Monday, September 2, 2013

до свидания, Sister Becker

Toshiko Agnes Leilani Becker (daughter of Adolph and Taj Becker serving in the Russia Moscow Mission August 2013 – February 2015) started seriously wondering about serving a mission in middle school, and at some point in high school decided it was something she wanted to do.  However, between high school and her first semester at BYU thoughts of a mission slowly faded and were crowded out by school, the fun of living on her own for the first time, and just enjoying college in general.  When the ground-breaking age announcement was made by President Thomas S. Monson in the October 2012 General Conference she notes, “I was shocked.  I knew I had to go, but fought that knowledge for a while.  Leaving everything I had been looking forward to for so long held very little appeal to me.  Finally, I started my papers and received my call.  After an April Fool’s joke which involved my parents thinking I would be one of the first missionaries in China (they’re still forgiving me for that), I opened my real call to Moscow, Russia.  For perhaps the first time in my life, I was utterly speechless.  I felt totally inadequate.  I knew nothing of the language, and little of their history.  I have no Russian ancestry, or any other overt thing to recommend me as a Russian missionary.  How could I teach the gospel of Christ in broken Russian, and manage to convey the simple beauty of the Atonement and the pure love of Heavenly Father?”  On August 28, Sister Becker entered the MTC in Provo for 9 weeks of language training before flying off to Moscow – one of 7 missions in the country – where fulltime missionaries first served in 1990 and where nearly 22,000 Russians are now members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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