It's Sister Divis here. I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For 18 months I am serving the Lord clear across the country from my hometown. I talk to my family once a week through emails and letters. I left school, friends, a job, and more to represent my Savior and Redeemer. Why you ask? I'll do my best to explain so that you may know what to expect in the future from me, and hopefully have a desire to know what I know.
When I first came on my mission I wasn't quite sure what I needed to accomplish. I knew Christ had given everyone that follows Him the commission to "go....and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Teaching all nations is quite the task. Yet I knew I was needed in the work; I just wasn't quite sure why. I'm sure I am not alone in wanting to know "why Heavenly Father? What do you want me to learn?" Without feeling I had received the full answer, I left. I felt as though I was taking a leap of faith, showing my trust in the Lord.
I kept praying. Making a decision to serve a mission does not come without much prayer. I had been praying for over a year about giving back 18 months of my life to the Lord. During that time I found my relationship with my Heavenly Father increase. This desire to become closer to the Lord grew beyond what I could have imagined. Yet, I also discovered growing that relationship seemed to become just that much harder. I had to work more at finding the answers to my prayers. I would search the scriptures more fervently. I spent more time pondering on my own. I talked more with others about their faith and their desire to follow Christ back to our Heavenly Father. Of course, I counseled with my parents.
After about a year of praying, I came to the conclusion to serve. But again, I wasn't sure why the Lord needed me specifically. With the age limit being lowered and therefore with so many Sisters deciding to serve, I found myself one of the "lucky" Sisters called as a trainer on my first day in the mission field. My companion and I were both brand new to the mission. With struggles of getting to know the area, what to do in the work, how to teach, working up the courage to talk to complete strangers, and not being able to counsel with my parents, my relationship with Heavenly Father became my number one source of comfort.
One particular night my companion, Sister Dodd and I were trying to find a member's home. It was dark out with no street lights and raining. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed, but the numbering system for houses out here seems to be completely different than out west. We pulled into a driveway to turn around right as the owner walked out onto his porch. Awkward. Still being new missionaries we pulled back out to find the house again. When we still couldn't find the house, we decided to turn around, try again and if we still had no success we would go back and talk to the man on the porch. Weird, I know but that was our plan. And so we did! The man was still out there. As we talked to him we learned his name was Elij, he hardly spoke any English, and he had a brother who was Mormon. We began to teach Elij for the next couple of weeks with a translator.
After meeting him that first night and as we continued to teach him, the thought rang true in my mind and warmed my heart, "You are needed to answer the prayers of others." I found the answer to my prayer by being able to answer someone else's. I am here to answer the prayers of others who are I have learned and will hopefully continue to learn prayers are most often answered when we get off our knees and climb up the mountain, one faithful footstep at a time.
One particular night my companion, Sister Dodd and I were trying to find a member's home. It was dark out with no street lights and raining. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed, but the numbering system for houses out here seems to be completely different than out west. We pulled into a driveway to turn around right as the owner walked out onto his porch. Awkward. Still being new missionaries we pulled back out to find the house again. When we still couldn't find the house, we decided to turn around, try again and if we still had no success we would go back and talk to the man on the porch. Weird, I know but that was our plan. And so we did! The man was still out there. As we talked to him we learned his name was Elij, he hardly spoke any English, and he had a brother who was Mormon. We began to teach Elij for the next couple of weeks with a translator.
After meeting him that first night and as we continued to teach him, the thought rang true in my mind and warmed my heart, "You are needed to answer the prayers of others." I found the answer to my prayer by being able to answer someone else's. I am here to answer the prayers of others who are I have learned and will hopefully continue to learn prayers are most often answered when we get off our knees and climb up the mountain, one faithful footstep at a time.
