Nothing's gonna stop us now

Let's rewind eighteen months or so.

I entered the England Missionary Training Centre. It was a bit different than I expected, but then again, I didn't really know what to expect. I think the main thing that I learned in those short twelve days was that I had no idea what I was doing. That if any words came out of my mouth, they wouldn't be from me- not because I didn't know the doctrines that I would now be sharing with all sorts of people, but because I simply could not do it by myself. It was time to grow up and learn how to trust in God and that he would give me the words to say if I would just give Him the opportunity. In all reality, I didn't fully learn this lesson until much later. I'm still working on that, even though I am no longer a missionary with a tag. I've never been much of a talker, so it was really hard for me to be in a situation where I had to be ready to talk at all times. It was a struggle my whole mission!

Me and my awesome Swiss companion Sister Burri

It's difficult to say much about this experience. It's all kind of a blur. We spent our days learning about how to missionary (if that can be used as a verb) and practicing. All of us were excited to get out and be real missionaries, but probably not as excited as the missionaries next door, who had been there a month longer than us in order to learn some Deutsch. Well, I was quite nervous, actually. All my inadequacies came crashing down upon me. But never mind those- I had already signed up for this gig and I was going to be a real missionary. Bring it, world!

 I think I need to go back to England someday.

I'm still trying to remember things so I'll have more to say. Mostly I just remember sitting at a desk for far too long, goofing off in our 3.48 seconds of free time, awkward role-plays where we taught our teachers, and being slightly stressed about the newness of it all.

Oh, I guess there was that one time when Sis. Burri and I almost missed our flights to our missions. Sister Burri went to the Frankfurt Mission, so she took a different flight. Well, that was a funny morning. We had stayed up late on our last night getting everything all packed up. We had the alarm set for 3:45 or whenever we were supposed to get up for that ridiculously early flight to Munich, but this smartie forgot to turn the alarm on. The other sisters came and got us about ten minutes before we were supposed to be downstairs. By some miracle we made it! We were not about to miss our flights. 

All of us heading to the Alpine German Speaking Mission ran to the gate and made it. Barely. 

Yep, that sums up my MTC experience. What happened after that belongs in a new post. So, tschüss y'all. 

It's been such a long time

A year and a half.
A year and a half as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

That sounds weird auf Englisch.

I've been back from my mission in southern Germany and Austria for a week or so now.

I won't try to summarize my whole mission in one post. As missionaries, we kind of joked that a mission is like a whole life squished into 18 months (or two years for the guys). The first area in which you serve is where you were "born," when you train other missionaries, they are your "children," and you "die" in your last area.  As you go through your service, you experience such highs and lows as you've never seen before, and they are somehow compacted. All the rules of time are broken, or so it seems. You get to know so many wonderful people and forge friendships that will last through eternity.

I can't believe it's over. It seems like it was just last month that I was packing my suitcase to go on this grand adventure, but irgendwie also a lifetime has come and gone.

I wouldn't trade it for the world.
It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Harder than leaving home for the first time for college, harder than moving to Germany to live with people I didn't know. But it was also the most beautiful, most rewarding thing I've ever done.

In the words of singer/songwriter Brendan James:
"Memories as sweet as these, you cannot take them, they belong to me"

I'll post more in the near future. Relive my life and share my few stories.