Llamadas al servicio

*disclaimer- this is the longest post I have ever written- be warned!* 

Growing up, I never really thought about serving a mission.

(for my non Mormon friends- a Mormon mission is a period of time (2 years for guys and 18 months for girls) in which you get 'called' to a part of the world, move there, and spend all of your time teaching people about the Gospel. You don't get to go home, date, go to school. You can call home on Christmas and Mothers Day)

Then, when I was 19, my sister Danielle left for a mission to Montreal. 

I think it was then that I decided to serve. 

I always tell Danielle that she was my Moses. Because by her serving, she led me to my Promised Land.

On the last Saturday before Christmas in the year 2000, I received my mission call in the mail.

Illinois, Chicago. Spanish speaking. 

(which means I would learn Spanish and work primarily with Spanish speaking populations)

I will never forget the moment when I read that mission call. I had a physical feeling like I was going down a long drop on a roller coaster. (A feeling I've only had once since then) and the words CHICAGO ILLINOIS seemed like the words I had been waiting my whole life to hear.

I began my mission on February 7th, 2001. 

What followed was the most intense, life changing 18 months of my life. 

I met the most incredible people I have ever met. 

I had experiences so powerful that they are sacred to me. Stories I rarely tell.

I also had moments of intense depression, frustration, and anger. 

Whatever mental illness you have, it will manifest on the mission.

My mission companions actually were worried that I was bipolar. I was so up and down and passive aggressive. I didn't know how to deal with the tiring, structured life I was living and didn't know how to communicate in a healthy way. 

(I didn't realize that about myself until years later)

The mission is amazing, miraculous, but so hard.

You have to live with one person 24-7, focus all of your energy on talking to people about God, and deal with intense daily rejection and sometimes ridicule. 

It's not for the faint of heart. 

I spent my entire mission in two areas. Addison and West Chicago. The outskirts of the city- more suburban than urban for the most part. I had 7 different mission companions. I got used to trekking in the snow and boiling in the sun. Wearing dresses or skirts every day. I grew accustomed to the flat land and Great Lakes breezes. The Land of Lincoln license plates. The specific customs and kindness of the people of the state of Illinois. 

Illinois is and will always be my promised land. 

I've only been back once in the 12 years since my mission. But I could FEEL when I arrived back in the mission field. My heart beat faster. I felt such a strong connection. 

I would never move to Illinois. It's too flat, too cold, and too mid western for me. Pennsylvania is my home.

But there is a certain peace that I experience only in Illinois. 

4 of my 7 mission comps. Monterroso, Winsor, Hendricks, and Tyler. (I will always think of them by their last names. Their first names are Yolanda, Amanda, Lorena, and Shannon- but I don't know that I've ever really called them that)

Teresa Labra. One of the little girls that we taught on the mission. She was smart and funny.

Me and my last companion (Mietzner) in one of our few trips to the city. She passed away a few years after this. I think of her every day because she hated the sound of the turn signal and I think of her every time I hear it. Her mom sent me the skirt I am wearing in this picture after she died. It was my favorite skirt to borrow from her. I am saving it for my nieces to wear on their missions. 

Roberto and Alfredo. Oh, Alfredo. Also, another companion- Sister Badger. I am not going to comment on that companionship. Not. Going. To. Comment. 

Right before I went home. I had such a farmers tan. And I was still trying to be blond. 

This was my sisters and our friend Jessica dropping me off at the MTC (missionary training center) on the first day of the mission. I would spend 9 weeks in there, learning Spanish and the Gospel about 12 hours a day. It's kind of like spiritual boot camp. (on a cool side note, Elizabeth Mae, my first niece, was born 5 years to the day after this picture was taken)

Various crazy mission pictures

This one has my other favorite companion- Sister Dalley. She was the kindest person I have ever met. 

Mietzner used to do my hair for me. I drove her nuts but she was so sweet. 

We took crazy pictures one fall day. This is one of my favorite pictures of myself ever. 

9/11 happened while I was a missionary. I will never forget that morning. We watched the news in horror with a family that we had been teaching. They were my family that day, when I was so far from home. 

I got proposed to twice. By two different Hispanic men. I was fairly certain they may have been looking for citizenship. But I was kind of hot, so there was that :) 

I made some friends I will never forget. My mission companions kept me sane and taught me so much. They will never know how much they mean to me.

It wasn't until I went back to Illinois several years later that I realized something that had not occurred to me in all of my time there. 

I was the biggest convert of my mission. I taught the Gospel to hundreds of people and baptized quite a few into the Church. But I gained a relationship with my Heavenly Father and older brother Jesus Christ when I was a missionary. 

I gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and  every weird and wonderful thing about this church I had grown up in. 

Sometimes, in the middle of a snowy winter day, as we had door after door slammed in our faces, or were stared at in the street, or had people openly hide from us- sometimes in those cold moments, I felt like I could almost see the foot prints of Jesus Christ, walking ahead of us. Holding us up when I just wanted to give up and cry and go home. 

In the end, the mission taught me more than I have ever learned in any other way. I use mission skills every day. I spent 6 years in college to become a therapist but most of the skills I use with my clients I learned as a missionary. I learned how to set goals. How to deal with rejection. How to meet people where they are at. How to push myself. How to deal with exhaustion and pain. How to show the love of God to others. 

Y se que Dios vive. Que El nos ama. Que podemos regresar y vivir con El otra vez, y nuestra familias. Se que este evangelio es de Dios. Que nuestro hermano mayor murio para darnos la opportunidad de repentarnos y regesar a nuestro Padre. Amo mi Padre Celestial y Jesucristo con todo my corazon. Y este es my testimonio, en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Hermana Hinsdale

p.s.- The next chapter... going home, giving up on college, Idaho again, and falling in love.