This Is Where God Needs Me
By Sister Glende
My name is Sister Glende and I had the privilege of serving in the Loveland, Colorado Woodmere ward as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for six months. I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the hand of God in my life that led me to Loveland, Colorado.
I never saw myself serving a mission. I figured I would probably focus on university or pursue other options in life, but after my 19th birthday, I kept seeing missionaries - EVERYWHERE. I was reluctant to consider it as an option, but after humble prayer and pleading with God to know what path my life should take, it was revealed to me that I would benefit from serving a mission. And so the journey began.
Last summer, I received my mission call to the Buenos Aires East mission in Argentina. The next year and a half of my life seemed easy to predict. I would spend six weeks in Mexico City preparing for my mission at the beginning of 2020 then move to Argentina, where I would live until July 2021. I was eager to begin this new journey and thought I knew exactly what my mission held in store. But God’s plan was different than this initial call and I am so grateful that He knew exactly what I needed.
As we all know, the world was turned upside down in March 2020. I found myself returning home with hundreds of other missionaries, ripped out of the world I thought I would live in for 18 months. I was confused and lost and awaited a reassignment. I received a call that I would be moving to the Colorado Fort Collins mission a few months later and a new chapter in my life commenced.
I have nothing to express but gratitude for my time here in Colorado thus far. Since arriving in this mission, I have served in the Woodmere ward. Again and again, I have received a confirmation that THIS is where God needs me and I couldn’t be more thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows exactly what I need to progress. One of the greatest confirmations I have seen so far about God’s hand in my life came around August, as my companion Sister Norr and I met Jon.
For a variety of reasons, our meeting with Jon was too unlikely to be mere coincidence. A former resident of Grand Junction, Jon had little reason to be in Loveland at the time we met him. Having spent years searching for God and His church, Jon’s heart was open and he recognized immediately a need to talk to us. After many long videocalls and intense sessions of scripture study, he received confirmation that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was God’s restored church on Earth today.
A few months ago, he was baptized in his new ward in Utah. Our meeting, and the realization that Sister Norr and I had to have been serving together in order to meet Jon and help him to baptism was the largest confirmation I have received about the intricacy and love of God’s plan for us.
I cannot express my gratitude enough to my Heavenly Father for loving me enough to lead me in directions I would never have expected. I know that as we humble ourselves and take each step in our lives in accordance with the Spirit’s guidance, we will receive countless blessings and reminders that we are moving in the right direction. I am so grateful for this knowledge and the constant love I feel from my Heavenly Father as I continue to be refined and experience all that I need to experience!
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Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are volunteers who generally set aside between 18 months and two years of time to teach people about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. They can be assigned to serve practically anywhere throughout the world - and their entire purpose is to invite others to Christ. To learn more, visit comeuntochrist.org.
