So on Sunday I went to young women's and someone read a story called "marriage isn't for me" well I am changing that to: "A mission isn't for me" Now let me explain myself here.... For those of you who don't know how i came to be on a mission here goes: I thought I had my life all figured out... I planned to go to college get married and "live happily ever after" but as time went on I realized I was settling for a life plan.... that I believed would make me happy little did I know... God has so much more in store for me. So I moved to DC and had the best year of my life. I made the best friends I have ever had, had so many adventures, and I learned the God is truly in control. By this time I was 21 and pretty certain I was NOT going on a mission. The age change had just happened and it just didn't seem right. In the year I spent in DC though I not only learned that I wanted to go on a mission, but that God was telling me to go. So I started my paperwork and I started buying all my "cute clothes" prepping for what I thought would be another amazing adventure. Little did I know that I would be embarking on the hardest journey I have ever made. Week one of the MTC (Missionary Training Center) I was floored by how little I truly understood the gospel. As I came into the field I believed it would get easier... but I was wrong.... teaching people did get easier but challenges also came:I missed the birth of my Niece, I had to wear a boot for the first two months of my mission, I got rained on practically everyday (thus spoiling my endeavor to be the "cutest sister missionary", I had kidney stones for 8 months, I missed my brothers wedding, I have gained SO MUCH weight, I have had dogs set on me, I have been yelled at, I have had to shuffle all my belongings around in 3 suitcases for the last year! Now why would I do any of this?!?!? Because a Mission isn't for me.
Missions have never been and will never be about the person that is serving.... We serve so that others may be blessed. We serve so that we may walk the path that Christ walked and we can learn what it truly means to be Christlike... So now a story for all of you... We had dinner on Monday with a part member family. There were two past missionaries (sparks) visiting that have since gone home and gotten married (an elder and a sister). As they were talking to us the Brother Sparks asked us if we knew Elder Bolander. (Background story... Elder Bolander has been in two of my zones and has been my district leader 4 times..... He has given me many priesthood blessings... some of which I didn't have to ask for he just knew I needed one... so needless to say he is a great missionary and very in tune with the spirit) So I told the Brother Sparks that I did know Elder Bolander... our topic changed for a bit and then Brother sparks said "wait... have you been in a lot of pain on your mission?" I paused and told him I had had kidney stones the first half of my mission to which He and his wife said "ah your the sister..... Did Elder Bolander tell you about his headaches?" I was really confused at this point. when I was serving around Elder Bolander he had AWFUL cluster headaches where he would almost pass out from the pain. So Brother sparks went on to tell me that Elder Bolander had written home and told of an interesting miracle he had witnessed. He told his family that he had been serving as a district leader and was over this sister that had been very sick and in a lot of pain. He had been praying to know how to understand what she was going through so he could better help. Well for the next three weeks and every time he saw that sister an awful cluster headache hit. Elder Bolander Asked God to help him understand how I was feeling and well he got his own understanding. I was floored when I found this out. THAT IS WHAT MISSIONS ARE ABOUT. That is one of the most Christlike things I have ever heard of someone doing. Enduring awful pain just to better understand how to fulfill our promise made at baptism."Mosiah 24: 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, andto stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye maybe redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—"
https://www.lds.org/ensign/
http://www.mormonchannel.org/
Love,
Sister Franzen
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