Spotlight #1

I promised I would spotlight missionaries on this blog (fellas that means you too). If you want to be spotlighted, just let me know! Leave a comment in the box below. Here is our first wonderful sister missionary. I chose this particular sister because she spotlights missionaries on her blog as well, and I thought it would be fun to spotlight the missionary who usually does the spotlighting (if that makes sense). 

 Kira Lynn Anjewierden:

Going to the Belgium/Netherlands mission! She reports March 20th to the Provo MTC, and will be speaking Dutch!

1. Did the mission age change affect you?
The age change did affect me! I turned 19 a month after the announcement. It didn't affect my desire to go - I've always wanted to go - but it made it so that I could serve sooner!

2. What do you know about your mission?
That's an interesting question, actually! My dad's family is from the Netherlands, so I know quite a bit! I even knew a few words of Dutch even before I got my call. Anyway, there are the obvious things (windmills, wooden shoes, dikes, tulips, bikes, and the absolute sketchiness of Amsterdam, haha), but I know a lot of the old Dutch traditions. For instance, they celebrate Christmas on December 5th, and Santa Claus is Sinterklaas, who comes with his assistant Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) in a horse-drawn sleigh! You leave carrots for his horses in your wooden shoes and he leaves you treats.  
Geographically, I know that my mission is pretty tiny! It's about 21,925 sq miles (~35,285 km²) - to put that in perspective, Utah is 84,900 sq miles (219,900 km²)! Crazy, right?! If I were to drive straight down from the top of the Netherlands to the end of my mission, halfway into Belgium, it'd probably take 2 - 3 hours. It takes longer than that to get to St. George from where I live in Bountiful!

3. Why did you decide to serve a mission?
I decided to serve a mission for several reasons. Honestly, I've wanted to serve ever since I can remember, but I'm sure it started out as "oh, that sounds like an adventure!"
As I grew up, different experiences shaped me, my testimony, and with them, my desire to serve. One big thing was an older friend I had who I always really looked up to. She got her call when I was 12 or 13 to the Spain Madrid Mission. We wrote back and forth a couple of times, and the testimony that she bore to me of missionary work really strengthened my own.
In the end, the reason I'm serving is this - I am so grateful for Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life, and I cannot bear to think that there are people out there who cannot partake in its blessings simply because they don't know about them! I may not know the people I will serve in Belgium and the Netherlands, but I feel this great love for them already - it makes me feel like maybe I'm feeling some of what our Father in Heaven and our Savior feel for them. I'm serving to help the work move along, and to bring the most important message there is to others!

4. What have you been doing to prepare for your mission?

Well, in some ways I've been preparing my whole life - striving to keep God's commandments and follow Jesus' example, which always lead to me gaining a stronger testimony that what I'm doing is right. But right now, I'm preparing by working a temp job to get some money so I can buy the things on my suuuper extensive packing list (haha), sharing my testimony as often as possible, reading Preach My Gospel (I need to be better at that, really. I don't read it often enough!), praying for help in preparation, serving those around me (mostly my family), and reading from the Book of Mormon at least 30 minutes daily!

Learn more about Sister Anjewierden by visiting her blog: http://zusterkira.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-im-serving.html