Joie de Vivre

Firstly, I know all my recent posts have been vague and mission-y, but I am learning a ton as I get ready to serve my mission and I want to be able to share those things. Thus, I blog.

Yesterday in sacrament meeting (the worship service at church), the sister who was serving as the president for the women's organization, called Relief Society, got released.  Church leadership is service-based, and congregation members are asked to serve in various positions for varying amounts of time.  It really got me thinking about the time that I spent serving as the Relief Society president for my ward at BYU.  I know that God needed me to learn the things that I did in that position so that I would be able to be an effective missionary.

Something that this sister talked about is the love that she developed for the women she was serving and the knowledge she gained of the worth of souls.  I want to reiterate what she said.  My responsibilities as the RS president were very service based. I was given the opportunity to see to the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of about 50 girls over the course of the year; girls who were in their first year of college experiencing the same things that I was.  I came to understand the love that their Heavenly Father has for each of them, and how precious and important each of us are to Him.  I was blessed to understand a little bit of that love as I served and came to know these women.  Developing this love helped me to solidify my decision to serve a mission because if God loves me and each of these girls so much, enough to bless each of us with the gospel, then how can I not want to share that love and happiness with others? After learning of how much God loves me, with all of my mistakes, imperfections, and dumb decisions, how can I not share the message of His love with those who don't know?
So thank you to Emily, Rachael, and Tara Kay for helping me take care of our sisters and teaching me how to serve with Christ-like love.  And thank you Ally, Angela, Angela, Anna, Anne, Breanna, Briana, Brianna, Brooke, Cammie, Caroline, Claire, Claire, Courtney, Danielle, Danielle, Deborah, Devan, Elizabeth, Emerson, Emily, Emily, Emily, Emma, Emma, Gina, Hannah, Jessica, Jessica, Kaitlyn Kate, Keena, Kendra, Lacey, Mackey, McKayla, McKenna, Megan, Meghan, Nikki, Rachael, Rachel, Rachel, Rebekah, Sarah, Shelby, Tara Kay, Tiana, Valerie, Veronica, and Whitney for giving me the opportunity to serve you and love you. Thank you for all that you taught me about the gospel and about the love of our Saviour and Heavenly Father. Without each of you, I know that I would not be prepared to serve our brothers and sisters in Italy, and I know that that is were I am supposed to be going.

I love you all so much!!

xx ciao

There is a lot that goes in to getting ready for a mission. Shopping, appointments, going through the temple, trying to see everyone at least one more time... And on top of that I'm trying to work, and there are things I'm helping my parents with so that I can get out the door. It's all very stressful and exhausting, and on top of all of it I'm trying to adjust to being back at home with my family.
College brought a lot of freedoms that I had wanted for years. I got to set my own curfew (or lack thereof), go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted, make my own food, and do everything on my own time. That's been the hardest adjustment in coming back home, operating on someone else's schedule.
 However, the Lord has been preparing me to serve for a long time, and every time something happens I can see how it will help me get ready for my adventure in Italy. For example, the next 18 months of my life I will be on the Lord's time, and I have to put aside all the things I want to do (see my sister graduate, meet my first neice/nephew, be there for my brother turning 14 and going to stake dances, help my parents celebrate their 25th anniversary, dating, school, spending time with the people I love) so that I can do what God needs me to. It's hard to recognize the eventual blessings that are going to come from this sacrifice, but I have to have faith that they will.
So here's to challenges and trials, and hoping that I have the strength to do whatever I have to to get out the door and start serving the Lord as a missionary. 
xx ciao

Sorry to the three people following my blog...the layout currently sucks.

I'm working on it.

As I said in my last post, I am finishing my first year at college and I wanted to make a list of the things I brought and wished I had brought as I moved out on my own for the first time.

Kitchen:
A lot of the cookware can be found at the Goodwill.  You don't need brand new stuff. You're in college.

• Dishes for four settings (plates, cups, bowels, silverware)
• a medium saucepan
• a medium pot (for pasta, you'll live off of it)
• 2 skillets (small-medium)
• cutting boards/mats
• set of sharp kitchen knives
• pot holders
• 2 cookie sheets
• blender
• toaster
• nice water bottle
• can opener
• set of kitchen towels and washcloths
• ziplocks
• cheap tupperware set
• a mug

It's hard to believe that my freshman year at BYU is almost over.  I've learned so much here, not just academically, but socially and most of all spiritually.  It's been the hardest thing I've ever done, and I definitely had moments where I just wanted to give up, but I wouldn't trade this year for anything.  I have met so many people and had so many experiences that have changed my life one way or another, and I don't want to go back to being the girl I was when I got here.

That said, there is some practical advice I have for those of you who are getting ready for college.  This list might seem sporadic, but this is what I have gleaned from the last six months.  And I'm even going to include a pack list of the things I brought and didn't but wish I had, as well as things that I left at home.

Also, thank you to Heather for inspiring me to write this.  You'll do so well at BYU-I!!!

• It's ok to ask for help.  Ask for help whenever you need it, because people are generally kind and willing to help.  So on the first day of classes when you don't know why you can't find your classroom (because you are in the wrong building), ask someone to point you in the right direction.  When you don't understand what's going on in class, email your teacher or TA.  They want you to do well.  And when you just want to break down and cry, call your mom and dad, because they desperately want to hear from you and let you know everything is going to be fine.
• Study in the library.  Or an empty classroom, or a random quiet place on campus.  Because trust me, once you get home all you will want to do is veg out and watch movies and hang out with your roommates, and then realize three weeks before finals that you are practically failing since you did zero homework.
• Make friends in your class so that you can study with someone during finals week and then commiserate with when things don't go so well.
• Put the study guides on a Google doc and email the link to everyone in the class. They'll thank you, you'll make a ton of friends, and then you don't have to look for all of the answers by yourself.
• Make friends with the TA.  They are hired to help, so make them earn their money.  They'll appreciate you for it because otherwise they sit in their office hours with nothing to do for hours on end.
• Go to the review sessions.  They have them for a reason.  And they'll save your butt because you slept through half the class.  
• GO TO CLASS.  Don't miss unless you have to.  Even just sitting in the classroom listening will give you more information then staying in bed.  You might hear something you remember on a test later, or there could be a pop quiz. One extra point is better than none.
• Participate in your classes.  It's ok to be the kid who sits in front and asks questions all the time, because it means you are engaging in the lecture and what is going on.  You'll learn more than the kid sitting in the back on her phone the whole time.
• Try something new.  I auditioned for two on-campus dance groups, and while I didn't make it into either one, I still had fun and met new people.  And I don't have to regret not trying.
• Print out pictures.  I had a wall full of pictures of my family and friends back home and of fun things that I did throughout the year.  Walgreens has a app where you can print any picture from off of your phone for fairly cheap.  It helps with homesickness and sadness.
• Call your mom once a week. And your dad.  I would send my parents texts every now and then first semester just to say I love you, but I didn't communicate with them nearly enough.  For as much fun as I was having being independent and free, I shouldn't have left them with not much more than my facebook posts to know what was going on in my life.  They miss you just as much as you miss them...maybe even more.
• Have a meeting with your roommates as soon as you all move in to negotiate things like dishes and garbage.  We didn't do a good job of that and we spent the rest of the school year debating about how the dishes were supposed to get done, who was supposed to clean the kitchen, etc. We were assigned cleaning jobs once a month by the housing department, so bathrooms and vacuuming weren't usually an issue.  It was more the little stuff.
• Once you figure out the home routine, stick to it.  No one likes a roommate who doesn't pick up his/her share of the work, especially once you have all agreed on an arrangement. 
• You don't have to be best friends with your roommates. You don't even have to like them.  But you should still be kind.  It would really suck to live with someone you knew hated you, wouldn't it?
• If you have an issue with something a roommate or another person did/said, SAY SOMETHING.  It is IMPOSSIBLE for another person, who is a total stranger to you, to know what is bothering you if you don't speak up.  And it is likely to happen again if you don't make the other person aware that you have a problem with what's going on....and then it will blow up in a fight that festered for 6 months. No fun.
• Buy a good water bottle, but write your name and phone number on it so that when you leave it in a classroom the custodial staff can get a hold of you to get it back. 
• Plan your menu for what you are going to cook for the week or two that you go buy groceries for.  Otherwise everything goes bad before you eat it and you don't know what to cook because none of the ingredients go together.
• Get a good planner, and figure out how you need to schedule things.  I know some people who have to schedule things in hour-by-hour blocks, and I just can't live like that.  My planner is more of a color-coordinated to-do list, and it's worked great for me.  But I'm SUPER picky about the layout of my planners. So figure out what you need and stick to it.
• Please, for the love of everything, get sleep during the week.  It may be worth it to pull a few all-nighters because everyone needs that experience in college, but 4AM every night will slowly kill you.  And then you'll miss class the next day.
• Don't take a class before 8 AM. Or 9 AM if you can help it.  You may have been able to do that all through high school, but trust me. Don't. 

For several years now I have planned on serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  These missions are 18-24 months, completely voluntary (as in no pay), and service-based.  They are proselyting missions, meaning that church members leave their homes and families for up to two years (maintaining contact through letters and email, with only a few phone calls) to teach people the beliefs of the church.  Oh, and you are assigned a location, which could be anywhere around the world.

I put my mission application in about 6 weeks ago.  There is a bit of paperwork (medical information, insurance, etc.) as well as two worthiness interviews with ecclesiastical authorities from the local congregation.  Once the application gets sent to Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT, it takes about 10 days for the mission call (location) to be assigned and mailed back to the prospective missionary.

So on January 31, 2014, I received a big, white envelope in the mail addressed to "Sister Decker."  It was two days later than I had expected (see previous blog post) and I had to wait a few hours to open it so that I could skype my family back home in Washington State.

While I was working on my application, and waiting for my call to arrive, all I could think about was that big envelope.  It's a weird experience to know what you are going to spend the next chunk of your life doing, but not where. Weirder than applying for college, because I got at least some say in where I went.  Nothing will prepare you for opening your mission call and reading those precious words, "Dear Sister Decker..."

But that's what I did.  I went to my sister's house, we video called my parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles (everyone was at my parents' place) and I opened that envelope, with shaking hands and a racing heart.  My sister helped my flip it over so that the other information was on top of the actual letter telling me where I was going.  As I slowly revealed the contents of the letter, my heart was full.  How long I had waited and how badly had I wanted to read those words! "Dear Sister Decker..." I''m not going to lie, I lost it right there.  But once I had composed myself, I read the rest of the letter:

"Dear Sister Decker,
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  You have been assigned to labor in the Italy Rome Mission.  It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.  You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 25.  You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Italian language."

So with tears, cheers, and laughter I announced to my family the wonderful news.  And it's all I've thought of since.

I couldn't be more excited for the opportunity to go to Italy and teach the people there the wonderful news of the restored gospel of Christ.  I know that this is where God needs me to be, both for the people there and for my own personal growth.  I know that the message I will be sharing is true; if I didn't I wouldn't have much reason to go.  It's not going to be easy, and it's not a vacation, but I am so excited to go!

ciao! xx