So much has happened within the past six months. To try and recap it all would be ridiculous. All I can say is I received my mission call on Feb 22nd, 2013. I've been assigned to labor in the Philippines, Naga mission, Tagalog speaking. I report to the Provo MTC on April 24th. I received my endowments a month later and I say with a surety that it was the best day of my life. In retrospect, I see now how absolutely bitter, angry, and discontent I was with my life and who I was letting myself become. I am forever grateful for the people who unknowingly and lovingly guided me out of my spiritual inactivity and personal stagnancy. Where I stand now and the joy I feel daily, I can only attribute to this gospel, my Savior, and my Father in Heaven. Now that's not to say my mission preparation has been all daisies and sunshine. I fell asleep crying more times than I can count and the feelings of loneliness, unworthiness, guilt, and confusion clouded my mind more oft than not. But I know my purpose now, and I know the adversary cannot compete with the will of the Lord. There is nothing in this world that I love more than this gospel. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that the Book of Mormon is true. I am so grateful for my Savior and the Atonement. I still doze off in the middle of sacrament meeting, and I've been stuck in 2nd Nephi since the beginning of March. I haven't finished reading Jesus the Christ, I don't know Preach My Gospel by heart yet and I am still freakin' scared out of my mind. But I am ready, I am excited, and I am willing. I am not going out there because I'm trying to fulfill my debt to Christ, because I'm trying to get brownie points with/blessings from the Lord, or even because all of my older siblings went. In my head, it was never a question. I am serving a mission because this gospel is true, it needs to be shared, and because I want to. My life has been changed in every aspect, for the best reasons, and in all the greatest ways possible. Such is the power of the gospel. It is a message of peace, hope, love, lasting joy, and purpose, and that is exactly what it has brought to my life.