Not long after my last post, things began to move in a certain direction for our family. A podcast from the Church News was shared with Tom, my husband about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mongolia. He listened to this podcast and remembered his love for Mongolia that grew while he served a mission there in 1999-2001. This awakened in him a new desire and he was moved upon by the Spirit to go back.
Years ago, I had a couple of isolated moments where I felt God leading me and telling me that we would someday go to Mongolia. These I had not forgotten and were awakened in me as he shared his feelings and as I listened to this same podcast. Not knowing all the reasons and knowing that this would be a big and faith-filled undertaking for our family, we both came to the same conclusion; we need to take our family to Mongolia.
I began by applying for a passport. When Lucy noticed what I was doing, somehow Mongolia came up. We have mentioned in passing a few times, half serious, that we should move to Mongolia. When she put all this together, she quickly became upset. Tom and I went and talked to her and related to her our experiences and that we feel called to go there as a family. We expressed to her the similarities of our situation to Lehi and his family in the Book of Mormon, leaving Jerusalem, and being asked of God to go to the Promised Land. Nephi and his brothers responded in different ways to this call. Nephi turned to the Lord and desired to know the mysteries of God. He said, “Wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.” (1 Nephi 2: 16)
Lucy responded as Nephi did. She did pray about it and she told us she felt peaceful, even though she knew it wasn’t going to be easy to leave her cousins, friends and her senior year. And she was instrumental in helping us tell the other kids about this adventure we were embarking upon.
Now it is a few months later. We have purchased one-way tickets at the end of August for our family and a cello. We have applied for passports for everyone, and we are still figuring out many of the big questions we will need to know. What will we do for an income? Will we sell our home here in Kansas? What specifically does God want us to do in Mongolia? As we are moving forward, doing the things we know, we are receiving peace and small answers telling us to be patient. This is all part of God’s bigger plan. We can begin to learn the Mongolian language, we can serve where we are, we can continue to come closer to God through study, prayer, and worship, we can study out many of the questions, and begin to make decisions and then trust that as we move forward, God will continue to give us direction in this process.
I know it seems crazy, but I cannot deny the feelings I have felt in bringing me to this point. I feel a strong connection to the Mongolian people and Mongolia, and I have never even been there. God works in mysterious ways. His ways are higher than man’s ways and we do not always understand. I do know He works in our lives according to our faith and He gives us opportunities to stretch and grow.