Here's Emma Again.

Here's another guest post from my little sister, Emma. I hope she'll keep sending these to me, because I like reading them. :) Fun fact about Emma: she received her mission call this week to serve as a full-time missionary in Cusco, Peru. That means she'll be there for 18 months, teaching people about our Savior and His Church.

The big white envelope containing the mission call came on Friday. Friday night, we all skyped in: Grandma, Mom, Dad, Brigham, McKay, and Mary from Colorado; Emma, Sam, Elise, and some of Emma's roommates from Utah; Dana Lee, Kyle, & Breckyn from Colorado; Chad and me from here in Louisville; and Taylor & Jenny from Atlanta. It was so wonderful to hear her read the words, "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You have been assigned to labor in the Peru Cusco mission."

You may or may not know anything about how mission calls are assigned (or what Mormon missions are all about, for that matter). In a nutshell, the 12 Apostles (or some of them? can't remember.) meet together and review each and every missionary application. They pull up the picture of the applicant on a big screen and look over the needs for missionaries in the different missions in the world. (this is a big deal, because there are usually 50,000+ missionaries at any given time, and the number of applications has skyrocketed since the announcement that girls could serve at 19 instead of waiting til 21). And then, through prayer and revelation, they determine where each individual missionary is to be called. I know this process is directed by God. I just do. If you have ever opened a mission call or been present when someone else opens theirs, there is an overwhelming spirit there just letting you know this special assignment is from Heavenly Father. I've also heard that being a part of the call-making process is pretty darn special.

Anyway, I am so excited for Emma. I know she will be a diligent, studious, fun, & loving missionary, and I can't wait for her to fall in love with the people of Cusco! Here's what she sent me this week (this is a weekly assignment for her Book of Mormon class at BYU, and I offered to give it a home on my blog).

"This week in Book of Mormon the assigned reading was Alma 43-56. One of my favorite parts of that reading was Alma 48:17. At this point in The Book of Mormon, Mormon is telling us a little about Captain Moroni. Mormon says, “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” I love this description of Captain Moroni because it is such a powerful statement. I don’t know that I could replace my name for Mornoni’s in that statement because I still have a lot of things to work on, but it is inspiring to know that this could have been said of a mortal man. It means that it is possible for us to live in such a righteous way that Satan’s temptations will be to no avail. It is also a reminder that the devil can only have influence in our lives if we allow it. Since Moroni was so steadfast, the devil wasn’t even able to get a foot in the door. The same could be true for us if we live like Moroni. I also like this scripture because it gives us a small glimpse of what it may be like at the Millennium when Satan is bound and has no power over us. Why not start working towards that now?"