did you think to pray?

As of today I have one week left until I report to the MTC!!!!

This has been such a crazy time for me! I moved home to good old Helper a few weeks ago, I spoke in two different sacrament meetings, and I have been keeping myself very busy despite not having to work or go to school right now.

I am so lucky to have such an incredible family here to support me; they are amazing! My parents have been doing so much to make everything work out while I am gone, and for all the travelling and family visiting us before I leave. Also, my awesome grandma has been sewing adorable skirts for my mission. I don’t know why, but I just had the hardest time finding skirts that were long enough for me, but also were not maxi skirts.

Clothing has been one of my most challenging tasks in preparing for my mission. I don’t want to bring too much, but I feel like I still don’t have enough!

Also, I am terrible at packing. At this moment I am looking at three suitcases! One of my problems is that I have all these ideas in my head of things that I could take or use to make things easier, but those things are not available or just don’t exist! Like collapsible hangers, why aren’t those more available? Those would be fantastic!?

I have been so blessed lately. I was having a hard time feeling calm and peaceful while waiting for my mission and Satan has been working pretty hard on me too. Fortunately, I have some great people in my life who have been able to help me. I have been able to go to the temple several times. I was able to go through the temple when one of my best friends received his endowments and later that same friend was able to give me a great blessing that has helped me to feel so much peace throughout this last little while before I leave.

This weekend I went camping with my family and was able to play hard as like… a “last time I will do this for 19 months!” type of thing. I went four wheeling a bazillion times. I will miss four wheeling. We played on the zip line and hiked around a bunch. I also had my farewell talk in my homeward and a big get together with my family and friends. (: I was also able to watch Harry Potter! Man Oh Man! I will MISS Harry Potter! (Do you think I can get away with taking the Harry Potter soundtrack on my mission? It is classical-ish...)

I have been able to check several things off my bucket list, there are a few things I won’t be able to do but that just means when I come home I will have to make another list for the post-mish life.

I cannot even express how excited I am to go to the MTC. Many of my friends have said that they wish they could get right out to the mission field, but I am sooo looking forward to the MTC. I am of course excited to get out to the mission field too, but I am excited for the spirit and teachings that take place in the MTC. I want to learn everything!

I am excited to get out there and have exciting stories to share on here. It is coming so soon! Holy cow, I am so psyched! I am so happy to say that I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers!

forget yourself and go to work

There are so many great things and blessings that have already happened to me because of my decision to serve a mission, and I have no qualms about leaving practically everything behind in order to go. I have just been thinking about some of the things I will miss while gone, even just a little.

More than anything, I will miss my family. They are the most amazing people and I love them so much! I have been so blessed to have a close extended family filled with wonderful people. (: All my siblings are going to be like… old when I get home! All the babies will be old too! (Dear Aunts and Uncles, it is fine by me if you have more babies while I am gone… hint hint).

I will also miss my friends! Some have been there at different points in my life and others have been there for everything, but I am so grateful for all of them!

I will miss my cat Rowena.  How could you not miss that face?

My coworkers- they are awesome; I was so lucky to work with these great people!

Then there are more worldly things that I will miss just a bit ;)…

I will miss my car!

I will miss my phone; not being able to call my parents whenever I want is going to be hard!

I will miss having big closets. It is not going to be fun to have only two suitcases!

My cute house in Murray will be missed, along with my roommates inside, and fantastic singles ward.

I will miss four-wheeling.

I will miss Zumba classes.

I am definitely going to miss all my mission prep, temple prep, and institute teachers.

There are lots of other things I am sure I will miss having available to me, but I just can’t really think of them right now! No matter how much I miss these things and people, I know that my friends and family will be taken care of, and I will gladly give up all the worldly things in a heartbeat to go and serve the people of Missouri and Illinois. (:

God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called

I have exactly 30 days until I enter the MTC...

30 DAYS!!!

Holy cow! The time has gone by soo quickly; I don't know where it went!

Today was my last day of mission prep at SLCC at yesterday was my last day of mission prep with my stake.

Both classes have been so helpful, without them I would be going in totally clueless.

Okay, so maybe I am still clueless (: However, I feel more comfortable going to the MTC than I would without my amazing teachers.

They have taught me so much and have so much love for each of their students.

I hope that people I teach can feel the same way about me!

I feel so inadequate to teach the wonderful people in Missouri and Illinois, but I know that if I work hard and do my best Heavenly Father will guide me.

These quotes have been super helpful to me lately while preparing. They make me feel so much better.

Did I mention I am leaving in 30 days?!?!

I keep wanting to cry because I am happy and because I am sad! I am just all over the place.

I already feel so much love for Missouri and the people there and I wish I could be there now! On the other hand I will miss my family and friends so much! I wish I had more time at home, but I am so excited to leave earlier! (all over the place, right?)

My last day of work here in Salt Lake is next Tuesday and originally I was supposed to have a month to spend time with my family and get ready. Now I have two weeks!!

I still need to go shopping! I thought I had purchased plenty of good clothes, but basically DownEast has let me down. My clothes didn't hold up well. Boo hoo, I have to go shopping again? That will be torturous.

It is just starting to sink in that I am going to be gone for 18 months. I won't be able to call my parents or bother my sisters or brother for 18 months. I can honestly say I am scared to death, but at the same time I feel incredibly peaceful and know that this is going to be an incredible and spiritual experience.

I am so glad that I am able to serve a mission and that through my preparations I have been able to feel closer to the Savior. I know without a doubt that this is the true church and I want to share it with everyone!

Now I just need to get the MTC (in 30 days!) to learn how to share it!

Whoop whoop!

lead me, guide me, walk beside me

There are a bunch of things that I have to do while getting ready for my mission (down to 34 days!) and one of them was to create a profile on Mormon.org . I have a lot of friends who aren't members of the church and I thought it would be kind of cool to share that. I have always had a hard time explaining things in the church, but this site does it wonderfully!

I created a profile, it isn't very exciting, but there are some really cool ones some of which were created by famous people who are LDS. I had never seen the site before, but I found it really educational. I learned things that I hadn't even known as a member of the church! Anyways, I just wanted to share! http://mormon.org/

by small and simple things great things are brought to pass

Just a little pre-mish background info...

Growing up I always flirted with the idea of going on a mission, but never really made an effort to prepare for one. I started college at the University of Utah my freshman year preparing to go into Occupational Therapy and after that my plans did not include time for a mission. After my first semester I realized that I was not very happy at the U and started to look for other things to do. My first new idea was to go to Salt Lake Community College and become an Occupational Therapy Assistant. I took a summer course in Anatomy at the U... BIG MISTAKE (but also good). I bombed the course but also realized that OTA was not something I would want to do for the rest of my life.

I decided to change my major to elementary education, (like every other girl in Utah), and I started another fall semester at the U but also took a few classes at SLCC. I was going to stick it out at the U and apply for their elementary education program during my junior year.

Then one fateful day in October, President Monson announced the age changes for missionaries. I had a plan though! I was going to finish school in four years and I couldn't take a break from that. Nevertheless, I kept feeling like I should talk to my bishop about preparing for a mission. This was not a very exciting thought. During my freshman year of school I hadn't been very active. I was working full-time and felt the need to sleep in instead of going to church at 9AM. After moving in with my cousin in April I finally started going to church more regularly, but still felt nervous to talk to the bishop.

I finally plucked up the courage to visit my bishop AND..... after talking to him I felt like I shouldn't go on a mission. But, I had talked to him and that was what I needed to do.

Then I made yet another move in November and started to attend the Murray YSA ward. Let me just tell you, this has been my favorite ward EVER.

A few months later, in January, I started to have that little mission prompting again, and I was like, "uhm, what the? What is going on? I already tried this and I am not supposed to go!".

I had just started going to school full-time at SLCC and had been accepted to Utah State University for the fall and I was in the middle of applying to their awesome Elementary Education program. I had a great job (during school) and was not expecting any other changes.

However, I prayed about the promptings, I asked my family to pray, I reread my patriarchal blessing, and studied my scriptures. There was one day where about a thousand little things happened that practically screamed, "SHYLIE, GO ON A MISSION". OK.. Geez... so I started doing little things to prepare myself and I met with my bishop and... I started my paper work!

After that everything just seemed to fall into place. I seemed to be taken care of financially, I was accepted into USU's Elementary Ed. program and my advisor was able to help me defer till I come home, and my family of course supports me 100%.

In February I submitted my papers and my call came on Feb. 20th!!! Except I had to wait till Feb. 21st to open with my family. One whole day. That was not easy. I drove home with my envelope seat belted in the passenger seat...



My parents had a big map with guesses from family and friends as to where I would go!

I opened my call that night and was so surprised to read "Missouri St. Louis Mission"! I would never have guessed, but now I know there is no other place I would rather go and this is exactly where the Lord needs me. I was so surprised while reading it that I actually read "Louis" as Lou-ee... heh. Oops. It took a minute for everything to soak in and about five minutes after sitting there and listening to people around me talk I just started bawling. I couldn't stop! My face was bright red and I was bawling in front of everyone. It was crazy.

So, then I found out that my mission is bordering my uncles old mission that is bordering our cousins old mission that is bordering my other uncles mission! Richardsons are everywhere! But seriously.

Bah, so my mission is English speaking (thank goodness!) and I was called to go on June 19th, but then some time in March I was looking in my missionary portal and it looked like there had been a mistake with the number or days until I enter the MTC, there were too few! Oh, nope no mistake, I just wasn't told, my report date has been changed to June 5th! So happy and nervous about that. I will have less time between when I move home and when I leave! But that means I can start earlier!!

On April 13th I went through the Salt Lake City Temple with a ton of people from my family. It was so awesome and I can't wait to go through several more times before I leave.

Right now I am finishing up finals and graduating next week. I am also trying to pack and going a little crazy! I am trying to save up more money because the good financial situation I was in fell through, but I know that having that security while filling out my papers is one of the reasons I submitted and I know that everything will be taken care of. I am so excited to serve a mission!