Writing on this blog is new commitment for me. I have recently been given the official calling to be an Online Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What an amazing, and yet quite overwhelming calling for me. I am looking forward to sharing my testimony and daily experiences with my faith here on this blog.
A little History…
I was born in Ft. Huachuca, AZ and lived in Sierra Vista, AZ. My older sister and I were good friends (when we weren’t fighting) who played together constantly. We have many funny memories of being busy little girls. My younger sister and brother were like dolls for me. I loved taking charge of them. We seemed to be a happy little family. I didn’t realize that my father was very unhappy. He took his life and left my mother with four little children to raise on her own. It was (and still is) quite devastating to me. When this happened, I was eight years old. We moved to Hollister, CA to live near my mother’s parents. This began a new chapter of our lives.
Between the ages of eight and twenty, we were always moving and we never settled in a home for longer than two years. It was a lifestyle that I became comfortable with. I never attached myself to anyone or anything, because I knew that we would just be moving. Eventually, we followed my Grandparents from California to Oakley, Utah. I was miserable and very upset at the fact that my mother would move us to Oakley my Senior year of high school. However, I have later realized that it was this move that helped to create the person and the life that I enjoy today.
After high school, I attended Utah Valley Community College (now called Utah Valley University). I ended up getting involved in pageants. I worked for Lancome Cosmetics. After a few years of living as a young adult, I felt very lost and alone. It took me quite a while of living a sad and aimless life, that I realized that it was only through prayer and faithfully turning to my Heavenly Father and asking what he would have me do, in order to find the answer to a happy life.
As I prayed to find out which path I should follow next on my personal “map” of life, the answer that continually came to me was that I needed to serve a mission for The Lord. This was definitely not the answer I was expecting. However, I decided to make the most of the 18 months I had to serve in the Connecticut Hartford Mission.
It was an interesting adventure for me, because I was a young, single girl looking for the answer to the meaning of life. The answer that happiness only comes by living faithfully, came to me day in and day out as I walked, talked, prayed, and followed the example of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Almost two decades have passed since I served as a young sister missionary. Now, I am faced with a similar calling in a new environment. I am not just able to serve the people of Connecticut and Rhode Island. With the availability of the internet, my words, my testimony, and my experiences will be able to touch many people throughout the world.