Saturday, January 31, 2009

Packing up and heading out

For many of you who attended my open house last Sunday, thank you. For
those of you who thought I was gone for good as of last wednesday, I
apologize but you were mistaken. You get whole extra week of me yet!
My official MTC entry date is the 4th of February and I'm very excited
to head out and get to work. I've got a few websites to finish and
some bags to pack, but things are pretty much ready to go.

It's interesting packing your life into a couple of bags and setting
out on an unknown journey. I've never really had to do this before.
Having grown up in the LDS Church I have always been encouraged to
serve a mission. 19 year old able-bodied men are all strongly
encouraged to dedicate two years of service sharing the gospel and, to
be honest and frank, I've had to come to terms with what it is that
I'm doing. It's not just an automatic reaction to jump up, drop
everything, leave everyone you know behind, and get shipped out to a
foreign country where you don't know anyone, you don't speak the
language, and you're literally expected to be a messenger of Jesus
Christ on behalf of your faith. That's a pretty tall order for anyone
to fill. Consequently, I had to make a choice at one of those
"crossroads of life." There were a number of influencing factors
involved in choosing to become a missionary, but ultimately the
decision rested upon my own faith. The question "What do you believe"
kept coming to the forefront of my mind. Indeed, it would seem that
(apart from having voices in my head :P) I had to decide for myself
and come up with some answers.

Søren Kierkegaard, the father of Christian Existentialism from the mid
19th century, philosophized in his writings that when men are faced
with decisions that cannot be substantiated by aesthetics or ethics,
when only faith is involved, the decision comes to a singularity. His
decision ultimately resolves into two paths: faith or its antithesis
doubt. Truly this is the place that I landed in considering the charge
to serve a mission. Even today, although resolved, willing, and ready
to go, it is a conscious decision to make to head out and serve the
Lord.

For those of you who are non-believers, who may be critical of
religion or who simply have their doubts about faith or christianity
or mormonism, understand this: if I have any credit with you as an
intelligent person, one who is capable and productive, also realize
that this decision of faith with the consequences of going on a
mission are still very challenging. I've spent a lot of pondering,
dissecting, and determining for myself that going on a mission is what
I ought to be doing right now. The opportunities, experiences, and
blessings I have received from my faith, and will continue to receive
in the future, can and should be repaid with whatever I can offer. The
charge to serve for two years came, I have answered it, and I have
every intention and motivation to be the best missionary possible.

Well, now that I've waxed nostalgic, philosophic, and...loquacious-
ic...I'm getting back to work. Hope you all have a splendid Saturday!

One more thing: I've wired my life online to take care of itself for
two years, including posting photos home, my public letters home to
this blog, and sending those emails to a mailing list as well as
Facebook. So, if you wish to receive direct email updates on my status
instead of visiting my Facebook or http://prahaelder.blogspot.com, let
me know and I'll put you on the prahaelder mailing list too.

Thanks,
Brent

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Praha Elder goes Live!

Hello Everyone!

This is my mission blog for the next two years! I'm setting it up so that my weekly hour of email gets the most bang for it's buck. In a nutshell, I've got my email linked to this blog (prahaelder.blogspot.com) which is linked to Facebook and a few other channels. If all goes well, my general-issue photos, stories, and anecdotes will all get from me to everybody (Either I'll be doing it myself or my little brother will slave over them as they come home in the mail). Of note, Praha is the pronunciation of Prague in Czech. I'll start blogging from here with my pre-mission prep stories and we'll just roll straight into the MTC and out to Prague. Here's looking at the next two years!

Thanks,
Brent Anderson
PS - If you'd like to get my stories directly fed into your email account, let me know. You could also subscribe to the RSS feed this blog publishes and keep it simple. :)