A Moment In My Moccasins: December 2014

"Uhh wow, it was GREAT..."

Really?? Is that even a question? Or here's a better one:

"Tell me about some of your experiences in Argentina."

There are NO words to answer such questions...A mission is 18 months to two YEARS long. In a place where your heart learns to call home. With people that somehow become your own, adopted family. Missionaries have spiritual experiences on a daily basis, and it is impossible to adequately respond to such questions. Let alone share those experiences that are most dear to our hearts...

So I was not expecting to start off my first blog post after the mission quite like this. I didn't really plan on it being three whole months after having returned home, either. I never imagined it would be so...hard. Difficult. Heart-wrenching. I feel a little bad for my parents, because they've been the ones around during the whole transition, and they will probably be the first ones to say that it has not been easy--for me OR them.

I've always known that missions can change people. I know it's not a guarantee, but I've always known that a young man or woman who is set out to give their all to the Lord and His children for 18 to 24 months has the ability to completely change. However, for some indescribable reason, I thought that I would be different. HA...Yeah, no. Before my mission, I thought I had it all figured out and that I was ready for everything. To finish school, start a career, get married, have a family...I learned on the mission how wrong I was. Sure, I probably could have made it. But I know for a fact that every single one of those things--the schooling, career, marriage, family, and MORE--will go much smoother and much different and much more Gospel-focused than ever before.

So like I was saying...My parents had a pretty good idea of who I was before my mission. And it's not as though I've changed entirely. But I have indeed changed, and they've been on a roller coaster, trying to figure it all out and HOW to handle it. (;

I'll just say that these last few months have been a lot harder than I ever imagined they would be. On the mission sometimes you just gush about how much you miss taking naps and doing absolutely NOTHING and never having to do another weekly planning...But then you are forced to leave it all behind. I would give anything to sit down on one of those awful folding chairs for hours on end to do a weekly planning session just one more time. To put that scuffed up tag on just once more and be a set apart servant of the Lord. I don't think a day goes by without me thinking to myself at least once, "Just take me back to Argentina...". Not one single day. Argentina is always on my mind. We are told to not be "that returned missionary" who only ever talks about their mission, but do you realize how HARD that is??? We're having a conversation, and the ONLY experiences I've had for the last 18 months are not allowed to be mentioned? Sorry. Not happening. I try to not go on and on, story after story haha. But I'm not just leaving half my heart behind like that.

How do you get over it? GREAT question. My parents once told me that I should write a book for returned missionaries about how to transition back. The problem with that is that I still have NO IDEA how to do so! I still cry about Argentina every now and then! Hahaha. Not in public, of course. (; However, I can tell you a few things that have helped me. They come straight from Presidente Goates' final interview with us missionaries. It all comes down to doing the basics. Not losing that structure we have as missionaries. I'll probably get into that in another blog post, so I'll just leave it at that. Do the basics, my friends. Read the scriptures, talk with your Heavenly Father, serve others, go to the temple and church...Y'know. All that good stuff. (: Always be working towards a goal, or else you're just sitting there completely dormant. Not moving forward.

Okay, that was my Rant&Rage for the night. (: You all know that a lot has gone down in these last 3 months. I am SO incapable of writing it all out, but luckily I've got the realllly important stuff written in my journals for my posterity. :P Haha. So I've decided to give you a brief summary of what I've gone around doing lately. (: Lots of traveling and visiting people and just fun stuff. SO...Get ready for the next post, because it is going to be LOADED with photos from after the mission. (: For now, here are the last of my photos from the heartbreaking departure from San Rafael and all of the incredible people there...

The classiest woman alive, Alicia Ochoa.