Dear Bro Jo,
So I just found your blog a few months ago and I think it's great that you are doing this for teens! It's a lot of help. I just have a big question that I hope someone can help me out with...
So I have dated this guy for 2 years during our senior year in high school and our first year of college and then he left on a mission last June. I know you hear this a lot but we are best friends! We write every week and tell each other everything. Well the last month or so I have been having feelings like I should serve a mission. Which is funny because my whole life I have NEVER wanted to go on a mission, it's never even crossed my mind really! And then this passed month it kinda just hit me like a rock that I should go.
I haven't even told my parents yet that I have been feeling this way because I don't want to let anyone down if I don't go.... But if I did go I would leave this December-ish and not get back for a year after He has been home. So my question is, do you think some girls are supposed to go on missions? Cause I found a quote from Pres. Hinkley saying that girls shouldn't feel obligated to serve a mission and that it isn't there responsibility, but that they are welcome to serve. Also that if they didn't serve, God wouldn't take away blessing from them if they didn't go, and He would still respect them the same. Anyways let me know what you think about this if you have time!
-Anonymous
Dear Ann,
Well . . . you KNOW of course that President Hinckley is absolutely correct.
Are some girls SUPPOSED to go?
I honestly don't know. It does make sense, though. I believe that everyone who worthily goes on a mission is sent where they're sent because someone that they'll meet (often several someones) needs to meet them and hear of their testimony of the savior. And I believe that feelings that are directing us towards a righteous thing are from God.
If you sincerely feel that a mission is what you should do, by all means pursue it.
My only other advice to you is that, as you travel down that path, listen to what the Spirit tells you, and be aware that the boy you like may not be available when you come home (nor should you expect him or require him to be).
Of course, you probably know by now that I neither believe that there's just one guy for every girl (a romantic notion that defies all common sense and denies history) nor do I believe that a girl (or guy) can bank on a person returning from a mission and being the same (or having the same romantic interest in them) as before they left.
I suspect that the next few months will be very Spiritually interesting for you indeed.
Let us know what you decide!
- Bro Jo
So if she follows these promptings and prepares for a mission, but meets a different guy while preparing, should she not date him because the Lord told her to go on a mission? Can the Lord change promptings like that and then tell her that she should get married?
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'd characterize what the Lord does as "changing promptings", but I do believe that we're often prompted to do one thing, and that our obedience to that prompting then can lead to blessings and new information.
ReplyDeleteUnlike brethren, if a right and good person comes along and marriage is proposed, sisters should put that before missionary service.
- Bro Jo