High School: Upland High School
Influential adult and why: My dad. Ever since I was little he has always pushed me to do the best I can do in everything that I participate in. He knows my dreams, my goals, and my desires and he will push me to do the things necessary to reach them even when I push back because I don't understand the end results of them. His story is inspiring also, how he went from living in a tiny apartment without money for transport to being able to support a family of 5. It's also incredible to hear his conversion story and then to see how faithful he still is. I've learned a lot from him.
Scripture that I love: There are a ton of amazing scriptures that I love but right now, one comes to mind that I think applies perfectly to our situation.
"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." 2 Nephi 2:24
Normally the scripture right after is the one that gets cited but I think this one speaks a ton of truth. A truth that for some reason even members of the church forget or don’t quite understand. There isn't anything that has happened in the history of the world that wasn't by the design or in the knowledge of God. He's conscious of literally everything and as long as we are living righteously we can trust that whatever happens to us is for the better in the eternal perspective.
Best advice for someone who is preparing to serve a mission: Go study the missionary stuff on the gospel library app and start living it! The sooner that we make the attributes of Christ part of who we are, the sooner we can start really spending time thinking about other things like teaching methods and mission language. The best way to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ is to have it be so much a part of who we are that we don’t even have to have to think twice about how we react to different situations. The sooner we conquer the inner battle against the natural man the better.
How is the mission different that I thought?: This actually has to do with my previous answer. If you've got a head start on that then this whole thing will be easier.
Before the mission I thought that it was a place almost free of temptation where everybody always wanted to do the right thing and enjoy it 24/7. I'll be the first one to tell you that that is not the case. If anything, you're more attacked by temptation and negativity than ever before. We'll have companions that struggle with real problems and/or don't have the motivation to leave the bed in the morning. Rejection is a real thing that slowly but constantly (especially in Portugal) eats away at you until you feel all of the weight crashing down on you. However, because of the infinite wisdom of our Heavenly Father, the atonement of Jesus Christ makes all things possible. The forgiving power of the atonement allows us to right our wrongs, and ask for forgiveness after we've fallen. It allows us to learn from our mistakes and turn our weak things into strengths. It allows us to help our companions through difficult times whether is has to do with something at home or something that happened on the mission. Because of the enabling power of the atonement, we can receive the strength, motivation and support to get up every morning and keep going, to knock the 501st door after the 500th closed on your face and to make the choice to be happy and ready when we are needed. I think it's more through those experiences that we really learn and experience the Joy of the gospel instead of just teaching it.
How has COVID-19 affected my mission experience?: Well, I'm stuck in my house 24/7 which is a huge change of pace from what we were doing before. Thankfully I'm serving in an area that gets to stay. I don't know why, but we do and I'm really happy for that. We've had to experiment with new ways to find people using technology and so far it's been kind of a slow process. Luckily our mission has smartphones that have email, skype, zoom, google hangouts and more so the communication with family, friends and people in our area hasn't really been cut. Also it's been an interesting experience as a leader trying to motivate and teach a zone when we too have no more experience than those under our jurisdiction. I've really had to learn to rely even more of the spirit to know what to do and say.
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