Kansas Wichita Mission

What do you just most want to remember from your mission? Like what does it, what did it mean to you? Dang, that's a really good question. And I think what I want to remember the most is definitely, you know, how I feel and how the people, I mean, I think it can be easy for me to forget some of those little memories and like the day-to-day, but I don't think I'll ever forget how I felt and how amazing it felt to serve people and to feel the Spirit every day. And what it means to me to like to serve a mission is like you're giving up so much to the Lord, but it's almost like an investment. Like he's going to give you back so much more. You know, those two years will, I am sure, will affect me for the rest of my life. And it already has since being home. And so I am like eternally grateful for it. And I would recommend it to literally anyone. It's like the greatest experience.

Yeah, so being a Spanish missionary and I served in Kansas, the Kansas-Wichita Mission, it was definitely a unique experience. One of my areas, we were in a Spanish area, and so we would only really find and talk to people that spoke Spanish, just because that was kind of our congregation. And then for my different areas with English and Spanish, we would just talk to everyone. And obviously we were still looking for Spanish speakers, but it would be kind of a mix. Whoever we found or whoever we talked to, we would invite them to church. And so, yeah, that was a cool experience because you got to talk to a lot of different people either way. Were you always able to find a lot of Spanish people, or was that difficult sometimes? Yeah, honestly, I would say all my areas I was able to find Spanish fairly easily. Kansas doesn't seem like it had that much Spanish speakers, but there's actually a lot, especially when I was there. And yeah, some areas were a little bit harder, but you got to the point where you could kind of, once you knew, you knew.

I think the mission for me has been such a foundation because it was an opportunity for me to like put aside everything else, right? I mean life is crazy. You have, you know, school, work, relationships with family and other things like that. And I think the mission is unique because you get a time to set that all aside and really focus on the spiritual aspect. And I'm not perfect at like, you know, doing all the scripture study and all those things because I'm really busy right now. But when I do think back on my mission and that foundation, it motivates me to get better and it motivates me to still have that spiritual aspect of my life. Because without it, honestly, life is like, is hollow. And so I think that the mission wasn't the best thing for me because it helps me realize like what, how it can transform my life. And I think my, all those areas of my life, like school and work are boosted when I have spiritual things.

Yeah, so having kind of that mix of Spanish friends and you know in English areas where people are mostly speaking English or churches in English, at first it was pretty you know difficult for me like I feel like trying to figure out how to translate for them and figure out what they're saying in the meeting because it can be difficult to translate but I do think like that was really cool to see because it was very inclusive like the members always wanted to make sure we can invite whoever to church and that they would you know be able to receive the word in their own language. I think there's something like really big about that and there are other areas where like the members had their own system right like they would have a translation equipment and so or even a translator in the ward and so it was even a little bit easier but I do think that it's really cool to see like how we are a global church right and how even though in the United States there are different languages and people that are are receiving the word of Christ.

If I could tell myself, 18 year old me, like a week before starting the mission, I would tell him to dive into the scriptures, dive into the Book of Mormon, dive in to preach my gospel. That's something that I really wish I'd done throughout my whole mission. But I would also tell myself, don't take anything for granted, right? I mean, a two year mission feels like a long time, but it really goes by like that, like it goes by super fast. And I still think about my mission and sometimes wish I could go back. And so I think I would tell that 18 year old to live it up, to enjoy the good times and recognize it will be hard times, but those things are priceless. And so I think that like just making sure that he has no regrets at the end, that he made the most of everything.