The answer FINALLY CAME!

Family and Friends!

Here is the next blog post telling you the rest of my story about my choosing to serve a mission! I left you with a cliff hanger because you didn't know what the end result was :) Except you probably did if you pay attention to Facebook at all, but this blog is more about HOW I decided to serve a mission and my adventures as a missionary.

So, last December 2012, I went home for Christmas after a lovely few months traveling abroad in Israel and I went back to school for Winter semester 2013. I moved in with some awesome roommates who really helped me with my decision to serve a mission since three of them were already getting their calls within the next few months.

January passed quickly and without little thought of serving a mission, but February made me start thinking again! One of my freshman roommates and best friends, Elise Christensen had already gotten her call and was having her farewell that month because she was leaving in February! I went to her farewell, heard her speak, and the Spirit hit me so strongly that this girl was going for all of the right reasons and she knew what the Lord needed her to do. I was so impressed with her fire, spirit, and desire to serve. I knew at that moment that I needed to revisit the mission thought that I had placed on the shelf five months previously.

I met with my Bishop (my religious leader in Provo, Utah) and had a good long chat with him about what missions meant and what it would mean if I decided to serve. He challenged me to start reading the Book of Mormon and said I would find my answer once I started reading it. I started reading the Book of Mormon that very night and within five days I had my ANSWER!

It was a regular Thursday morning at work, but luckily I was alone or people would have thought I was crazy. I was somewhere in 2nd Nephi where it talks about Joseph Smith being a Prophet of the Lord and how since he had translated the Book of Mormon, that book "would go forth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." I felt the Spirit hit me so strongly that I started crying. I felt such peace and love from my Heavenly Father in that moment. I knew without a doubt that He loved me and he wanted the best for me. He knows me better than I know myself and in that moment I knew that I needed to serve a mission for the people of Brazil, for myself, but mostly the Lord needed me more than anything. I needed to be a part of this great missionary effort going forth and the Lord needed me to share the Book of Mormon with "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." I'll be honest I felt pretty scared after receiving that revelation, but once again I felt the Lord's love and I knew that with him I could do anything he needed me to do.

I called my parents and told them I had decided to serve a mission and they were not surprised at all actually! I then texted my Bishop and he opened up the application for me, so that I could fill out all the paperwork. The application is pretty extensive, so after a lot of phone calls with my parents about dental insurance, license and birth certificate information, and medical information I had it all filled out. I had to go to the dentist and have a yearly checkup while also going to the doctor's to make sure I was considered "healthy". I passed with flying colors, luckily :) I then sent in my papers to Salt Lake City where they would join thousands of other missionaries being processed and assigned specific missions around the world. The First Presidency of the Church and the Quorum of the 12 apostles are the ones who pray for inspiration and find out where a missionary is supposed to go, they did that exact process with me, and a short week and a half later I had recieved my call! If you would like to hear a first-hand account of the process that is used, please go to this link and it will explain exactly how mission calls are assigned. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/the-divine-call-of-a-missionary?lang=eng

My relatives, family, and friends all gathered together at my grandparent's home in Orem, Utah that evening! I dressed up all fancy, got my parents on skype, an aunt on phone, and one of my best friends on another phone, so that they could all hear where I was going to go. I opened that beautiful white envelope and read the first words telling me where I would serve the Lord for the next year and a half. 

"Dear Sister Brotherson, You are hereby called to serve as a mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Brazil Goiania Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Brazil Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 14, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Portuguese language." Ahhhhhh I am serving a mission!!!!! I feel so blessed that I am able to serve the Lord! I am so grateful for this opportunity:)

Me reading my call :)

Emily, one of my besties, was the first to hug me! She got her mission call a week after me and is leaving the same day as me! 

This experience was one of the best experiences of my life. I know without a doubt that I am supposed to be a missionary for the people of Goiania, Brazil and I will do everything that I can to serve them, love them, and invite them to hear of the restored gospel. I know without a doubt that the church is true and that it can and will bring you every happiness in this world. I am so grateful for the many blessings the gospel has brought me and I know that the Atonement is real and that you can change and become better through its power. It is scary to change and admit you did something wrong, but that is why we are here to learn from our mistakes and to become better. I know that without a doubt Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and want us so badly to return and live with them. By living the principles of the gospel, you will receive every happiness and blessing that God has in store for you. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, that he saw God, the Father, and his son, Jesus Christ, in a sacred grove of trees and that only through Joseph Smith could the gospel be restored because he was young and pure enough to recognize the truth. He translated the Book of Mormon and it is without a doubt another witness of Jesus Christ. It's stories and words can truly change your life and if you read it through and pray about it, the promise in Moroni 10:3-4 is true and real. You will know if the Book is true if you pray with a sincere heart. I know these things and testify that the gospel is true with all of my heart. 

Also, here is the article that I did a link up to earlier! You can read this brief part here in my blog if you don't want to read the whole article! 

I will try to post again before I leave on my mission, but if not stay tuned for my adventures in the MTC :)

(After finishing our mission assignment, I was called by President Gordon B. Hinckley to serve as a Seventy in the Church. Part of my early training as a new General Authority included an opportunity to sit with members of the Twelve as they assigned missionaries to serve in one of the 300-plus missions of this great Church.

With the encouragement and permission of President Henry B. Eyring, I would like to relate to you an experience, very special to me, which I had with him several years ago when he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Each Apostle holds the keys of the kingdom and exercises them at the direction and assignment of the President of the Church. Elder Eyring was assigning missionaries to their fields of labor, and as part of my training, I was invited to observe.

I joined Elder Eyring early one morning in a room where several large computer screens had been prepared for the session. There was also a staff member from the Missionary Department who had been assigned to assist us that day.

First, we knelt together in prayer. I remember Elder Eyring using very sincere words, asking the Lord to bless him to know “perfectly” where the missionaries should be assigned. The word “perfectly” said much about the faith that Elder Eyring exhibited that day.

As the process began, a picture of the missionary to be assigned would come up on one of the computer screens. As each picture appeared, to me it was as if the missionary were in the room with us. Elder Eyring would then greet the missionary with his kind and endearing voice: “Good morning, Elder Reier or Sister Yang. How are you today?”

He told me that in his own mind he liked to think of where the missionaries would conclude their mission. This would aid him to know where they were to be assigned. Elder Eyring would then study the comments from the bishops and stake presidents, medical notes, and other issues relating to each missionary.

He then referred to another screen which displayed areas and missions across the world. Finally, as he was prompted by the Spirit, he would assign the missionary to his or her field of labor.

From others of the Twelve, I have learned that this general method is typical each week as Apostles of the Lord assign scores of missionaries to serve throughout the world.

Having served as a missionary in my own country in the Eastern States Mission a number of years ago, I was deeply moved by this experience. Also, having served as a mission president, I was grateful for a further witness in my heart that the missionaries I had received in New York City were sent to me by revelation.

After assigning a few missionaries, Elder Eyring turned to me as he pondered one particular missionary and said, “So, Brother Rasband, where do you think this missionary should go?” I was startled! I quietly suggested to Elder Eyring that I did not know and that I did not know I could know! He looked at me directly and simply said, “Brother Rasband, pay closer attention and you too can know!” With that, I pulled my chair a little closer to Elder Eyring and the computer screen, and I did pay much closer attention!

A couple of other times as the process moved along, Elder Eyring would turn to me and say, “Well, Brother Rasband, where do you feel this missionary should go?” I would name a particular mission, and Elder Eyring would look at me thoughtfully and say, “No, that’s not it!” He would then continue to assign the missionaries where he had felt prompted.

As we were nearing the completion of that assignment meeting, a picture of a certain missionary appeared on the screen. I had the strongest prompting, the strongest of the morning, that the missionary we had before us was to be assigned to Japan. I did not know that Elder Eyring was going to ask me on this one, but amazingly he did. I rather tentatively and humbly said to him, “Japan?” Elder Eyring responded immediately, “Yes, let’s go there.” And up on the computer screen the missions of Japan appeared. I instantly knew that the missionary was to go to the Japan Sapporo Mission.

Elder Eyring did not ask me the exact name of the mission, but he did assign that missionary to the Japan Sapporo Mission.

Privately in my heart I was deeply touched and sincerely grateful to the Lord for allowing me to experience the prompting to know where that missionary should go.

At the end of the meeting Elder Eyring bore his witness to me of the love of the Savior, which He has for each missionary assigned to go out into the world and preach the restored gospel. He said that it is by the great love of the Savior that His servants know where these wonderful young men and women, senior missionaries, and senior couple missionaries are to serve. I had a further witness that morning that every missionary called in this Church, and assigned or reassigned to a particular mission, is called by revelation from the Lord God Almighty through one of these, His servants.)