It's a Woman's Perogative to Change Her Mind

A conversation I had with Kinsey over the summer went something like this:

Me:  Kinsey, I think if you went on a mission it would change your whole life.  You would prove to yourself that you can do hard things.  If you can serve a mission, you can do ANYTHING!!  You will be opening your world to all sorts of new possibilities!!

Those may have not been my exact words but pretty close. I really poured my heart and soul into that talk.  I felt the influence of the Holy Ghost as I was talking to her.  They weren't my words they were Heavenly Father's words.  I even shed a few tears.  Kinsey is a lot like me but she is infinitely better than I am.  She is braver.  She is more determined.  She has a kinder and softer heart.  She would be a great missionary. 

She looked at me and with her very stubborn streak (she got it from me) said:  Mom...I am NOT going on a mission!  I can do good things right there at BYU.  I don't need to serve a mission.

So, I dropped it because it is her decision and I want her to feel good about the choices she makes in her life.  She is very smart and level-headed and I trust her to do what she feels is best.

Except...I didn't all the way drop it because I remembered this awesome quote by Boyd K. Packer:

(http://www.homemadetoast.com/2013/05/mothers-day-printable.html)

Now, I don't claim to be a righteous-righteous mother...more of a semi-righteous mother but I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to soften her heart and help her to feel like she could do it if it was the right thing for her to do.  I also prayed to know what was right for her so that I could accept her decision.  I only prayed that prayer once or twice and then I just felt peaceful about it.

Imagine my surprise when I got a letter from her a few weeks later and she wrote me this:

When Levi gave his Farewell talk, I, for the first time ever, felt like I could go on a mission. Like, it's something that I could actually do. Before now it's never even seemed like something I could accomplish. I'm too scared of everything. I'm a wimp. I'm picky. I'm not good at learning languages or talking to people. 

Then throughout the week, I thought about it more. and I prayed about it. I fasted this morning. I talked to the sister missionaries at the Ogden temple this morning, and asked them how they decided to go on a mission. Last week, me going on a mission was a 2% chance. Sunday it went up to 10%.

Wednesday, saying goodbye to Levi was really hard, but it went up to a 50% chance. Now I'm at about 80% chance. When I get to BYU I'm going to go talk to my bishop, and it'll probably move up to a 95% chance. So. It kind of looks like I'm going on a mission.... 

Probably in January. I'll need to keep praying about it and figuring things out and making sure it's the right thing. But right now, it's looking like in a year you might have 2 children on missions....

I love you, Mom.

It seems like you're always right. 

I love those last two sentences :) but I only take a teeny tiny amount of credit for her decision.  I think I may have planted a small mission seed in her thoughts but I know that Heavenly Father is the one that softened her heart and ultimately it was her being humble and open to the promptings that she received.  She is very courageous because this is way out of her comfort zone.  I am so very proud of her.  If you would like to read her thoughts on the process, you can read her blog post. (I can't get my links to change colors like they are supposed to do so just click on those last few words)
  
She also told me I couldn't tell anyone.  Don't ever tell me a secret because I am terrible at keeping them.  I mostly kept her secret.  I only told a few people.  Most everyone was surprised, I think.  Anyway...she got her mission call last Friday.  She thought it would be here on Wednesday so we invited a few people over (the ones that knew) to watch her open it (she was reading it on Google chat).  Then it didn't come on Wednesday, so we invited everyone over Thursday night.  Then it didn't come, so we invited everyone over on Friday and most were busy which was a little disappointing but it was still so exciting to hear where she would be going.  Then, we got it all set up, she started reading it, and the computer froze! 

We finally heard Washington, Tacoma mission. It looked like she was tearing up and disappointed with where she was going and I felt sick to my stomach and my blood pressure went up to stroke level!  I hate it when my blood pressure goes up to stroke level in front of company!!  I talked to her on the phone and she mentioned something about Twilight (the books/movies) and I told her that maybe she could convert Edward so bright side looking are we!!

She is actually very excited.  Everyone seems to know someone there and she has always wanted to go to Washington.  She is a teeny bit worried about missing the sun, she is not the biggest fan of cold weather, and she hates wearing shoes so her biggest worry, I think, is wearing shoes all day.  Haha!  You can take the girl out of Florida but you can't take the Florida barefoot walker out of the girl!  

Now, for your viewing pleasure...the moment she read her mission call (all the yelling is us saying "STOP!!  You are frozen!!  We can't hear what you are saying!!"  Oh Google chat...you let me down!!):

Oh...nevermind...I can't save the video to my computer.  You can go watch it on her Facebook page.

Needless to say, we are thrilled!!  She is going to be a great missionary. I hope no one spits in her face or throws mashed potatoes at the back of her head. (those last few words are another link...really how hard is it to change colors when you are given a different color?!)

Isn't she the cutest missionary you have ever seen?!