A Message Meant for Me.

So I report to the Provo MTC May 29th and in the past couple weeks, I feel I've just been attacked by the adversary with doubts about my call, my abilities, and my strength. Am I going to be able to learn the language? (I'm going to Korea...) Am I going to be able to handle the missionary work? Am I really ready to make this sacrifice? Do I have enough faith to completely hand my life over to the Lord? I'm sure many missionaries have had similar feelings.

Anyway, last night, I got particularly down. I was so distraught over my inabilities, what I felt I would be missing by giving up 18 months, and many other things. Since it really is a choice for sisters, I was really doubting about whether I'd made the right decision. So I prayed. I asked Heavenly Father to give me something in sacrament meeting today that would help lift me back up, something that would be a little message from Him to me that I was making the right decision.

Today in sacrament meeting: After the sacrament, the first speaker to stand was an RM giving his homecoming talk. He had served in California and talked about how the Lord uses us as His instruments through the Spirit and that there are specific people who have been prepared to hear the gospel from us personally. It was a really good talk, but in my mind I was telling Heavenly Father, "Come on. We both know you can do better than this." After the RM sat down, the entire ward was asked to stand while we sang Called to Serve. Wow. Then the bishop stood. He took the stand and after welcoming the RM back, he said, "Now, I'd like to take the next few minutes to make the case that every young man should serve a mission and that every young woman should consider it." I had to stop my jaw from dropping. Oh. My. Gosh. Okay. Message received. Our bishop took the next 20 minutes to talk about experiences that had happened to him on his mission in Norway that had shown him that the Lord watches out, not only for His missionaries, but for each of us individually. The most powerful thing he said was, "The Lord calls the weak and the simple to this great and marvelous work because He knows they will trust in His strength rather than their own as they go forth with the work."

The meeting ended with I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go; the last verse resonated so strongly:

"So trusting my all to thy tender care,
And knowing thou lovest me,
I'll do thy will with a heart sincere:
I'll be what you want me to be."

For all of us with doubts who are preparing to go out, the Lord has said, "A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men. . . Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. . . Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of truth; yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart." (D&C 6)

All of us who have felt the desire to be missionaries are qualified! Through that desire and through the answer to our prayers we were called. The Lord qualifies those who He calls, and no matter your abilities, the Lord knows your potential is far greater than what you believe it to be. The gospel is true! And it is powerful beyond measure.