Dear Blog,


So, I had wanted to wait a while before opening my letter, but I believe my mother has less patience than I do. Who can blame her though? To be honest I guess I was too nervous to actually open it. Here before me was, essentially, my future. Who I will become over the next year and a half would be based upon this location and these people I would soon serve. I was terrified. I still am, but in a different way.

A lot of people had asked me, "Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know," I would reply.

"But if you could choose, where would you want to go?"

"I don't know. I guess foreign would be cool."

Honestly, in the beginning I wanted really badly to go foreign and to learn a different language. There's something fun and very exciting about that. It's somewhere I would have never been before and probably never go again in my lifetime. Plus, everyone thinks foreign missions are way cooler than stateside. I guess I wanted to be cool (as shallow as that sounds) and have an exciting experience.

As soon as my papers went in my attitude changed. I didn't care all that much. I knew God would place me somewhere where I could serve and be the most helpful bringing His children the gospel. This feeling intensified as I held my white envelope in my hands.

While my family was setting up Skype and phone calls with pretty much everyone I could think of I quietly slipped off into another room. I prayed to Heavenly Father that I would have an outpouring of gratitude for anywhere that He would send me. After I finished I didn't feel different.

For some reason everything becomes more stressful when there are many eyes locked onto everything you do. I opened my letter and flipped it under the envelope so that I had to read everything sentence by sentence. No cheating. No looking ahead.

 

Lousiville, Kentucky...Oh. my gosh! I'm going to Kentucky! I finished reading the whole letter and glanced back at my location at the top. Was I just a little bit unhappy that I wasn't going to Japan? Absolutely not. I felt at peace. I wasn't nervous, but generally felt good about where my Heavenly Father is sending me. 

I'm extremely excited to go to the MTC, meet my first companion, my mission president and his wife, and the beautiful country that I'll  be spending 18 months in.

Thus, I have adopted one of the motto's of Kentucky as my blog title.

I hope that as I go out into the field that I will be the instrument that the Lord needs me to be. I will sincerely try to prepare myself to be a great missionary and to share the things that I hold dear. I know I could never do it without God and Jesus Christ. 

Sincerely, 

Raye