Deciding to Serve a Mission (Part 1)

I have told this story over and over, so I thought it was time to just write it down and explain what has happened regarding my mission from the very beginning. Those who know me generally well should know that I have wanted to serve a mission my entire life, but that desire became more serious when I turned 16. For five years now, I have waited to be able to serve and now that the time is here it seems unreal.

At the beginning of this semester, I thought I had everything worked out in my life. I was enrolled in all my classes and was prepared to serve my mission after Winter semester. I thought Heavenly Father wanted me to get an extra year in of school before I left, so I worked it out to be that way. Fall semester began and I had moved into my apartment, and started all my classes when I realized that something didnt feel right. I was thinking about student teaching and having an Elementary Education career, and I knew that wasnt what I wanted. I love math but if I changed my major to Math Education then it would be a permanent change and I was scared. It had been 2 years since I took Calculus and I dont remember almost anything. As I was trying to figure out what to do, my mom mentioned that maybe I should go on a mission sooner than I planned. I immediately dismissed that thought because I thought I knew what was going to happen in that area. I went to one of my friends from previous semesters and asked him for a priesthood blessing. In my blessing I was told that when I was making my decision it would feel right and I would receive my answer in the scriptures. I went home and opened my scriptures randomly to D&C 4, which contains these verses:

 2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye ^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the last day.

 3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are ^acalled to the work;

I thought it was some mistake that these verses were about missionary work, so I ignored it and decided that I should change my major.  Changing your major at BYU-Idaho is hard enough regularly, but once you are past 60 credits it gets even harder and I had 82. I jumped through hoops all day long trying to change my classes and get permission to get everything worked out like it needed to, and the whole time I had this feeling that I wasnt doing the right thing. I tried to push aside the feeling, thinking that it was because I hadnt taken Calculus in so long and for once in my life I might struggle in school. I finally had everything sorted out and knew what classes I needed to take, but as I started to sign up for them, I had this absolute horrible feeling come over me. I struggled with the feeling all night and then decided to drop my classes and prepare for my mission. The second I did so, I was overwhelmed with peace and I knew I was making the right choice. Everything fell into place and I set up my schedule so that I could go to the temple, workout, and tutor everyday. I talked with my bishop, started and finished my papers within a week, and set up an appointment to meet with the stake president as soon as I could (which was one week after General Conference). I dont have time to finish the rest of this right now, so look for part 2 soon.