Dear Sister Monroe. . . .

For a week I had been going to the mail box hoping that big white envelope would be sitting there everyday I would be disappointed. My call was a week late so the anticipation was KILLING me!! Finally on December 19th it was there!!! I waited all day and surprisingly I wasn't as nervous as I had been earlier that week.  But I guess I was driving my mom crazy because she gave me a list of errands to run to get me out of the house ;)  The postage was $1.90 and one of my best friends had got her call to Hungary the week before with the same postage so I was freaking out just a little bit!  

Finally the time came that I got to open it!! I was so excited and a little nervous!  I was blessed to have my friends and family there and I felt like a celebrity with 5 phones pointed to me so we could FaceTime family that couldn't be there.  

I had the envelope in my hands and a huge smile on my face :)  I was so overwhelmed when I opened that envelope. . . I saw the words Dear Sister Monroe:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the.  .  . ENGLAND LEEDS MISSION!!!!!  oh my gosh!!!!!! It has ALWAYS been my dream to go to Europe!!! Everyone was cheering and I was so relieved, I knew that was were I was supposed to go and I had this feeling of peace.  My gramps was sitting there and he started getting emotional, he had served in England in 1940 and he was there when they opened the Leeds mission! I am so excited to follow in his footsteps, he's the most loving kind person I have ever met <3

Freaking out was a little bit of an understatement!  this was my DREAM MISSION!!  England!!! Castles, rain, the ocean, it is perfect for me!! and I am SO excited to report to the England MTC April 18th!! Less than 80 days!!!  This was probably one of the best nights of my life :)

The BIG News

October 6^th, 2012. . . The day that changed my life forever!  “Today I am pleased to announce that able, worth young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21.”  I heard those words from president Monson and I was shocked! I had a HUGE decision to make that would change everything!! So through the month of October I debated what I would do. After much prayer, scripture study, fasting and going to the temple I decided that going in a mission was the right choice for me. Then the paper work process began! Where almost anything that could go wrong did. . . Just goes to show Satan will fight hard to keep missionaries from spreading the truth!