Mission Statement (LOL)

First and foremost, welcome to this blog. You may be wondering what this blog is. Well, it is a blog dedicated to tracking my progress and eventual entry into two year service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's right, I'm LDS (or Mormon). And eventually I'll be one of these guys.



SICK.

This is a really important thing for me. For years I struggled with whether or not I would serve a mission. I had a testimony of Jesus Christ and the Church, but I figured I would never measure up to the expectations that missionaries are held to. This past summer, however, I began to pray about whether or not I could do this, could give myself over for two years, live the gospel to its fullest, and offer to other people what the Church has given to me. The answer was a distinct, exciting, and strong yes.

So here I am! It's been something like over six months since I first talked to my church leader (so-called a "bishop") in my ward (my local church; the overall worldwide church is divided into geographic units, the smallest of which is a ward which often covers neighborhoods or towns). I've had to wait and experience a LOT in order to get to where I am today. And where am I today? Oh, since you happened to ask, I just had my interview with my bishop today about starting my missionary papers.



What does this entail, this missionary stuff?

First off, a mission is a two year commitment to talk pretty much only about Jesus and God to anyone and everyone. During that two years, a missionary spends six to seven days a week walking around with a companion (of the same sex) (AKA, a new BEST FRIEND), knocking on doors, teaching lessons, meeting with members of the church, doing community service, studying the scriptures, and trying to talk to anyone who will listen. The missionary gets one day per week to do normal things like laundry, shopping, playing street hockey, eating at a homestyle buffet, etc. They also get to write home/email once a week. Calls home (sometime Skype depending on where you serve!) happen twice a year, one on Christmas and one on Mother's Day. The missionary lives in church-owned or church-rented housing and gets a monthly allowance from the Church for food and whatnot. The missionary is not, however, paid to go on the mission. As a missionary, I am responsible for paying for my mission. Every missionary in the world pays the same amount of money to go on a mission: somewhere around $10,000. Do I have this money? No, no I do not. But kind and gracious souls in the Church have decided to help me out and families have anonymously donated to my mission fund.

So that's a mission. But how does it all happen? What's the process of becoming a missionary? It's a multi-step process. The first step is deciding to go on a mission. I have done that. Check! Here are some other steps!

2. Meet with bishop to discuss whether or not serving a mission is possible. Check!
3. Begin the missionary papers. I will get more in depth with the papers here in the future, but the general overview is that I fill out relevant personal information, go to the doctor to get a thorough physical, go to the dentist to get my teeth scraped real clean and any holes gapped up.
4. Have an interview with the stake president (the church, if you'll recall, is divided up into wards, which are responsible for small geographic areas. A stake, then, is a collection of wards. And the person who is in charge of that collection of wards is called a "stake president").
5. Submit the papers!
6. Wait. 2-3 weeks probs.
7. Your call arrives.

A pause here. Up until that last one, number 7, a prospective missionary has no clue where they will be serving. They also have no clue when they will be leaving. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints relies heavily on personal prayer and deep introspection to make some big decisions. Each missionary, every single one, is assigned and approved to serve in a specific mission at a specific time by one of the leaders of the Church, who make the decision based on prayer and ponderous meditation. The Prophet, our rough approximation of the Pope (but without the glitter), personally signs every mission call. It's pretty awesome. So, don't be alarmed or confused if when I say I'm going on a mission I also say I have no clue where or when. The whole point is that our church is heavy on the personal relationship with Jesus and God part. Even to the point where the leadership of our church personally prays over every prospective, dopey, smiling missionary picture. That'll be me some day soon! Smilin' up at Thomas S. Monson (our prophet). Anyways, more on the mission call in the future.

8. Report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on the assigned date that comes in your mission call.
9. Study in the MTC for a period of time. This time fluctuates depending on if you're learning a language, etc.
10. Go out into the field!

There you have it! A Campbell's Condensed version of what the next two years or so looks like. The next month is crucial for me; I'll be running around doing doctor's visits, double-checking my legal status as a citizen of the United States, not to mention working two jobs to help save up for the mission. As I progress further and further, I'll be updating this blog with information about the process. I figured that a lot of my friends and family have no clue what it is I'm doing right now and, well, maybe they'd like to know some? So it's not such a big confusing mystery? If you have any questions, please comment them and I'll be sure to answer.

I'm REALLY EXCITED about this WHOLE THING. It's such an honor and privilege to get to be a representative of my religion. I just have such a strong testimony of this church and of God's existence, His love for us. How could I not want to share that? It's like getting a sick BOGO for Papa Murphy's or something.

Anyways. Walk in this journey with me bros and sis-s. You might find at the end of it all, there was only one set of footprints in the sand. Because I carried you. Or because I left to get a snow cone. Or because the tide came in and washed my foot prints away. Either way, it should be AWESOME.

Love,
Alex



P.S. It was really hard not to make the title of my blog something like "Jesus Crust" or "Mission Possible" or "Latter-day Paints" or something awesome like that. I chose simplicity over glamor. Such a hard decision.

For more information see also:

http://lds.org/new-era/2000/06/its-your-call?lang=eng
http://lds.about.com/od/programs3foldmission/p/lds_mission.htm
lds.org