Tell us about your mission and the people. Tell us an interesting fact about the area of the world where you serve.
I’m serving in the Utah St. George Mission, and my assignment is pretty unique. I serve at the St. George Temple Visitors Center, as well as in a proselytizing area over in Washington, a city about 10-15 minutes away from St. George. My companion, Sister Osberg, and I serve in the Visitors Center for about 12 hours a week, and then the rest of the time we are out in our area. It’s a super neat experience to be serving in the Visitors Center. People from all over the world come to see what we have to show them, and it’s really cool because right next door is the St. George Temple, which is currently under construction/renovation, so we get a lot of people who want to know more about the temple and what they’re doing to it. I didn’t realize how busy it would be, but we get youth groups from Nevada, California, and other parts of Utah (as well as the rest of the US) who will come up here for youth conferences and young men’s/young women’s camps. We also get tour buses from all over the country, filled with people of various faiths, and they’ll take a stop here to use our restrooms and take a tour to learn more about our faith.
Why did you decide to serve a mission?
My patriarchal blessing told me that while it’s not required of young women to serve a mission, those who do make a difference. It told me that there would come a time in my life when I would have the choice of serving a mission or going to school, getting married, and starting a family. My blessing basically told me that the Lord would bless and prepare me for either choice, that it was completely up to me on what I wanted to do with my life. I realized that with that, I really wasn’t losing any blessings for choosing one or the other, so I really only had blessings to gain. I thought to myself, if I were to look back at my life 5 years from now, would I regret not serving a mission? I then thought of the joy and peace that I’ve been able to feel through Christ’s love and what an impact this Gospel has had on my life. I realized that there are people out there who don’t have that knowledge and thus aren’t able to experience that same kind of love, peace, and joy that I’ve been able to feel. I want everyone to have a chance to hear the message that comes from the Book of Mormon – that God loves His children, that there is life after death, that there is a way for families to be together forever – and I don’t want to be the reason that somebody doesn’t get to hear that.
What advice do you have for the youth and YSAs members of the stake that are contemplating serving a mission?
If you don’t have anything holding you back, then please go on a mission. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made. You won’t be disappointed. There are only blessings that come from it. If you don’t know what to do with your life, go on a mission. You’ll have 18-24 months to think about it, travel to a place where you probably haven’t been before, possibly learn a new language, and it’ll be $10,000 well spent rather than $10,000 down the drain because you’ve switched your major 3 times and are having to retake classes.
Having the unique experience of serving in the midst of a global pandemic, how has your mission differed from those of former missionaries (old people – lol). How has your mission leveraged social media in reaching and teaching investigators? What advice would you share with members of the Hickory Stake as it relates to how we can use social media more effectively?
Actually, Covid-19 is basically not a thing out here anymore. We don’t have to wear masks anywhere, we can eat with members in their homes, and everything is pretty much all back to normal. However, serving at the VC, we have had the opportunity to give virtual tours to people from all over the world. It’s an amazing experience that we wouldn’t have been able to have had Covid not happened. I even got to give a tour to the Lincolnton YW and it was so awesome!!
Not many people use Facebook to contact us to learn more about the gospel or vice versa, but we do use it to send referrals to other missionaries (it’s sooo much faster this way). As far as how you, as members of the stake, can use social media more effectively, I would invite you to all share your testimony!!! It’s as simple as posting a picture of Christ or of a temple on your feed or on your story and saying “I love Jesus” or “I love the temple.” Your testimony is anything that you know or believe to be true. It doesn’t have to be a whole conference talk. Just share a sentence or two, with at least 3 words per sentence, about what you know or believe or love about the gospel. It’s so easy and it can do wonders. Even if everyone only sees that picture of the Savior for 2 seconds, that’s still 2 seconds that they are thinking about Jesus Christ. Studies have shown that, on average, it takes about 7 exposures to the gospel before someone becomes converted to it, and by posting that picture or writing those 2 sentences, you are exposing them to the gospel and bringing them closer to Christ.
With the new focus on “Love, Share, and Invite”, what advice would you have to members of the Hickory Stake as to how we could catch the vision and apply this model in our own lives?
Show love to everyone. One of the signs you are becoming more like our Heavenly Father is when you can love someone the rest of the world chooses to hate. And nobody cares what you know until they know how much you care. Nobody wants to listen to you tell them about the gospel if they think that you are thinking of them as just another number. When they know that there are people out there who love them and care about them and who want them to be happy, then that’s when they want to learn more about the gospel. That’s when their hearts are softened and open to what we have to share with them. And sharing the gospel can be anything from sharing your testimony to inviting them to church to even just being a good example. Christ said, “And by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Everyone will know that we are followers of Jesus Christ by being good examples and showing love to those all around us. And lastly, invite your friends or family members. Invite them to hang out, to go to church and church activities, to go out to lunch or dinner, to join the “Come unto Christ — Hickory Area” Facebook page… Literally anything that helps them know they are loved or that helps them come closer to Christ!!
Were there any fears that you had when you were considering serving a mission that you found were simply not warranted or melted away after you began serving?
As most of y’all know, I’m the oldest of 10 kids. I was afraid of leaving my family. I love them so much and with siblings being so young, I was afraid of becoming more like the cool aunt, rather than the awesome big sister, since I knew that this is the next chapter in my life and that after this comes school, then marriage, and then a family of my own. But I’ve found that with being able to talk to them every week and still getting to see pictures and videos on Facebook and that my parents and siblings send to me, I’m not missing out on too much.
What lessons have you learned through your daily effort of serving the Lord and his sons and daughters?
I have been able to learn how to listen to the Spirit. I thought I knew how before the mission, but being a missionary and being so focused on trying to feel and listen to it has been such an incredible experience. I have been able to touch people’s hearts in ways that I wouldn’t have thought of were it not for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. My companion and I have also been able to avoid trouble/dangerous situations because we listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost (even if they didn’t make much sense or seemed silly).
