Philippines Laoag Mission

My sister for the most part is going to be updating this blog throughout the duration of my mission, so everyone can keep up with me as I go along through this if they would like to.
                I guess to start off I will tell you a little bit about myself and go from there. My name is Julia Schultz and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In my religion what we believe can be summed up in 13 basic bullet points:

-          We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

-          We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adams transgression.

-          We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

-          We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, Repentence. Third, baptism by emersion for the remission of sins, fourth,  the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

-          We believe that a man must be called of God by prophesy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

-          We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church. Namely apostles, prophets, pastors, preachers, evangelists and so for.

-          We believe in the gift of tounges, prophesy, revelation, visions, healings, interpretation of toungues, and so forth.

-          We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

-          We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

-          We believe in the literal gathering of Isreal and in the restoration of the ten tribes. That Zion, the New Jerusalem, will be build upon this the American continant.

-          We claim the privilege of worshipping almighty God according top the dictats, of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may.

-          We believe in being subject to kings, Presidents, Rulers, and magistrates, ad in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the Law.

-          We believe in being honest , true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all man, indeed we may say that we follow the admonission of Paul. We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

These are the 13 articles of faith that we govern our lives by. Many people think that Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, are forced to live a lifestyle that they otherwise would not choose. That is not neccesarily true. We still have agency just like the rest of the world but we believe in doing so according to our own conscieous. When we are young we are taught the things that are right and the things that are wrong according to our religious perspective. It is then our choice on what we choose to believe and act upon. That doesn’t mean that if we choose incorrectly that we are going to be struck down, it is all a part of the process that we have to go through on this Earth.
                You may be asking yourself what happens if we do make a wrong descision in our lives. Are we shunned from our religion, are we off clean and clear just for asking for permission? No. We believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ. We believe that through the sacrifice that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did for us that we can go through the process of repenting of sins that we have done. In this process not only do you apologize and ask the Lord for forgiveness, but you make a promise with the Lord never to give into the temptation of that sin again.
                For more information on any of this visit LDS.org. The official site for Latter-Day Saints. Anyways, when we reach a certain age in our religion, we are invited to serve a mission. During this time young men (usually at the age of 19) spend two years, and young women (usually around the age of 21) spend 18 months dedicating their time to serving the Lord. Spreading the gospel of what we believe and know to be true to all those who want to hear it. We travel to places all over the world. From the United States, to Africa, Spain, the Philippines, and anywhere in between. The choice is ours to serve and most are more than willing to do so.
                So what does all of this have to do with me? When I was fourteen years old I decided that I wanted to serve a mission. I prepared myself and always did everything that I was supposed to do to be worthy to serve a mission. No one and nothing was going to get in my way. When I was 20 I went in for my bishop’s interview, after going to this interview you can start your mission papers. You have to get shots and immunizations, dental work, and any medical problems taken care of before sending in your papers (you might think of mission papers as a very thourough work application).
                So I went to this interview in January and started my papers shortly after. For some reason I had a really strong feeling that I needed to wait until July to put in my papers. I didn’t know why, but I listened to this feeling, and stopped working on my papers. In February I met a man named Cache, and we started to date. Since then we have been dating and we know now that we want og get married someday. I had completely given up the idea of going on a mission. I knew that I wanted to marry Cache and nothing was doing to stop me from doing so. One day however, I had this sinking feeling that I still needed to go on a mission. I told Cache and we spent the next couple of days trying to figure out what we were going to do. He told me that if this was what I decided that he would support me in that.

                Im not saying that it has been all peaches and cream, because it definitely has not been. It has been harder than anything that I have ever done in my entire life, but I know that it will be worth it. So I finished my paper work and got my called exactly ten days later. (The fastest that it is possible to get your call).

Now, two months later I am here in Provo about to enter into the Missionary Training Center to share what I know with the world. After countless nights of rethinking, telling myself that it would be okay to stay, retelling myself that I need to go, I am here. Preparing to teach the world. I am going to be a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, serving in the Laoag, Philippines mission. My sister will be updating this blog so keep up with me if you would like to!