Farewell Sunday

Rodeo Sisters: Jamie, Mckinzie, Me, Mallory

Well today was the day that I spoke in the sweet home ward I have grown up in my entire life. It was an amazing experience. I was extremely nervous when I woke up this morning. I felt as if my heart was going to beat out of my chest. When I arrived at the church I was actually fairly calm. I was able to greet many who were there in support for Janson and I before we spoke. I was so lucky to be able to share the sacrament meeting with Janson. He and I have been friends for quite sometime and it was such a fun time sitting up on the stand as we expressed to each other how nervous we were and could not believe that today was the day. As I stood up to speak I looked at everyone there and was overwhelmed by all the support and love I have been given since I decided to serve a mission and throughout my life.

The topic I decided to speak on came from a text message my father sent me after visiting with Elder Enzio Busche at the Health Clinic he attends in Bountiful. In this visit Elder Busche shared the key to missionary work and well as life. This key is obedience, then the spirit comes to dwell and then love. I spoke mainly on love and God's love for each of His children and Christ's pure love. Our ultimate goal in this life is to be Christlike, to love has Christ loves and to obey as Christ obeys.

Best Friends: Scout, Cassie, Jared, Charidee, Tiffani
Missing: Victoria, Mariah, Cassidy

I was able to share an experience from Kenya where I was able to truly feel the pure love of Christ. I was volunteering at the Gede Special School. I walked into the Occupational Therapy area where many disabled children were playing. The minute I stepped inside the Spirit overwhelmed me. Each one of those children was an angel. Perfect in every way maybe not physically but spiritually. One specific girl in whom I never knew her name I played with. We were just playing with blocks and I playfully touched her nose. She giggled and that giggle I will never forget. Then she stopped looked straight into my eyes and touched my nose. It was such a simple gesture but so precious because as we looked into each others eyes I was able to feel her pure love and strong spirit. After I spoke my awesome little sister played a piano arrangement of Sweet Hour Of Prayer. Her testimony truly is shared every time she plays the piano and plays a hymn arrangement. I am so glad she agreed to play. It was flawless and beautiful. 

My Second Family

After the meeting Hailey and I got left at the church. I gave my keys to my dad and well he left with them so classic farewell story being stranded at the church for about a half hour while everyone is at my house visiting and eating lunch. 
Many people came out to the house friends and family. It was such a great day and I am so blessed. I had to say a few of my first good bye's and tears were definitely shed. I have the best people in my life and I cannot thank them all enough for their examples.
 I can't believe it is now only 10 days away that I will report to the Provo MTC! I am so excited and cannot wait to join God's Royal Army! Korea Seoul South I hope you are read for Sister Ciarra Jean Driscoll! 

Seoul Sisters

L to R: Kaelin, Calea, Me, Candice

On Facebook there is currently a support group for all sister missionaries who have their calls, waiting for their calls, or trying to decide if they would like to serve. It is called Many are Called...but Few are Sisters. There are about 10,000 members from all over the world. Through this Facebook page I have been able to talk to future companions and sisters who have served in South Korea. On Saturday one of my future companions, Calea, decided to put together a Sister Missionary Meet at Temple Square and invited all who would be able to make it. Thankfully I was in Utah this weekend and was able to attend. At the reflection pond in front of the Salt Lake City Temple about 50 future sister missionaries met. I was able to meet three sisters who will be attending my same mission! You can call us SEOUL SISTERS! It was such a joyful experience and comforting to know that I am not the only one nervous, not knowing what to expect, and completely excited. All the sisters gathered to sing as Sisters in Zion and Called to Serve. The Spirit there was so happy and special. I am so glad I had this opportunity to attend and meet so many sisters in the same shoes as me. I can't believe the time is almost here! 17 days and I am MISSION BOUND!

"The sisters of Zion are called to God's labor,

We willingly serve HIm with spirit and might.

We go to the nations with truth everlasting,

We teach of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Mission Photos

 My little sister and I decided to experiment with some mission photos. I think they turned out wonderful with the help of my mother's high tech camera. Thank you Miss Hailey for cooperating with me and taking such wonderful photos! Love you! I can't believe I am leaving in one month! Time truly is flying by. I am more then ready to enter the Lord's royal army though and cannot wait for this life changing opportunity.

Entering the House of the Lord

Wednesday August 14, 2013 I had the amazing opportunity to receive my endowment at the Idaho Falls Temple. First off  I was extremely nervous to go. I did not know what to expect and thought I would be very overwhelmed. I had done all the temple preparation lessons and read the Pearl of Great Price to prepare but still I was scared and feeling inadequate to enter the House of the Lord. I came to the conclusion that Satan was inside my head giving me feelings of doubt because of course he does not want me to go. I knew I had done all the things my stake president had recommended and more to prepare to enter the temple so I do not think I could have been more prepared. Being able to pass through with a temple recommend was one of the most exciting moments, knowing I was worthy to be in the House of the Lord. I didn't understand everything nor did I soak in a lot of the information but what I do remember is the peace and comfort I felt inside the House of the Lord. It was truly amazing. Words cannot explain the feelings the temple brings into ones life. When I went into the bathroom before the endowment session I looked at myself in the mirror all dressed in white and just cried. I was overcome by the Spirit and knew I was doing exactly what I needed to be doing. I could not believe I was inside the temple receiving my gift from God. This was something I had always dreamed of as a little girl and here I was making a dream of mine come true. As I continued through the session I was intrigued by everything. By the end I was on a spiritual high. I thought I would have been so overwhelmed with all the information presented in the temple but I was not I was truly at peace. I was so happy to have shared this experience with my grandparents, parents, my brother and his wife. Although my Grandma Margo has passed on I know she was there with my Grandpa Earl supporting me on this special day. I feel so blessed to have had such a positive experience at the temple and cannot wait to continue to go so I can continue to learn. I know that the temple is going to prepare me for my mission and I am glad I was able to go so early before I leave.  It was truly an experience I will never forget.

Big White Envelope

I waited two weeks for my mission call to arrive in the mail. It came Thursday July 19, 2013 during finals week at BYU-Idaho and while my parents were in Rock Springs Wyoming supporting my little sister at the National High School Rodeo Finals. Can you say bad timing! Luckily I only had 2 tests to a take and my family was willing to drive down Thursday night so I would be able to open my call Friday morning. I had to wait all Thursday and most of Frida morning. AHH! I seriously thought that waiting was going to be the death of me. All day Thursday I was a complete mess! I couldn't focus. I couldn't study. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was what was inside of that big white envelope. I woke up early Friday morning to take my last final and then was on my way to open my call. The entire drive I was so nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach. My brain was going a million miles an hour. I really thought I might pass out while driving. What a story that would be! I got home and held the big white envelope in my hands. I noticed the flap had been taped shut. What?? So I asked my family if they opened it and of course they did not. My call clearly had quite the ride from Utah to Idaho. I began opening the big white envelope with shaky hands and started reading, "Dear Sister Driscoll: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the"...I paused. My biggest fear was not being able to pronounce where I was going or knowing the geographical location of where I would be. I read where I was going in my head in shock and immediately got emotional. I continued with a choked up shaky voice "Korea Seoul South Mission." Sure enough I pronounced Seoul wrong but that did not matter because I was going to South Korea!  I continued reading, "You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center December 4, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Korean language." KOREA?! SAY WHAT?! My little sister exclaimed, "Where's that?!" Then my entire family grew quiet and was in shock. It took my sweet sister-in-law to break the silence after a couple minutes and say, "Well this is going to be great!" I couldn't believe it. My family couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.
Finally after the thought sunk in for a few minutes I knew for a fact there are people in South Korea waiting for me to teach and serve them. I knew that I had been called to this mission for a reason and I cannot wait to find out why the Lord needs me in South Korea. It is so comforting to know where I am going to be for the next 18 months of my life but I am extremely nervous for the language and being able to preach the gospel in Korean. I mean knowing the gospel and teaching it in English is hard enough. I know that the Lord is on my side though and trusts me with this call. It is now my time to trust Him. I know with his help and through the Spirit I will learn the Korean language and know what the people I teach need to hear. After all the conversion of an individual comes by the Spirit so as long as I am in tune with the Spirit and teach by the Spirit of the Lord, He will allow everything that needs to happen, happen. I am so blessed to be able to have this opportunity now during this time in my life. It will lay a fantastic foundation for my future. A year ago this was not possible for girls to go at 19 and now it is. I often wonder why now? Why the year I turn 19? BECAUSE I and many other girls are supposed to help hasten the work and serve our Lord NOW! I can't wait for this opportunity for I know it will be one of the most challenging experiences of my life but by far one of the most rewarding. Ahh! I still freak out occasionally and say to myself "I'm going to Korea to serve my Lord. Is this real life?"
After having my call for a few weeks I began pondering the past to see if there were any clues along this journey to where I would be serving. Of course there were. In May just a month after I had decided to serve a mission I attended a friends mission call opening party. Of course all who were there guessed where she would be serving. I myself thought I'm going to guess somewhere a little bazar so I wrote my name on the map next to the country of South Korea. Then a few weeks later I was talking to a friend who kindly informed me that I reminded him a lot of his sister who served in South Korea. He flat out told me you are going to serve in South Korea. Weird?! Then the day before I received my call, my cousin and I were talking about where I was going to serve and South Korea came up. We thought how crazy would that be if I served in Korea. Well sure enough all these experiences led to me reading "You are assigned to labor in the Korea Seoul South Mission" where I would be spending the next 18 months. I am so glad that I did look back on the past and have those experiences that were able to hint a little bit of where I would be serving the Lord. The Lord works in mysterious ways and maybe if I had been paying closer attention to these experiences I would have caught on to all these instances before opening my call. They are fun to look back on now though. I feel so blessed to be able to serve at this time and December 4, 2013 could not come soon enough.

Adventure of Mission Papers

Wow all I have to say is I had quite the adventure with my mission papers. I started them about April 20, 2013 and wanted them submitted by the beginning of June. Well that did not happen. After having them completely finished I met with my bishop and he told me that I would not be able to submit my papers until July 1, 2013 because my availability date was November 6, 2013 which meant the beginning of June was not 180 days before my availability date. What?? I can't submit my papers until 180 days before November 6. I was crushed but also understood why the church has that limit because I would not want to wait too long before leaving for my mission. So I waited patiently until July 3. During that time I was busy and in school so I did not have too much time to think about it. Then the day came that I was to meet with my stake president. Can I just say that was probably the best day of my life. Well maybe not the best because I think the day I received my call was the best day. Anyways meeting with my stake president was absolutely amazing and spiritual. He told me he would have my papers ready to click the submit button 5:00 am Monday July 1, 2013. I was so relieved and Monday came along with an email from my stake president saying he had submitted my papers. AHHHH! And now the waiting begins. One week went by and nothing. My call had not been assigned. Another dreadful week of waiting went by and surprise...nothing. I was beginning to worry my call would come while I was out of the country for two weeks for BYU-Idaho Dance Alliance tour at the end of July. The thought of waiting an extra two weeks with my call at my house was terrible. I would not have been able to handle it. Well I got the news Wednesday night from my Dad that my call had been assigned the Friday before so I thought "Oh my goodness it's coming TOMORROW!" and It did:) The waiting was over well at least I thought it was.

Decision to Serve

As many know or do not know when the announcement of the age change for missionaries came I was currently in Watamu, Kenya on a service opportunity with my older sister. When I heard about the age change I could not believe it. I had continuously thought about the possibility of going on a mission my entire life but waiting until 21 when I would be right in the middle of school was the downfall. As the age change occurred I was currently 18 and just graduated from high school. I was planning on attending Brigham Young University-Idaho the winter and spring of 2013. I did follow that plan and enjoyed every minute of it. In the back of my mind was still the thought of "Am I supposed to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" Well after an entire semester of pondering that question and my bishop nagging me on when I would be submitting my papers I decided that I would let my patriarchal blessing guide me. I had not yet received this valuable tool. In fact I had gone through two recommends and pondered about when I should receive my patriarchal blessing for three years. I did not do this because I did not feel worthy or was not worthy but I simply felt I was not ready so I waited for three full years. Finally, on April 5 2013 I called my Stake Patriarch and set up an appointment for April 14, 2013.
Sunday April 14, 2013 finally came and I was nervous. I did not know what to expect. I just knew I was going into my blessing asking my Heavenly Father if I was supposed to serve a mission. I entered the building and had my dear parents come with me. The Patriarch took my recommend and had a concerned look on his face. He said "You have had this recommend for a while haven't you?" Yes my third recommend dated back August of 2012. This immediately got my attention and I was afraid I was not going to be able to receive my patriarchal blessing. Luckily the Patriarch felt good about giving me my blessing and continued. He asked me to say the opening prayer. The second I stood up I was overwhelmed by the Spirit. It was so strong. I could hardly get through the prayer with out completely breaking down in tears. Throughout my blessing I realized and was assured how much my Heavenly Father loves me and knows me. The Patriarch's voice at the beginning of the prayer was so powerful and comforting as I could feel his worthiness as a priesthood holder. About the second paragraph into my blessing I received my answer plain as day. The patriarch's powerful voice said "You will be called to the Lord's full time service." I knew immediately exactly what I was supposed to do. I, Ciarra Jean Driscoll, am serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Receiving my patriarchal blessing was a huge turning point in my life. I can honestly say it was the most spiritual experience I had ever had. After leaving feeling so comforted by the Spirit I called my Bishop to set up an appointment to begin my papers.