The Divine Call of a Missionary

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. I'm so grateful and excited that I have chosen to serve a full time mission for my church. Coming to Jerusalem has been life changing for me and I'm so excited to continue to learn and soon teach others about the life of Jesus Christ.

My mission call should be here anyday! We leave to go to The Galilee on Sunday and will be gone for eleven days. I've really thought so much about how humbled I am to walk where the Savior walked and to experience all of the things I have learned in the past three months. There is no price I could ever put on this study abroad because the things I am learning I know will be with me forever. I have had a whole new way of thinking by in depth studying the scriptures in context and visiting these beautiful sights. :)

One of the things that stood out to me in my New Testament class today was the question:

Because the missionary purpose is to gather those who are seeking the gospel, how do we fulfill this huge mission of "gathering"?

He gave us a very unique answer we don't hear often: To build a temple in the area of your mission. Because having temples on the earth is one of the most important things of this world. We make and keep covenants there that enable us to receive the celestial kingdom someday. This is the main purpose. Brother Anderson, my teacher, shared a story of while he was on his mission in Japan, he worked so hard and only baptized one person during his whoel mission. He went back to his mission last year (50 years later) to visit the man he baptized. To his surprise, the man he baptized had been keeping up with the baptisms of his current generations and had just reached the 100 mark! Brother Anderson is such a great example and I learn so much from his class every morning. We also talked about the symbolism in the statue of The Christus and how the new Rome Visitor Center will be modeled after one in Denmark. Made me think of you, Dad! I love the symbolism of the apostles on each side of Christ.

I'm so excited to go to The Galilee to walk where Christ ministered and taught the 12 apostles. We will be there for 11 days, so no blog posts for a little while. :)

Have an amazing week!

XOXO, alyson :)