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| Photo courtesy Sister Kohl |
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Sister Stock, left, from Noblesville, Ind., and Sister Kohl, right, from Bountiful, Utah, stand with a member missionary they work with in the Pocatello Idaho Mission.
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Choosing to serve a mission is not an easy thing.
People all over the world decide to put their own lives on hold for 18-24 months. They leave their family and friends so they can teach strangers about the gospel.
Sometimes they are sent halfway around the world to some exotic place. Or they just might get called to Rexburg, Idaho. Yet, Sister Kohl and Sister Stock both accepted the call from the Lord to serve.
Sister Kohl, from Noblesville, Ind., has been serving in the Pocatello Idaho Mission for nine months. She is the third of eight children, four boys and four girls.
Before her mission she was involved in singing and football. She attended Indiana University, BYU and Utah Valley State College, each for a year and changed her major six times.
Kohl decided to serve a mission because “I’ve always wanted to serve and I got my answer,” she said.
Sister Stock, from Bountiful, Utah, has been a missionary for three months. She is from a family of six and was very involved in soccer growing up. “Soccer was my life,” she said.
She attended BYU for three years and majored in health science. She also played soccer for BYU but had to give it up because of a health problem.
Stock’s original mission call was to the Louisville Kentucky Mission but she became ill in the Missionary Training Center and was sent home.
Once she was in better health, she was sent to the Pocatello Idaho Mission so she could be closer to home.
“[I chose to serve a mission] because in my life, I’ve had some challenges and I was able to overcome them because of the gospel. I found happiness. I wanted everyone to have the same happiness and to realize that there’s more out there,” Stock said.
Since Rexburg is a highly LDS populated area, missionary work is difficult.
“To tell you the truth, when I found out that I was going to [this] mission, I wasn’t excited,” Kohl said. “There are less than 100 people in our area who aren’t LDS.”
Surprisingly, there has been a lot of success in the mission because of the members sharing the gospel with their friends.
When the sister missionaries go tracting they spend most of their time speaking to members and encouraging them to be missionaries themselves.
“Every member is a missionary and should be praying for missionary experiences. It’s awesome being a missionary and everyone should be one!” Kohl said.
One sacrifice missionaries make in order to serve a mission is living away from their families and more specifically, their mothers.
Sister Kohl and Sister Stock have wonderful mothers who have been a great support to them while they are serving their missions.
“My mom is amazing. She has to be—she has eight kids. She’s always there for me…. She has a beautiful voice [and] a great laugh. She’s very driven. When she sets her mind on something, she does it. She makes sure that her children have the best. She’s all love. I love her!” Kohl said.
Speaking of her mother, Stock said, “She’s very creative [and] amazing. My brother became mentally ill when he was 19. Before that, he was a valedictorian and a collegiate athlete in soccer, but then he became schizophrenic.
“Now [my mother] is the president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Davis County. She speaks to and trains bishops and stake presidents on how they should treat people with mental illnesses. That’s all volunteer work, she doesn’t get paid. With my sickness, she’s always doing research. She’s definitely a good support.”
These mothers have prepared Sister Stock and Sister Kohl for their missions by teaching them how to serve and love.
“She taught me to love no matter what. She taught me that a bad attitude gets you nowhere and it’s important to laugh. Also, to obey all the rules,” Kohl said.
“She gives her whole life to service. Her whole life is based around others and not herself. I think growing up, it taught me to serve and that that’s where you can find happiness. She’s very selfless. It was just natural to serve because that’s what I was used to my mom doing,” Stock said.
Serving a mission has changed both sisters’ feelings about their mothers.
“Being on a mission and not having her makes you realize how much she does for you, especially when I haven’t been healthy,” Stock said. “When you don’t feel well you usually go to your mom, but she’s not here. I just have more appreciation for her … It makes me grateful for the plan of salvation.”
Sister Kohl and Sister Stock both want to eventually be mothers and pass on the things they learned from their mothers and their missions.
“A mission helps prepare you to be a better mother because you’re selfless,” Stock said. You have to be selfless or you won’t have success. That’s how mothers are, they have to think about their children all the time.”
