Personal Narrative: Serving A Mission For The Church Of Latter-Day Saints

Before hearing about the need in different parts of our world, I never considered going on a mission trip. Last summer during show choir camp, our choreographer told us about a charity called Thirst Project. Thirst Project is an organization that builds wells in Africa so the citizens can have clean drinking water. Knowing that there are people out there drinking brown, gunky water filled with animal feces breaks my heart, because there are steps that we can all take to help solve that problem. For me, one of those steps is going on a mission trip. If I could help even one person live a higher quality life, I will be satisfied, knowing that I have made a purpose to my life. Another time that my eyes were opened was this summer. One of my friends went on a mission trip to Haiti with her church, and seeing pictures from their trip moved me to have an even stronger desire to go on one myself. Both the children in Haiti and the people serving them were both so joyful,

People and religion are a part of everyday life. The world is sure to be empty without the existence of God’s creation. When people and religion are viewed as different, the history, beliefs, and practice are formed unrealistically by outsider, more so than an insider. In an interview with a LDS, the author attempts to write and summarize a Mormon‘s journey through life with God and others.

I have never known a time in my life where I have not gone to church. With that being said, it’s not my largest priority. I tend to get distracted during the school year with deadlines and hanging out with friends. It’s when I’m able to go on a mission trip that I can truly show and see what I believe in. I have been on four mission trips altogether and this summer I took a leap of faith and left the country for the first time to serve. Nicaragua held the same focuses as trips in the United States, but what I consider a mission trip from my experience in the past was not what this trip had in store.

Last Sunday at church Father Ron said something that hit home for me. He said that a mission begins with an invitation. I grew up in a rural area in the highlands of Nairobi, Kenya. Life was not easy and I always made a point of maximizing the opportunities I got. I grew up knowing that I wanted to be in a profession that really helped people improve their wellbeing. When I got the opportunity to go to university I choose to do Biomedical Science because I was very good at science and I thought that being a scientist was my calling. However, becoming an adult and having varying experiences like volunteering in a children’s home, working in the field doing research, working in a laboratory and currently working as a nurse aide has taught me

I knew one thing for certain: Tennessee was a very stupid state filled with stupid people and I would never drink their stupid sweet tea. Thus was my twelve year old opinion.

I wanted to be a Chaplains assistant. Unfortunately, the position had been filled and I chose to go into the logistics field. I have always jokingly said that I was my recruiter’s easiest recruit to sign. I have always felt that I had to serve my country is some capacity and that if I couldn’t be a chaplain’s assistant then I would do something else. Either way, I was going to sign up and no one could make me change my mind. The primary reason for me to have signed up was to build my confidence up. I was 120Lbs. soaking wet and still healing in my mind. At the same time I had stopped listening to and seeking God. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8:11 I wanted to do things my way and I was not open to listening to anyone else. I wandered in between the darkness and the light. I was looking for adventure and the Army helped to satisfy this for me. I hadn’t rejected my faith it was there, but I had a difficulty with being faithful and wanting adventure and “I delighted in save to love and to be beloved? But I held it not in moderation, mind to mind, the bright path of friendship, but out of the dark concupiscence of the flesh and the effervescence of youth exhalations came forth which obscured and overcast my heart, so that I was

Church, temple, sanctuary, or the Lords’s house, these are just a few names that your average person might call the place you come to worship God, I have always called it home. The Church I have been attending, Memorial Baptist Church, which is also where I attend high school, I have been attending since I was the age of three years old. Moving to the area that my family lives in now, I do not believe is any accident. At the age of two years old, my father was stationed in Tennessee for the military. After passing away from brain cancer, my Mother moved my two older sisters and me to Killeen Texas, to be closer to her family. Memorial Baptist Church was the only church we have ever been members of since moving to Texas, it has always felt like

"I want to do some mission work. I'm currently unemployed, and It hurts when family calls me a loser for having no job. God told me I don't need to do a regular job. I need to do something with a purpose. I will be a missionary by God's grace.

In chapters 4-6 of Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller, Keller focuses on the frustration and fruitlessness of work. He even set it up perfectly in chapter four saying "something can be a vocation or calling only if some other party calls you to do it, and you do it for their sake rather than your own.” In most cases, our callings do not add up with what we had hoped for our lives. I have met so many people who are in ministry school or new in ministry who had plans to be in the medical field, but God called them to kids ministry. Back in high school, I had a mentor who ended up choosing an internship at a church, that would lead up to her directing a ministry school, over medical school at Oklahoma State University. Being called by God to

The Mormon Church teaches that technology is a necessary evil. They teach that, while vital for communication and occupations, cell phones and the internet posses a massive destructive capability and, thus, their use should be limited. Mormons view the destruction as ethical or religious: stumbling onto pornography or an "anti-Mormon" website. I have somewhat adopted the overarching viewpoint, but with different justifications. I went a week without screens over my freshman year, and realized a sense of clarity comparable to when I first got contacts; in both instances I gained an appreciation for previously overlooked details. Crisp breezes, real conversations, environmental exploration, these treasures were previously muddled down by constant

With renewed devotion to the miracle of the gospel and a desire to meet with my fellow saints, I searched for the church in the phone book. I called the bishop and organized a ride to church the following Sunday for Reggie and me. Reggie decided not to attend anymore. I waited for my ride that never came. I was unaware, but I lived in a very dangerous neighborhood. Once the person at the other end of the phone found out where I lived, it must have deterred them. It was a blessing in disguise. What I did not know was there existed another latter-day Church, The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now called the Community of Christ. I had called a splinter group that had nothing to do with the church I had joined. If someone

I'm not sure if you remember me right off hand, but last semester I had you for my level twos. My placement was at Valley Lutheran was Mrs. Reinking. I also work at Family Video where I sometimes see you. I am filling out my teaching application for the Fall of 2018. I was wondering if I could put you down as a reference? Hope to hear from you soon.

Strangely, it seemed like God was saying, “You should be going there.” I didn’t see how I could do that. I had no money and I had to take care of the mission in Brockton. After the meeting, I went to get a drink of water and ran into a woman named Mrs. Rose. I didn’t know anything about her except for her name. She told me, “I have been watching you, and I really feel like you should be going to Nyack.” I then confessed to her my situation. She then said, “If God shows you clearly that you should be going to Nyack, I want you to know the Lord has spoken to me and that I will pay your entire tuition.” I then started praying for a leader to take over the mission, and as always God provided. I started going to Nyack when I was 23. I had a wonderful

I told my mission president this and his advice to me was “I understand, but keep trying.” This taught me that some goals and dreams are not worth giving up, and that faith truly is believing, and acting even though you do not

My call to ministry was actually not my own doing. At the start of my Christian life, my mother and grandmother raised me in the church where I would sacrifice my life to be a part of ministry. I participate in different ministries as a child. I became a choir member at an early age. Then, I became a praise dancer, a junior deacon, and a Sunday school teacher. This transition to different ministries became a part of my true purpose for God: to fulfill His purpose in my life.