Sister Heywood

Natalie in the Iowa Iowa City Mission

Family Prayer for Your Mission Decision, March 2, 2026

March 2, 2026 · Coyhaique / Herriman

This was the call where you decided. Kaitlynn was on video from Coyhaique. Mom, Mason, and I were home in Herriman with you. Three threads ran through the call, but the load-bearing one was the family prayer Kaitlynn ran for you - the same exercise she uses on the mission with investigators stuck on a baptismal decision. By the end of your turn in that prayer, you had your answer, and you said it out loud: you would serve a mission, not go to college.

Kaitlynn's First Hermana-Leader Intercambio

The call opened with Kaitlynn talking about her own intercambio that day - her first as a hermana leader. She did the unguarded move: told her hermana partners "I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just here, I'm trying, let me know if I do something wrong." Their response was that when they heard who their hermana leader would be, they were excited.

My coaching to her, captured close to verbatim because she repeated each line back as I gave it:

"Even if you don't have confidence sometimes, because we're all kind of on a roller coaster about our securities and our insecurities - the one thing that we can always have confidence in is the Lord's judgment. And so if the Lord's judgment says you should be a missionary, and as your current role as an hermana leader, then you can have confidence in that. And everything else is going to fall into place."

Kaitlynn answered: "Who the Lord qualifies. Oh, that sounds familiar." She'd heard the line "The Lord doesn't call those who are qualified, he qualifies those who are called" from many people on the mission.

Kaitlynn also reflected on her own growth: pre-mission, a piece of feedback about being inadequate would have destroyed her for days; now she can take a hit, sit with it, and move forward. "Of course I'm not perfect. But I can see that God is helping me, growing with me, and strengthening me."

Mom flagged a related pattern she'd noticed in Kaitlynn: "Maybe in the past you were unwilling to be consoled. If something was hard, you were just like, 'nope, I will be depressed for five days.'" Kaitlynn: "I think I was actually big on this. I didn't want to be happy. I didn't want to be people-d."

That whole opening thread was load-bearing for what came next with you - Kaitlynn modeling the framework that you don't need to feel qualified in order to be called.

Carlos - No Emotion When Kaitlynn Left

Kaitlynn told the story of leaving her transfer in Coyhaique. Carlos (the one she'd ordered the BYU hoodie for) had shown no visible emotion when she left. She felt almost like a stranger walking out: "Is this another missionary? Chao." She wrote him a note. We talked it out: maybe he was guarding his heart against the constant rotation, maybe he was just being Carlos, maybe Kaitlynn had skipped the flowery-words speech and he read it as her being uncaring. No conclusion, just family processing.

The Family Prayer for You

This was your moment. Kaitlynn proposed running the same exercise she uses on the mission when an investigator is stuck on a baptismal decision: everyone on their knees, each person prays in turn, and the prayers ask only that the person seeking direction can know clearly what they need to do.

The order:

  1. Kaitlynn first - asked that the Spirit help you know whether you should serve a mission or try a semester of college first; help you see through doubts; help us support you.
  2. Me - asked for clarity; that you'd know of God's love for you regardless of the decision; that confusion would leave; that you'd have courage and confidence; that we'd know how to best support you.
  3. Mom - thanked Heavenly Father for you; asked that you'd feel peace and confidence; that you'd know of God's love.
  4. You - your prayer got interrupted mid-way ("someone came in"). You finished. Your prayer ended with the decision out loud: you would serve a mission and not go to college.

Afterward you told us: "From the second that Kaitlynn started, I knew. I was gonna go on a mission, not go to college."

When I asked how you knew, you said it was immediate and certain.

I told you to write your future self a note about how you felt right now - because the adversary's pattern is to plant doubt in the weeks that follow the answer. Kaitlynn agreed: the lead-up weeks to a mission are some of the hardest in a person's life.

Mom caught one more thing afterward, almost in passing: your prayer was interrupted ("someone came in"). She offered it as an unintentional object lesson - that undistracted mission time will be better for you than trying to make mission decisions through college interruptions.

Your Timeline

Kaitlynn's BYU-Idaho Housing - Long Logistics Session

The call closed with a long working session on Kaitlynn's housing for the BYU-Idaho semester she's coming home into. Hermana Juncker is going to BYU-Idaho; Hermana Larson and Elder Cutler are at the Village. Three options on the table:

No final decision on the call. Kaitlynn would call Hermana Larson to compare notes.

Closing - Carmen San Diego

Kaitlynn signed off telling you to keep a written record of how you felt during the prayer and that "the mission is the best thing you will ever do." She closed with "Mr. Pickles" and "Carmen San Diego."

Cleanup Notes