He Answered Me Directly

I have only one week left until I leave for my mission, and I have been constantly worrying about what might happen here at home.  My mission call specifically asks for me to leave all of my personal affairs at home and lean on my Savior to help me through my mission.  I have been trying to figure out a way to allow myself to let go all of my personal affairs... my home, my family, my friends, my sweetheart.... But tonight as I prayed for strength and I prayed for help I received a direct answer from my beloved Heavenly Father.  I randomly turned to  Doctrine & Covenants 84:119, and it says, "For I, The Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people."

This immediate response from my Father in Heaven penetrated my soul.  He gave me peace.  He gave me hope.  He taught me how to trust in Him.  He gave me all that I needed in one little verse of scripture.  He told me to be patient by telling me that I can't see it now, but I will.  Heavenly Father told me that I will see it... and then I will be there to testify of Him.  I testify of his goodness and his perfect timing.  I testify of His love and His devotion.  I testify of His power.  I testify that He knows each and every one of us.  I know that our beloved Father in Heaven knows how to take care of us.  We are His children.  He knows us.  He knows how we recognize Him.  And tonight, I believe He wrapped His arms around me and told me that He is going to take care of everything that I cannot.  I love Him.  He has prepared me for my tasks and my duties.

He has prepared me..... And I am ready now.  I am ready to stand as one of His daughters.  I am ready to serve.

Big Gigantic News!!

Sooooooo.... I GOT MY MISSION CALL!!!!!!!! Lemme tell you the story first though. I turned my mission papers in at the end of April.  Two weeks later my stake president called me and told me that Salt Lake City called and told him to tell me that I had to go get my depression checked out before they could assign my mission to me.  I went and got it checked out by a counselor, and he told me I have really mild depression and that it won't affect my work in my mission too much.  So after that he told me that he would have my mission papers in by that next Tuesday.... well two more weeks passed.  By now it had been a month.  So my bishop made a couple calls and he found out that my counselor didn't turn them in until that previous Friday.  So now I was playing the waiting game yet again.  Another month passed and I had stopped waiting around for it to show up. My bishop then called again and told me that it had been delayed in Salt Lake because the lady who received my call had a heart attack and emergency surgery the next day so my mission papers had been sitting on her desk for a month.  So two weeks later I got my call.  I am going to the California Bakersfield Mission.  I report to the MTC September 17, 2014!  That's 73 days away! I got lots to do!!!

Pretty momentous day!

Here's the recap since April 27 (my birthday): I drew pictures all of that afternoon with my brother, my roommate, and my sweet boyfriend.  We ate a beef roast dinner and it was delicious! My parents gave me an envelope with my present inside.  They bought me a super fancy scripture case for my mission that can hold waaaaaaaaaay more than scriptures!!! Oh boy will I need that!  I'm excited for it to get here so I can play with it and see what all it does.  Anyways, then we all went downstairs and watched my baby videos.  Since my mom loved to take videos of me in the bathtub when I was little, I was trying to get my dad to fast forward the movie so my man wouldn't see..... but then on the video, my dad said "This movie will embarrass you on your 19th birthday!" We all busted out laughing!!! How on earth did we manage to get such a coincidence??!! Who would've thought that I would be watching baby movies on my 19th birthday sitting next to my boyfriend!!!! Surely not my father!  Haha! It was so funny!

I don't remember doing anything on Monday....... yup. Nothing interesting happened at all.

But today was Tuesday, and it was a fantastic day!  I got out of bed and I got ready for my day.  Then I met the sister missionaries in town and I went with them to teach their investigators!! It was sooo soooooooo cool! We taught two older men and they were really friendly and they were very receptive to the Spirit and would often comment on our testimonies.  I have much to learn, but I am so eager to go! I'm chomping at the bit to get out to the mission field and teach!

When I got home, I took my roommate into town and we just hung out and ate a cheeseburger (I've been wanting one for two weeks!!).  I really enjoyed being with her.  She's a fantastic roommate.  So afterwards, we went home and basked in the sunlight in my front yard.  It was nice and it was fantastically warm.  Then we made dinner and sent my sister off to go to the temple with her mutual group.  My sweetheart got off work and came to spend some time at my house with me.  I also got to finish my visiting teaching for the month.  It was fantastic!  After that, we all went for a walk and I got to hold hands with my honey and skip down the road. I love him so much!  When we got back to the house, I had to go to my interview with my stake president for my missionary recommendation...... AND HE SUBMITTED MY PAPERS!!!!!!!! So I should be getting my mission call in the next week to two weeks.

When I got home from my interview, I talked with my mom for a good hour and a half about everything that's been going on.  She's the best listener in the world! I'm going to miss her while I'm on my mission.  A lot.  But after that, my roommate decided she wanted to convince me to watch, "Woman in Black." Uh yeah.......... never again. That stupid movie scared the crap out of me!  Now I kinda want to turn on all the lights in my room and never fall asleep. BAAAAAD idea!! I have no idea how she convinced me to watch it.  Silly me.  So now I'm going to somewhat attempt not to have nightmares.  But it's soooooo her fault if I do.

~Hannah

Coming Soon!!!!!

This my first time blogging, but I thought I would give it a shot.  So here goes!!
I started this blog to give myself a little room to vent (because you know, Facebook is the drama website for everyone and their dog).  Just a little about me: I cry a lot when I'm stressed out... not like a normal human being.... I cry waterfalls.  I'm a super emotional person and it feels good to finally be able to just type things out and get all of this off of my chest.  Phew!  So don't be super surprised if I go crazy.
This particular blog will be following my pre-missionary life and I will be getting ready to serve my full-time LDS mission hopefully by this summer/fall 2014.  I am WAAAAY excited to go and serve the people I meet and to serve the Lord.  I feel very blessed to have the chance to go on my mission and I'm hoping I can become closer to my Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, and learn how to obey them better.  I am super excited for that opportunity.  And I just want to take this moment to thank my sweet Mom and Dad for their support in my decision to serve.  I love you both!!  I also want to personally thank my sister and my brother for helping me become the person I am today :) (And even though I may not have been the best sister in the world, I still love you both!)  Also, thank you to all of my amazing friends (you know who you are because I tell you all the time!!) and my awesome family for always having my back. You guys are the best!  And lastly, I want to thank my sweetheart for always being there for me and for supporting my decision to serve a mission! I love you!!
So with all that missionary stuff coming up, I just need to express my concerns really fast.  I'll make them short, I promise.  Satan is working so hard to make sure I don't go out on my mission.  There! Said it! He keeps trying to put off my papers by throwing a new curve in the road like losing my immunization records or by making it difficult to gather all of the needed information to turn in! GAH! Dang it! Oh well, Heavenly Father knows I want to go, so He will make it possible for me.
Anyways, it's getting late.  I will explain more about everything as time goes by :)
~Hannah