A Tale to Tell

The past five years have been mountains of change in my life: peaks that I look back on with a heavy, grateful heart.  When I returned home from Ghana, everyone I talked to was insistent that I write a book of some sort of my experience there.  I laughed it off as a fun idea.  "I would love to!" said I.  But it never happened.  LIFE happened.  I studied, I grew, I struggled.  I decided to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It came as a shock to everyone, including me.  But I knew it was the right thing.  I knew because it felt the same as Ghana.  No matter how frightening and unknown it seemed, my inner-workings were driven towards it by a force that was not my own.

So I graduated from college, and I went.  I did it.  I lived in the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) for 18 months.  I learned Russian.  I taught people about Jesus Christ, and drew closer to Him in the process.  I experienced things beyond comprehension, and especially beyond explanation.  I was transformed.  But I don't want to spoil it.  Because for the second time, I'm hearing demands for the written word.  And now I can feel it; it's time.  The story was too incomplete three years ago when I returned state-side from my first international endeavor.  It's still far from finished, but I now have a better idea of how and why I would share it.  After all, what's a graduated return missionary to do with all that spare time?

Thank you. To all of you who have had faith in me, even when I wasn't deserving.  To all those who have been invested enough in my journey to want it in your hands.  You are my muse, my motivation, my inspiration.  I know this work will not be a bestseller, but I do know what it could mean to family and friends, my future children and their children, and anyone out there who's in need of a light at the end of the tunnel.

There is hope.  There is light.  There is good.  It's all waiting within us.