So... Long time, no write. :)

Hey! (I'm pretty sure no one reads this, but I will greet my imaginary audience anyway.)

I have been taking my Temple Prep class and have discovered that it is basically a really good review of what I already know. :) There have been a few new concepts, but nothing more than I really expected. My sister and I will be going through the temple for the first time in thirteen days! I'm super excited. :)

I am continuing to try to get better at studying my scriptures, the problem being that I don't really know how to study anything. :P So, basically, I'm just reading through it again, but in Spanish. My mother has come up with a goal for my family; we are all going to try to read through the BoM once before I leave for my mission. (My sister is going on a mission too, but she's leaving two weeks after me.) I'll be reading it in Spanish and everyone else will be reading it in English. (Except I think my sister will be reading it in Italian, I'm not sure.) I'm on chapter fifteen of 1 Nefi, but I'm supposed to be finished with sixteen today... I might have to read extra tomorrow. Oh well, extra scripture reading never hurt anyone. :)

I have 59 days until I leave. It seemed so far away until I thought about it today... But it's so much closer than I thought! I'm actually starting to get nervous and I REALLY need to finish learning chapter 3 of PMG. BUT IT'S SO HARD TO MOTIVATE MYSELF. And I really want the Spanish version so I can learn at least some of the information in Spanish. :P I will probably buy a small one when I go to the temple.

I'm so nervous and excited and overwhelmed and I AM JUST SO EXCITED I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO MEXICO!

OH! And while I'm thinking about it, when I was reading my scriptures earlier I decided to read out loud, and LET ME TELL YOU how very weird it was to hear myself speaking Spanish! It's weird because when I read to myself, my brain-voice pronounces everything perfectly, but my mouth is so unaccustomed to Spanish that it came out jumbled and weird! And I became more unsure of my pronouncing abilities... I should do that every day. It will probably help me to become more comfortable with the language. Anyways, it's getting late, so I am going to sign of with an "ADIÓS AMIGOS" and my chosen mission scripture, in Spanish:

"Y bienaventurados aquellos que procuren establecer a mi Sión en aquel día, porque tendrán en don y el poder den Espíritu Santo; y si perseveran hasta el fin, serán enaltecidos en el úlitimo día y se salvarán en el reino eterno del Cordero; y los que publiquen la paz, sí, nuevas de gran gozo, ¡cuán bellos serán sobre las montañas!"

1 Nefi 13:37

<3 Hermana Beaumont

Hey!

So, I have been practicing praying in Spanish. I say my personal morning and evening prayers in Spanish and when I have lunch, I use a really simple prayer to bless it. Last night though, I had my room to myself and decided to pray orally in Spanish. (Which, by the way, I have never even done in English before. At least, not for my personal prayer.) I felt the Spirit so strongly! It was wonderful! I plan on doing that a lot more often, which will just mean that I have to go to bed long before my sister. (Joy.)

I need to read my scriptures more often. It's hard for me to find the motivation after being at work all day and just wanting to relax. :P

So a couple of weeks ago, the sisters in my ward were talking to the Relief Society about a ward missionary effort that they needed help starting and at the end, they told us that they loved all of us. A year ago, I would have rolled my eyes and been all, "Yeah, right. You don't even know all of us!" (In my head of course.) But now that I have my call, I completely understand. The sisters that serve in your wards and stakes love you. They have loved you since the moment that they opened up their mission calls! I love the people of México! I have since the moment I opened my mission call! I am overwhelmed with the love that I feel towards them and with the love that I know that the sisters in my ward have for me and for the other members in my ward and for all the people that they have yet to meet that are waiting to learn the gospel from them. As those sisters spoke to the Relief Society sisters, I looked around the room at women around me and thought, "NO. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. THEY REALLY DO LOVE YOU." It's a wonderful, beautiful, and extremely overwhelming feeling of love and joy and I really can't wait to serve the people of México. I am so excited.

<3 Hermana Beaumont

Mission Prep

Hey Everyone!

So, I have been unsure of how to prepare spiritually for my mission. I try to read my scriptures every day, but it's hard to make myself study Preach My Gospel. I know it's extremely important, but it's still hard to make myself do it. :P

So, tomorrow I get to start my Temple Prep class! It was supposed to start last week, but didn't end up happening. I am really excited about it. :)

I can't think of anything else to say... I'm terrible at writing. lol So... I will write again later! :)

<3 Hermana Beaumont

Getting My Mission Call

I'm just going to start at the beginning. I have wanted to serve a mission since I was very young. I remember when my aunt came home from her mission in Bolivia and my mother telling me that one day I would be old enough to serve a mission, if I wanted. I knew then and there that I would.

Fast forward to October 2012. I am 18 years old and my family is sitting in our living room, watching General Conference. Thomas S. Monson addresses the world and announces that all worthy young men and women can serve missions at new, younger ages. (18 for men and 19 for women. See Video Below.)

BEST. VIDEO. EVER. (Jussayin') Any-who, I cried. Like a baby. My brother laughed at me and my family stared, but I was so excited. Here was my opportunity to serve the Lord at an earlier age than anyone had ever anticipated. Immediately after Conference was over, I went on facebook to see how the peeps on AMSSA were reacting. I saw so many posts by girls saying, "It's in my patriarchal blessing and now I know when I should go!" and "I've been praying about it for months and this is my answer!" and "Right after the announcement I prayed about it and I knew that I was meant to serve a mission!" I stopped. In my excitement, I never once stopped to consider what Heavenly Father wanted for me. I began to pray and read my patriarchal blessing. Unfortunately, my blessing is very vague on the subject, and all I could do was find my own interpretation of what it meant. I read it and I got... nothing. I prayed every night and every night I received the same thing. Nothing. Not one peep. I prayed for 5 months, and in the meantime, I attended school at BYU-Idaho. I made new friends and met new people. I started new hobbies and learned new things. I had roommates that I wasn't related to for the first time in my life, and MAN was that hard! But I had a blast. It was sometime around March when I finally received my answer. I was in sacrament meeting in my singles ward. The Sacrament was being passed, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw my roommate pull out a copy of her patriarchal blessing. I thought, "Oh! What a great idea!" So I pulled mine out and said a quick prayer for guidance. As I was reading my blessing, an overwhelming feeling of joy came over me and I knew. I was going to serve a mission.

Unfortunately, at that time, I was still five months away from my 19th birthday. So I waited. I talked about it all the time, of course. (Probably really annoyed my roommates!) More than anything I wanted to speak Spanish, but I knew that Heavenly Father would send me where I was meant to go. Finally, at the end of April I was able to begin the mission application process. It was long, but mostly because my family was on the other side of the country from me and I had to wait for them to give me a lot of the necessary information. I finally submitted my papers on July 2, 2013. I don't mean my stake president did. I did. He had all of my information on his iPad and held it out to me, saying that he didn't want to make me serve. He wanted me to choose to. So, I took the iPad from him and pressed "Submit", knowing that soon my papers would be sent to Salt Lake.

I waited two weeks and two days. Six days before I received my call, it was assigned. It was TORTURE knowing that there were people in the world that knew where I was going, and I didn't! I received my mission call on July 18th, 2013. I walked to my mailbox with the thought repeating in my head, "Don't get your hopes up. It won't be there. It won't be there. It won't be there." I opened the mailbox and LO AND BEHOLD, THERE IT WAS! IN ALL IT'S SPLENDOR! I grabbed it and slammed the mailbox shut, running like a maniac back to my apartment. (There was a girl walking in the opposite direction that was giving me funny looks, so I shouted, "MY MISSION CALL CAME TODAY!" and she understood and shouted, "Congratulations!" and went along her way.) I posted it on facebook with this picture:

I was so excited! BUT I HAD TO WAIT! I still had a class right after I got it and I had to wait for my family so I could skype with them. I was restless though the entirety of my class and couldn't WAIT to get home.

I finally was able to open my mission call at 2:30 PM (MST). I opened it and read it aloud:

"Dear Sister Beaumont,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the México Tijuana Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, November 13, 2013.You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

I couldn't believe it! I had wanted more than anything to speak Spanish, and Heavenly Father answered my prayers! Just before I got my call, however, I prayed for Heavenly Father to help me to love wherever he sent me, no matter what language I would be speaking and no matter where I went. He answered both! I love the people of México and I am so excited to serve!