a couple years back, one of my young women's leaders gave me this:
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| hang on to your values hang on to your testimony hang on to your goals... so that some day you can hang your temple dress on me. |
and it sat in a memory box for a couple of years until i got to that point.
surely, it will be the day that i hang my wedding dress up beside it,
thought little laurel me.
never thought in a million years that i would be going on a mission!
when they changed the age at which missionaries could go
i was totally complacent.
woo! go missionaries! congratulations!
me: i still know that i'm not going on a mission.
but the lord knew better.
i moved out to school,
took a missionary preparation class at the lds institute.
still wasn't convinced i was going on a mission.
and then i got a new roommate after christmas.
and i attribute the keeling point to her.
angie was an rsm, ready to preach the gospel
and full of light.
when i wasn't angry at her for being my mother,
we were talking about the experiences that she had had on her mission.
and it was incredible.
my parents were skyping rae and i one night
and asked us (in february mind you!)
what our plans were for the summer.
we both surprised our parents:
i was going to prepare for a mission
and rae was going to go home.
in the ensuing months, i got my job in jackson,
moved out there, earned lots of mula
and tried to prepare spiritually for the mission.
i met some amazing people and
i chalk those six months as second best
behind the mission.
i got home,
chugged through my paperwork
and got my call:
nicaragua managua south.
and it all came home:
i was going on a mission.
in six weeks.
ten days wait between submitting my papers
and getting them.
the lord needed me NOW.
and so i did.
and the day arrived for me to receive my endowments
and buy my own white dress.
and it was incredible.
being inside the temple like that
is literally being in the present of god's greatest people.
i had some amazing friends who came to support me,
one of them being an old young women's leader.
and now, almost two years later
i have worn a white dress many times
and now i am trying to remain worthy of putting it on.
hang on to your values
hang on to your testimony
hang on to your goals
