Marriage or Mission?

A friend of mine asked me the other day, "What if you fall madly in love with someone before you leave?" Well, friend, that would be awesome! Love is amazing! Especially when it is a Godly love that is true, honest, virtuous, deep, kind, and selfless. Because if it was that kind of love, he would have the willingness to wait for me while I serve a full time mission, and I would have the faith he would wait. Love should never be held back. In the past 4 months, I've known 3 girls who had their mission call and were ready to leave, but was given the wonderful and beautiful opportunity to go to the temple with the love of their lives instead! I think that is so awesome! But, to be quite honest, that certainly isn't for me. Marriage is great and all... But, it's a MISSION. I get to SERVE THE LORD. For 18 months!!! IN ENGLAND!!!! I have been given this opportunity that is just as wonderful and beautiful as marriage!! Marriage is such an adventure! But, my mission is an adventure that I need AND want to experience! And I KNOW that a mission is perfect for marriage prep. You are living with someone you've never lived with before. You spend every single moment with them. You need to make decisions together. You work as a team. And not only that, you work with several companions that are all totally different! Some may be similar to you and some may be completely opposite of you! Throughout the 18-24 months you serve, you have dealt with and served with and lived with and ate with and trifled with and got along with many different kinds of people. And if you give your will to Heavenly Father, He helps you love each and every one of those different personalities. Sometimes it's not easy to love someone, and sometimes it's extremely easy to love someone. I feel this is perfect when finding someone to marry... Because you have learned how to cope with and get along with so many different personalities, you will have the will (blessed by Heavenly Father) to be able to marry any kind of personality. And I know some people might disagree with me. But, it just seems logical to me. It's funny I'm talking about eternal marriage because one of the reasons I wanted to serve a mission was because of my eternal family. I felt and feel so blessed to have an eternal family. And I want EVERYONE to have that chance! For about 6 months before I got my papers in (which is an awesome that I will share with you later) I didn't want to serve a mission. I didn't feel it was right for me anymore. (Back in July I was set and then the desire kind of went away. Another story I'll share later.) I felt I was ready for a relationship that would eventually lead to marriage. That's what I wanted. But, there were times I'd lay in my bed guilt ridden, thinking to myself, "Isn't unfair that you stay home and start YOUR eternal family, when there are people out there who have no idea that they have the chance to spend the rest of their natural and spiritual lives with their families?" I felt terrible that I wasn't spreading the message of eternal families. But, the desire to serve just wasn't there! Until Monday, December 9th 2013. The day before, after months of not doing so, I finally paid a full tithe. And for days and weeks and months during my "I hope they DON'T call me on a mission" phase, I kept getting the prompting, "ALLY. PAY YOUR FLIPPING TITHING." That morning when I was rushing to take care of some sick children, (I was babysitting over night) I kept getting the prompting to go to the ATM before church and get the money to pay tithing. So, with a rushed and rather bad attitude, I got the money and paid my tithing. No peace. No desire. Then the next morning during my Life of Christ institute class, POW. "Ally, you NEED to serve a mission. I know you don't want to, but I need you to." I still didn't want to serve, but I knew I needed to. I called my bishop and the next Sunday, December 15th, 2013, I got my mission papers in. And then, Thursday, December 26th, 2013, I was called to the England London South Mission. Marriage is WONDERFUL! A mission is WONDERFUL! Anything and everything you do that has you with mindset on the Lord is WONDERFUL! I cannot wait to serve the people of England and tell them there is Someone Who loves them VERY much. And He loves you.