Just my Thoughts...

It's been two weeks since I left Utah and I'm leaving for Rexburg in five days!!  There is also 5 days until my 19th BIRTHDAY!!  Yep, I get to move in to my apartment on my birthday!  It definitely isn't the way I would have planned it, but oh well :)  My very first semester of college!  I can't believe it's here!  I am so excited and nervous and anxious, all at the same time!!  It has been great to be home, but leaving my nephew in Utah was one of the hardest things in the World!!  I miss him a ton!

Leaving Provo

One last snuggle before we leave! 

         Since I've been home, I have had two of my wisdom teeth taken out.  That went way better than I was expecting!  I was soooo scared but It went really fast and I really wasn't in that much pain.  I was even able to sing in church on the next Sunday (5 days later) Kind of ;)  It has been wonderful to catch up with family and friends that I didn't get to see all summer!!  Even though it is so great being home, I still miss Utah and all of the amazing people I was privileged to meet this past summer!
       Two of my best friends have received their mission calls in the last two weeks!!  My cousin, Maycee, will be serving in The New York, Utica mission and my amazing friend, Maddie, will be serving in the Chile, Santiago South mission!!  They are both going to do amazing things and change the lives of so many people!!  I am going to miss them both like CRAZY!!

I have had this quote on the back of my mind for the last couple months. 

 

It is a really great quote!  But there are a few things that I just have to say.  I read this post a few weeks ago called "10 Things Girls Who Aren't Serving Missions Want You to Know"  It really hit me.  I'm not saying I will never serve a mission, Honestly I don't KNOW whether or not I will serve a mission yet, it is just really degrading when guys say they will only marry a returned missionary.  It is not the priesthood duty of women to serve missions!  Yes, serving a mission is a great thing to do, and yes, it does strengthen your testimony and help you grow, but not every person is supposed to go!  Some people have a greater work that they need to do that doesn't involve serving a mission.  Girls can grow up, get married and be GREAT moms whether or not they went on a mission.  If I don't end up going on a mission, it doesn't mean I will be a failure as a person, a wife and a mother later in my life!  Anyways, as you have probably concluded from that little rant, I have pretty strong feelings about this!  I think missionaries are awesome!  I think having the opportunity to serve a mission would be INCREDIBLE!!  But sometimes, life doesn't happen the way we think it should or the way other people think it should.   Heavenly Father truly has a plan for each and every one of us!  He knows what is best for us!  We need to trust in him, even when it may seem like we have everything figured out!  I am glad that so many young women are deciding to serve missions because it means that more people are going to be able to hear the message of the restored gospel!  

     The reason I have brought this up is partially because Maddie and Maycee have both received their mission calls, but it is also because I am going to be 19 in 5 days so technically, I could be leaving on a mission too!  Instead, I have decided to go to BYU-Idaho.  I am really excited!  I know that this is what I NEED to do right now!  And really, it is the only thing I'm sure of!  I don't know what my future may hold.  But whatever it holds, I know that It will be what I need to become the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be!! 

October 6th, 2014

I just did a bunch of research as to who said this quote and I found out that it is just something that some random person made up, not a general authority!  Heavenly Father's Priesthood army has been on the Earth for a long time!    President Hinkley said this in the General Priesthood Session of the October 1997 General Conference:

          

 “There seems to be growing in the Church an idea that all young women as well as all young men should go on missions. We need some young women. They perform a remarkable work. They can get in homes where the elders cannot . . . .Some of them will very much wish to go. If so, they should counsel with their bishop as well as their parents. If the idea persists, the bishop will know what to do.

“I say what has been said before, that missionary work is essentially a priesthood responsibility. . . .Over a period of many years, we have held the age level higher for [young women] in an effort to keep the number going relatively small. Again to the sisters I say that you will be as highly respected, you will be considered as being as much in the line of duty, your efforts will be as acceptable to the Lord and to the Church whether you go on a mission or do not go on a mission.”