Leaving on a MIssion

 On February 18, 2014, this boy opened his mission call.  Illinois Chicago West mission, reporting April 16th, 2014.  We bought suits, white shirts, shoes.  He worked and saved money, sold his car and got a nice tax refund to help fund over half of his mission costs.  (LDS missionaries pay $400 a month to serve)

 Look at him, all ready to serve!  Yesterday was his mission farewell. He spoke in Sacrament meeting.  The topic was fellowshipping.  The other 3 speakers used that word a lot.  Dallin didn't.  But here is the story he told (from his talk on Sunday...)

"When I was a kid, I always said I'd go on a mission. But when I said i,t I feel like it was more expected of me and I didn't have a choice, so in Sunday school when the teachers would go "who all is going on a mission"? I would raise my hand. As I became older and I graduated from High Schoo,l the realization hit me. "I don't want to go on a mission'. Now I didn't know why It came to me all at once, but I just didn't think a mission was right for me, so I moved on. I wanted to go to school so I did what all confused Mormons do. I moved to Utah. I made this plan in 2 weeks in September, and moved out. Now I was on my own. I think in the first year I lived out there I only went to church maybe twice. One was the first Sunday I moved and the second was to see a friend sing in sacrament. Now I may have not noticed at the time, but not going to church really wasn't doing me any good. It made me feel like I couldn't associate with anybody from church and that kind of forced me to hang with the non active Mormons. Now these people were pretty depressing, always had something to complain about they didn't seem like they had any goals.  I was raised better than that, so I knew what I wanted out of life. I wanted to go to school and I wanted a family. Now after having to move out of apartments for different reasons, I decided to move in with some friends at work. I was really excited to move in with them because they both seemed to have the same personality as me and they liked to have fun. They were both Returned missionaries and still active. When I moved in with them, they still went to church every Sunday. and they asked me if I wanted to go. I still wasn't ready to go back to church and eventually they stopped asking me and we just went on with our own lives on Sunday. 

Now here's the fun part of the story. On a Saturday sometime early October or  late September,  I was doing good. I had an awesome job that was super easy, I was going to school and everything was going ok but I just felt like something was missing. I was driving home from a friends house after his birthday and I parked in the lot of our apartment and just sat there. Now I know this was the Spirit but it was crazy. I hadn't gone to church, I wasn't praying or anything, but all at once I saw what my life was going to look like in 10 or 20 years. I had a family and I had a career doing something I loved and everything was going great. But I felt the Spirit telling me your not going to have this life unless you go on a mission. I seriously felt like I was going crazy because never in my mind did I feel this passionate about going on a mission. So that morning I woke up early enough for our 8 am session of church and my roommates were confused. I still didn't tell anyone I was planning on going on a mission, but that Sunday I made a meeting with the bishop and I talked to him about what it would take to get started on a mission. I just wanted to see how a week felt in that mind set, so I still didn't tell anyone until the next week. So that next weekend is when I broke the news and it felt so good to tell people that I wanted to go.

In helaman 15:7 he says: "and behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures , yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith of the lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them".

 So that leads us to today...... I know going on a mission is what I need to be doing. I'm so glad I figured this out before it was to late and i I wouldn't have gotten a chance. I really do think moving out to Utah was the best thing that happened and it helped me figure out who I am and what I want. It took me moving away from home for a year to figure this out, so I'm just telling all you young men and women to try to get your own testimony now, so you don't have to procrastinate."

Troy gave him a father's blessing yesterday afternoon and then the Stake President set him apart last evening.  I have felt so much peace regarding Dallin serving.  I feel like he is so ready for the adventure and that his life will be so blessed. As parents, we struggled with whether we had done the right thing in encouraging Dallin to go to Utah.  Even as we received calm reassurances that this was indeed Heavenly Father's Plan for Dallin, we would doubt and question our own faith.  What a blessing, a miracle from Heavenly Father, that dropped in our laps that October Monday afternoon. It has been in His hands all along and Dallin will continue to be in His hands.  So, I will miss him, but it is hard to shed too many tears, because I know without a doubt that this is where Dallin should be and I do not want him to be any where else.

So this morning, we took him to the airport at 4:15 am.  Sleepy eyed, we said good by, gave him hugs and wished him well.  He wanted to do his sailor man salute:

His friend Ryan met him at the Salt Lake airport.  They visited a few friends and then met grandma and grandpa for lunch. (They are also serving as missionaries in Provo -- I'll have to share more of that later).  Then Grandma and grandpa dropped him off at the Missionary Training Center, sending me the following picutre and message:

"Goodbye Dallin. He's excited!"  He looks pretty excited.  Now to just wait for that first letter!!