I felt like God was telling me to go on a mission and let's face it, you can't deny God. I put in my papers (like an application) to go on a mission and 6 weeks later I received a letter back from the prophet telling me I was going to sunny Pennsylvania, Philadelphia! Next thing I knew I was shipped to the Missionary Training Center and was taught how to teach! Three weeks after that I headed out to the east coast. I met my companion (because missionaries always teach in pairs) and we were assigned to work in New Jersey.
A Taste of the East Coast
Now, I've never been to the east coast, let alone Jersey. It was definitely a shock to the system at first, but then after a while I got used to the differences. I learned to love Jersey and all the people in it! One of my first weekends in New Jersey we had an appointment to teach a member of the church, but we had some extra time. So we decided to do what missionaries do best. Talk to people! We wandered down the roads until we got to a fairly busy road and talked to some people about the gospel. Something I find about the east coast is that most people are "busy". Usually when we try to share a message about Jesus Christ they choose to ignore us and walk by. I must admit that is a little frustrating at times but I always remember; We are missionaries! We have been called of God to do this work! When that doesn't cheer me up I always remember to go back to the scriptures and remember "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13)We continued walking trying to find those who might be interested and we run across a man showing pictures. Well...turns out he wasn't showing pictures. He was a little bit..we'll say interesting. He kept talking about all these crazy things and trying to prove that the bible was not true. Something we are taught as missionaries is to never "bible bash" because let's face it. That doesn't do any good! Usually people who do "bible bash" just want to argue and you could be there for hours! This man was definitely one of those type who just wanted to argue.
Lesson Learned
Eventually we got away from him and headed to our appointment. I just kept thinking..."Wow. This church is so true! There is no way that any of the stuff that man said could be true. God loves us and he wants what is best for us! He isn't out there trying to scare us into doing what is right! He truly has give us the way to return back to Him through His son Jesus Christ! He has given us this gospel so we can learn what to do to return to Him" Just like it says in (3 Nephi 27:13)! This gospel is true! I couldn't wait for the adventures I was going to have telling people about this message! First week on my mission=SUCCESS!
