SURPRISE SURPRISE

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Story time. Let me set the scene, I'm visiting one of my favorite places on earth, Rexburg (the Burg, Sexy Rexy, etc) to see all my amigos one last time before I peace out in 3 weeks. This includes but is not limited to: McDonalds at 2, 3, 4, and 5am, Baja Blast runs to TBell, getting denied entrance to the Hart to go workout because I'm off-track, driving around IF for 58 minutes in the endless search for the one and only Bank of America branch in the tri-state area, awkward encounters with past tinder dates, setting up everything for the Uprising party with my favorite crew on the face of this earth (go look up uprisingevents.com, I promise it's dope), dancing in parking lots, experiencing sunshine, rain, and snow all in a 12 hour period, apartment hopping, heart-to-hearts, jamming, scoring free KFC at random ward parties, purchasing another BYUI camelback water bottle because I've lost my last 4 other ones, meeting new faces, etc. etc...

Oh man, I got to go to the Rexburg temple on Wednesday, oh my heavens, what an amazing place. I'm so thankful for the temple, I am in love with it. It's a little slice of heaven. I love to seeeee theeee templeeeee. (Oh, and I get to cross another temple off my list! So far I've got: SLC, Jordan River, Nauvoo, Dallas, San Jose Costa Rica, and Rexburg)

ANYWAYS, here I am, it's Halloween afternoon, and I'm taking a little snoozeroo with my friend Jhessica since I'm getting old and can't handle all of the festivities that come with being surrounded by my bestest, wildest friends who never seem to sleep (and somehow still make it to class?) We had stayed up way late the night before gabbing into the wee hours of the morn. We talked about lots of things but I remember expressing the following to some of my close girlfriends, "I feel like my mission is a big, sparkling, crystal blue, pool, and I just wanna jump in, like RIGHT NOW. If I could leave tomorrow, I would be there in a heartbeat, no hesitation."

*RING RING* *RRIIIIIGNGNGNNG RING* The following were my sleepy thoughts as I scrambled to find my phone which was miraculously turned on (its hardly ever on these days): "hmm, a random 801 number, please don't be someone off of tinder, please, I deleted that app like 2 months ago, oh my goodness, I really honestly don't need my canteen filled.... like who could this even be..."
"OH HEY PRESIDENT CRANDALL!" One of my top 10 favorite people on the planet. This man is incredible, increeeeedible. So we catch up for a minute, I talk to him about how awesome it was to go through the temple, etc, etc. Then he drops this unexpected GIANT piece of news on me and asks if I'd be down to enter the MTC in 5 days.
WAIT WHAT. UH IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION?!
Apparently there was a misunderstanding of my Spanish capabilities so in order for me to have a district in the MTC and be on track and whatnot, I could enter the Provo MTC (as opposed to the Mexico one) on Wednesday, November 6th. He also gave me the option to leave December 18th, but nooooo waaaaaay man, no way- that's way too far away. So after practically falling down the stairs with excitement, I told Pres. C. that I'd pray about it and get back to him later that day or tomorrow.

After I screamed and jumped and cried with Jhess, and called my momma, I went into my friend Brook's room to pray. I knelt down in front of her window and started just thanking Heavenly Father for everything, for His timing, for blessing me with such awesome people in my life, for trusting me with this opportunity to serve Him and the people of Ecuador, and on. Then I remembered that when you pray in regards to confirmation about a decision, you're supposed to actually make your decision first, and then see if you have peace of mind, or a stupor of thought. So, tears streaming down my face, I decided to enter the MTC early. As I did, the most incredible, brilliant, white light filled my soul, it was almost tangible! I knew without a doubt that this was the right decision. Also, I know for sure that my dad was right there in the room with me, with his hand on my shoulder. It was awesome. Then I got a prompting to go over to Brook's scriptures. (She's leaving to serve in Bolivia in January) I grabbed her Spanish Book of Mormon and plopped and pointed to 3 Nephi 11:32-39ish where it talks all about how this is the Lord's doctrine and how we should believe in Him and be baptized... K so, if that's not a missionary scripture passage, I don't know what is!

Called President Crandall back and shared the glad tidings of great joy. I will be set apart on Tuesday evening! I honestly am the happiest Christmas tree right now. The Lord knows me and my heart better than anyone, I'm thankful He blessed me with the quality of spontaneity/a drop everything attitude. I know it's only 3 weeks early, but at the same time, ITS THREE WEEKS EARLY. Like, maybe this is because the Lord needs to touch someone through me earlier than when I originally was supposed to go. I don't know what the reasons may be, but I will always, always, always, trust in the Lord and His timing.

So yeah, I hitched a ride back to SLC with my dear friends Dan and Becca Swiss this morning, and I am now running around like a crazy person packing, canceling gym memberships and phone contracts, telling my piano teacher muchas gracias for teaching me the only two hymns I will play throughout my entire mission, making a mish music playlist, quitting my jobs, hitting up my Utah fam and telling them to nonchalantly show up at Sacrament meeting tomorrow to hear my impromptu farewell during Fast & Testimony meeting, tailoring skirts, printing out fave Gen Conf talks, and so on and so forth.

PLEASE email me your name or something at lauren.bowman@myldsmail.net so I can keep in touch with all y'all beautiful people.

OkaYyyyy I have to go do my genealogy chart thing, adios amigos.


#4days