Oh No You Didn't!

 Certain things just get me all fired up.  It's just who I am and in my nature.  Today someone brought up one of these "fire up" topics and I intend to address it again here.

There is a common stereotype given to the Sister missionaries that has gotten extremely out of hand and is false on so many levels.  Allow me to share with you the exact statement I heard this morning: "The three reasons why a sister missionary serves a mission are 1) They want to and are doing it for the right reasons.  2) They are looking for their future spouse.  3) They couldn't get married."  Oh how lucky that poor child was that I am a missionary and have self restraint.

To share something a little personal, I have been engaged before.  I do not intend to go into detail about it, but know that I was.  At first it was sad, but very quickly I realized what an incredible blessing it was for me!  It would have been a terrible mistake.  The Lord intervened and took me another direction. 

When I first turned 21 and prayed about going on a mission, my initial prompting was no.  So, I didn't.  I continued to work.  But, as I have shared before in my previous post (Why I'm On A Mission), about 6 months later I got the prompting that I should go out and serve the Lord.  A part of me was very apprehensive about it.   Point 3, 'They couldn't get married', was something I didn't want to be labelled.  Thankfully, I listened to my prompting and came out on my mission.  I made that decision and have never regretted it since.  I used my agency to do the best thing I have ever done in my life.

California Santa Rosa Mission Sisters.  Booyah!

Everyone has agency, or the right to choose between good and evil and to act for themselves.  We choose our actions.  This gift is given to everyone.  No one can take that away.  Someone tried once, but he was thrown out.  He tries persistantly to get us to make the wrong choices in life.  Sad thing for him is that he can't force us to do anything.  Silly Satan.  Just never learns.

So, for all you 'nay saying sister haters' out there.  Let me just bluntly tell you that each of us chose to be here.  We weren't forced to come because we "couldn't get married."  We aren't here because we want to "find our future spouse"  It was a conscious choice to come out and serve our Lord and King.  No one took away our agency and kicked us out the door.  This is the best decision I have ever made!