Carlsbad? Carlsgood.

"Dear Sister Norton,

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 California Carlsbad Mission."

So I'm sure you've already heard about this (maybe a little too much) but I got my mission call and I couldn't be happier about where I've been called to serve!  You can click here to watch a video of me opening the call. From what I've heard, Carlsbad is, like, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Just to give you a little glimpse, here are some pictures of Carlsbad. 

Is that not just the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?? I'm so excited to serve the people there! Also, my friend Landon Smith (Jake Jensen's best friend) is serving in that mission, so it'll be super cool to see him! I'll report to the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) on September 24th (so far away!) and learn how to be an effective missionary for 2 weeks. Then after that they'll send me off to Cali for 18 months! And just a little side note, I'll be in the MTC during General Conference so I might get to go to Conference in Salt Lake City and, if I'm SUPER lucky, I could end up getting to sing in Conference! It all just depends on who they decide to have sing for that session.  But I think that would be pretty dang awesome to sing in General Conference. Like a dream come true actually...but I'm trying not to get my hopes up haha. So anyways, I love Carlsbad already, but if you've been watching the news lately, I'm sure you know it's not exactly at its best right now.  There have been some crazy wildfires in that area right now, so please keep them in your prayers!

Maybe it's just me, but that looks like some pretty scary stuff! Luckily, the fire is totally contained right now, but there's been about $10-$15 million of damage. So I have a feeling the missionaries will be doing a lot of work to help restore everything that was damaged. Also, according to Landon, some of the fires were actually intentional which is really sad. I don't know why anyone would do something like that, but he pointed out that even though bad things happen, God lets those things happen for a reason so that we can gain experience and learn from them.  I think that's a good thing to remember with life in general.  Bad things are going to happen, but there's always a purpose and God will never give you a trial that you can't handle.  So back to Carlsbad...I'm just super excited to get there and finally start what I've been waiting for so long to do.  I've wanted to serve a mission since I was probably about 12 or 13, so the fact that it's actually happening now is just so crazy and exciting!

So I just have one more thing to add before I finish this blog post.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true!  Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, in person. He translated the Book of Mormon by the power of revelation and was a prophet of God.  Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today and he has the authority to speak for Heavenly Father.  By following the teachings of the prophets, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon, we can make it back with our families to live with our Father in Heaven for time and all eternity because Jesus Christ died for us and atoned for all of our sins. Because of Him, we can be forgiven and made perfect again no matter how many times we mess up.  I am so blessed to know these things and to have the opportunity to teach these things to the people in Carlsbad. And if you have any questions, just check out mormon.org or ask me. Have a great day everyone!