Anything but Ordinary: “There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others. When that happens, you do it. Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else. Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it.” ― Judith McNaught

I chose this quote because of my decision to serve a mission. Though I would change the word "instinct" to "prompting." I knew it was what I was supposed to do, but it was still a really difficult decision. Anyways, it turns out that I absolutely KNOW now this is what I'm supposed to be doing. But more on that later.

I've had several life-changing moments in the past few weeks, so bear with me because this is going to be a long one!

Graduation. I just realized I never blogged about this, so here goes! It's weird because high school graduation was such a bigger deal. In high school, I knew pretty much everyone and I had known them at least 4 years. So it was weird to attend a graduation ceremony where I knew like 3 people from classes. The night before commencement, my dad, Laurel and I went to a sushi place and it was super delicious. I love a good sushi! After we ate, I started getting a BAZILLION texts from people saying that President Uchtdorf was speaking. I died. I'm seriously never going to meet that man. (Maybe on the mission?? Let's cross our fingers!) Anyways, the next day I woke up, donned my cap and gown, took a million pictures and then walked across the stage. I know most people don't care about this moment, but I do. If I've worked 4 years towards a degree, I want verbal recognition haha. It was still surreal. Normally I get anxious about these things, but it was just like whatever, I'm a college grad with a job, so I don't need to stress. After the ceremony and more pictures with Linds and Marisa, my mom, omi and papa and I all went to Tucanos for my first time. Let's just say it was worth the hype! They had to roll me out of there. Overall, it was a bit anticlimactic. Especially because the last day of my finals was so much better. I had my hardest final the second to last day of finals, and when I finished it (it was only a class of about 7, and 5 of us were graduating) my professor looked up and said, "Everyone give Kelsey a round of applause. She just finished her undergraduate career." He was the best! And then I ran out to the top of the JFSB and yelled "PEACE OUT PROVO" at the top of my lungs. I had told Linds I would do this, so I called her and then yelled... it turns out she was like 3 feet away from me to support me in this endeavor. She's the best. So yeah, it was exciting, but at this point, I was really just wanting to know where I was going on my mission!
Concerts. So I'm all about the music as everyone knows. I drove home (in the snow!) with my mom Sunday and then Monday night, I went to Ingrid Michaelson with Cassie. I love her new CD and I loved the concert but I hated that she didn't even come on until 9:45. I'm too old for that. I also went to the OneRepublic concert as part of my graduation present with my mom and Laurel at Red Rocks. It was my first concert there and I loved the atmosphere. I wasn't too big a fan of him changing up the songs, but that's also understandable because Ryan Tedder is crazy good at that thing. It was also nice to hear all these songs that reminded me of DC, because that's when I first listened to this album. I LOVE CONCERTS. Speaking of music, my current obsession is the Coldplay CD and the Beating Heart song by Ellie. When I was waiting for my call, all I could think of was the lines "I don't know where I'm going but I know it's going to be a long time." So apt. And every time I hear that song now, that's what I'll think about!
Arizona. The Tuesday after graduation, I peaced outta here and went to Mesa to visit my roommate from DC, Chelsea. It was SO much fun. We ate delicious gelato, built our own sushi, ate authentic Mexican food and a BBW style food. But we didn't just eat! We went to Spiderman 2, went to the Diamondback vs. Rockies game, saw cacti at the Botanical Gardens, and watched several movies in her awesome theater room! (Seriously, I need one of those). But the best part was the costumes exhibit at the Phoenix Museum where she works. I got to see the Batman costume, Rose's purple outfit from Titanic, and Meryl Streep's Margaret Thatcher costume among other things. IT WAS SO COOL! I'm so glad that I'm friends with such a boss woman. And I'm so happy the Ellsworths let me stay in their beautiful home.
Job. I'm working as the Institute of Reading Development as a teacher. Basically I'm teaching ages from 4-adults different reading strategies so they can be more absorbed and love reading more. I LOVE IT. I went to Florida for round 2 of training and it was great. I love having a job I'm passionate about and where they respect me. I also think many of the things they have talked about, like having clear and direct language and being physically exhausted every night will definitely prepare me for my mission. I really love the organization and its goals and for once in my love, I don't have any qualms. While I was in Florida, I went to several yummy restaurants including a Japanese and the best Mexican restaurant ever, where I tasted fried ice cream for the first time. And I also went to a Dominican restaurant! It was so awesome! If the beans and rice taste like that, I'm confident I won't actually die. haha

MISSION. So like I mentioned, I've been doing 9 hour training days. And obsessively making my mom check the mail every day. I didn't have a conference call at 3, so when mom called, I could answer. But the bad news was I had two more hours of training plus a quiz. I could NOT focus. It's is seriously a minor miracle that I aced my quiz later that day. She and Laurel picked me up and we headed to the lake by my old house because it's my favorite place in Colorado. When we pull up, there was seriously a rainbow. This is not a joke. It was like Heavenly Father was smiling down on me. We barely got out of the car before I was like "yeah I'm going to open this right now." (Still impatient!) I have this theory that sometimes it's best to leap before you look. i.e. do something before you freak yourself out. So I just tore that sucker open. And I read those famous words:

"Dear Sister Davis,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East Mission."

And that's when I was SUPER shocked. And then got super excited because then I read:

"You should report to the Dominican Republic Missionary Training Center on Wednesdays, September 24, 2014. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

I was DYING. Here's a bit of background on why I was so shocked. When I was in my Stake President interview, he asked me whether I would like to serve in a third world country. I was very squirmish and told him probably not. So he told me he would write down that he recommended a state-side mission, or a place like England or Canada or a well-developed European country. I was seriously convinced that I wasn't going anywhere except those places. But it turns out that Heavenly Father had a different plan for me. It was really weird because as soon as I read it, my second thought was "of course. I wouldn't go to any other place," which was super weird because at that moment I knew nothing about the DR (since then, I've read 2 blogs and read pretty much every Wikipedia page on the DR).

The reason I was so excited was two-fold. 1. I had a not so secret desire to not go to the Provo MTC. I really want to be done with Provo a bit, but the chances of not going there are supes slim. (After a bit of research, it looks like there are only ever at a max 75 missionaries at the DR MTC). AND the date. My availability date was September 1. But as most people know, your call date can be up to three-four months after that. I was super nervous because my job ends in late August and I didn't know what I would do for that interim. This gives me just the right amount of time. So then, after calling half the country, I started reading the packet. And read about my mission presidents, President and Sister Corbitt. And guess what it said? President Corbitt is the director of the New York Office of Public And International Affairs for the church. And he represents the church in the UN. WHAT??? This is seriously what I want to do after I complete my masters at Georgetown. And after further research, guess what I found out? He was just called and will start in July, just a few months before me. If that wasn't a confirmation of where I was supposed to serve, I don't know what is.

Here are some other crazy awesome things:

Apparently my MTC presidents are the parents of a current BYU MBA student. #crazy
Sister Corbitt served her mission in DC. Can you tell I'm already in love with both of them already???
MANGOS. I was just talking about how the best fruit I ever had was in the Bahamas.
The island is about 80% Catholic. You're probably thinking that's not good odds for me. But I have always had this weird desire to know more about Catholics, and here will be my chance.
Spanish. I haven't focused on this until now because there's a backstory here. Back in sophomore year, I was registered for Italian 101. And then one night a few weeks before school started, I literally woke up in the middle of the night because I had THE strongest prompting that I needed to switch to Spanish. As everyone knows, I've loved Spanish. But who knew that this would be a precursor to serving a mission three years later? I certainly didn't know, but luckily someone had my back! :)
They eat mostly a gluten free diet. I haven't been tested in 4 years, but I am nearly certain I am. I didn't want to mark it down on my papers though because I wasn't sure. And then bam, I got called to a place that eats mostly rice and beans. (And apparently you only eat meat if it's canned).
The people. Marisa guessed I was going to the south so I could teach some sassy people. And it turns out the people of DR are very honest and blunt. So I've got that going for me already!
I (secretly) wanted to go to a place no one ever goes. And here it was! The mission is pretty tiny. I read this girl's blog and there were only 4 sisters in her zone. And 12 elders. I LOVE THAT! I'll get to know everyone hopefully!

But I'm not saying there aren't things that I am freaking out about. Here are some things that I am potentially not looking forward to:

THEY DON'T SERVE DESSERT IN THE MTC THERE. Okay, I know I should not be worried about this but for anyone who knows me, this is a huge deal. Like how am I gonna function? I'm going to sneak like 12 packs of chocolate on the plane. Speaking of which, I just googled and cannot find a Subway. So food may be a bit of an adjustment.
Animals. Apparently they have flying roaches, mosquitoes, and rats. After reading one girl's blog for only her first three months, she ran into each of these things. #umwhat
Electricity/water can go out every other day. i.e. no showers for this girl but that's not that bad because I hate taking showers anyways.
85% humidity. Enough said.
Natural disasters. This may seem like a joke, but I am so afraid of earthquakes and hurricanes. So we'll see how that goes!(Apparently they haven't had a super bad hurricane since 1979.
Illnesses. Since reading this blog, this girl has had E. Coli and a parasite. So that'll be fun.

But the good news is that God doesn't ever give us more than we can handle and there are just too many tender mercies involved in just the call that I'm confident I will have a great mission. It's a scary step, but an exciting one! I'm going to blog later in the week about doing things before we are ready, because I NEVER feel ready to do anything.

Like I learned recently, change is a part of life. This week I officially start work, so here's to jumping into the pool Molly Shannon (from Superstar!) style. Life is fantastic! I'm going to swim, teach, read books and brush up on my Spanish!

Photos from my recent life-changing events: