The Title. The Mission. The Dream.

The Title: I once sat in the office of my bishop, stressed over life as I knew it. I felt more and more that I should begin my papers to serve a full time mission, but that had been something I had never wanted. I had no way to finance a mission, I was just starting my junior year at college, and there was an RM kind of, sort of-ish in the picture. So there I am panicking, and getting my bad juju all over the place when my bishop told me to "pick up a rock". I won't lie I sat there staring at him and wondered if he had actually listened to a single word I'd said, because rocks? Yyyeah, that wasn't going to help me. But that wonderful bishop of mine was far more wise than I gave him credit for. He asked me if I remembered anything at all from the story of the Brother of Jared, specifically what happened when they were trying to light the ships. I told him I kind of knew, it was something about stones. He told me that the Lord asked the Brother of Jared what he wanted the Lord to do to light the ships. After that the he started picking up rocks so the Lord could light them. Then to be a little more clear, bishop told me that the Lord waits for us to make our move and then from there He gives us a 'yay' or 'nay' and guides us along. God can't steer a parked car, we have to be moving forward with purpose, even if we have no idea what we're doing. Basically, to bring this really long story home, we have to start picking up rocks.

The Mission: I have been called to serve as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I will be serving for a period of 18 months up in the Great White North in an area called Winnipeg. It will be cold. While I'm serving there my 18 year old brother Patrick will be serving for a period of 24 months down in Guatemala. I spent a year trying to get my papers in and get the ball rolling for this mission, and it seemed like at every turn there was something else that stood in my way. When the Brethren announced that the age limit for both male and female missionaries had been lowered, well, the LDS community kind of exploded with barely controlled glee. My brother eventually decided he was going to serve as well. All of a sudden everything clicked into place and we were on a roll. Our papers went in the same day, we received our calls the same day, and we'll fly out the same day. (If you'd like to watch the opening of our calls you can do so here: http://fromthefloorofanylifeileadtoday.blogspot.com/p/a-tale-of-two-siblings.html ). Anyways the most immediate point of this blog is to keep everyone updated on my adventures in Canada, and possibly Patrick's. We're both wicked excited.

The Dream: The dream is this: that the blog will produce smiles and laughter. That maybe somehow it will strike a spark, or strengthen faith. I hope this blog will deepen someone's understanding, or maybe provide an insight to someone of another faith. I wish for this blog to be a reason someone, somewhere starts picking up rocks. Nothing more, nothing less.

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