Mission?!

Going on a mission has always been something I have planned on. I don't remember any big decision point or anything like that, but it is expected and I was looking forward to it. The closer my 19th birthday got, the more daunting a mission looked , Frankly I was concerned about many things, including being away from family, having to break out of my shell and talk to people (often about subjects they don't want to hear), and how I would cope with my disabilities. But, as expected I went on with the preparation of working on my papers and meeting with the Bishop. I started talking with several return missionaries and learned that even a mission with a car would probably be more than my body could handle. So my mom called the physician over the missionary department and discovered that most likely my mission papers would be denied. So rather than sending in my papers and waiting for that outcome, I started looking at my other options. Before I started my papers I had seen a flier looking for church service missionaries for the Media Services Department. I also met one of these missionaries while teching a Stake production. Intrigued, I looked into it but found that they did not house the missionaries and I would have to live at home. With the normal route not being a good option, I decided that the Media Services Mission was the best fit for me. Applying for a service mission is a lot like applying for a job, I sent in my resumé and filed out a 2 page application and then waited. After a couple weeks, Elder Ayers, the Media Services missionary coordinator, invited me and my parents to meet him in SLC. He told me my resumé "raised some eye brows" because of all of my experience and that Richard Duke, media systems coordinator for the church, wanted me to work primarily at the LDS Motion Picture Studio!

Well that's long enough for 1 post, I will finish next time.

Elder Jensen