It's getting to be that time

The countdown says that I report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in 4 days, but I guess it actually more like 3. My favorite number 3! It just so happens that I have three big things on my mind.

1) I really don't like packing! I guess I never really have liked packing. I have a few days, and I haven't started packing yet. I did, however, finally go out and get a big (or should I say bigger) suitcase. So I don't really have an excuse now.

2) A little fear of rejection...I am not really afraid of leaving my family and friends (though that is really going to be hard!). And I am not really afraid or apprehensive about talking to total strangers and opening up to them (I am sure that will take a little getting used to). But I am a little afraid of rejection. Recently, when I was on a service scavenger hunt with the youth from church, I discovered how hard it can be. We were asking people to do simple tasks like washing their car windows at gas stations and they were telling us no. At one point, I decided to simply stay in the car and let the other girls try. I expressed to the other leader that I was feeling unsuccessful because so many people were rejecting. They didn't quite understand that all we wanted was to serve them. As a missionary, I will be in a position where rejection might come. Lack of interest, misunderstanding, or lack of desire to change will be the main cause of this rejection. It will be up to me to keep my head up, to stay positive and continue. I've got to have the ambition to keep going and not hide away in the car so someone else could do the work.

3) I have been blessed with so much in my life! Family, friends, teachers, and leaders who have taught me, guided me and loved me for who I am, not withstanding my weaknesses. I am blessed with my knowledge that I am a daughter of God, that He is my Father in Heaven. I am blessed with the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice that has made it possible for all to live after death and that families can truly be together forever, even after death. I am blessed to know that Christ has through modern day prophets (just like Adam, Noah, Abraham, and others found in the Bible) restored His Church on the earth today. I am blessed to have been born in a country where there is freedom of religion. And so many more blessings! The windows of heaven have been opened and blessings are coming (like it says in Malachi 3:10) in ways I would have never imagined. 

I do not know what the next 18 months will bring, but I do know that I am doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons!