This is an introductory post, explaining who I am and what has led me to this point in my life, and why I would want to go to Japan.

You’re sitting in a room with all your friends and family. There’s an envelop in your hand. All you can think about are the possibilities.

Where will I be sent?

• Maybe I’ll serve my mission state-side. There are a lot of missions in the US.
• South America? After all, I took 2 years of Spanish in high school.
• or…. (stops) no, I don’t think God would ever send me there. Haha… I’d get too distracted! No one ever really gets to go where they want, right?

That’s right. This is the typical scene, when a young adult member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints receives a letter, informing them of their placement as a volunteer missionary.

To get to this point, I’d been through a lot:

• Filling out an online application.
• Getting all my dental work done.
• Wisdom teeth removed.
• Overall physical, including blood tests (I was so skinny, losing even a small vial of blood made me incredibly dizzy. My head hurt the whole day afterward).
• Meeting with my congregation’s Bishop and Stake President to ensure I was worthy (because it’s hard to volunteer to help others become better people if your life’s not in order, right?).
• Waiting for what seemed like eternity (2 weeks) for my placement letter to come.

And now, finally, here it was. Nervous, I fingered the envelop open and began to read the opening statement. It sounded something like this:

“Dear Sister— OH MY GOSH!”

“What? What? Hurry up and READ IT already!” my family was growing impatient (especially after my outburst).

I started over, reading the whole letter, that I was assigned to Japan, that I’d be speaking Japanese, and that I had 3 months before I reported to the Training Center in Provo, Utah.

Only God had known how much I loved Japan—how hard I had tried to teach myself the language for the past 10 years—and now here I was, about to go and live there for a year and a half! Of all the places!

And that is what changed my life forever. Now, I’m married to someone who loves it there as much as I do, and we spent 3 weeks on our honeymoon there.

We have 2 children now. I can’t wait to show them what Japan means to us, when we finally reach our goal and return.

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