The Best Decision I Ever Made

My freshman year at Utah State I remember having a conversation with a flight instructor that has stuck with me. After our flight we were reviewing my timeline and progress when my plan to serve a mission came up. He had served a mission and I remember specifically something he said to me. "I won't say it is the best thing I have ever done, but it is the best decision I have ever made."

That comment sort of confused me. Did he have a bad mission experience or was he disappointed with something about it? It is only recently that I figured out what he meant and I totally understand.

I was not pressured at all into serving a mission. In fact, I am sure if I had said I just wanted to go to school my parents would have supported that decision. But the decision was mine and I made it when I was about 17 and a half. When the time finally arrived I was called to serve in the Brasil Porto Alegre South Mission. I will spare you the details of my mission and just say it set the tone for the rest of my life.

Without my mission I never would have developed skills and habits that have shaped my life. But the best decision I ever made led me down the path to the best thing I have ever done. Totally schooling Kirsten into marrying me. My two years in Brasil are not the best two years of my life. They are the most important. I hope I can always say the best two years are the past two and the next best two are the two years to come.

As fate would have it, that flight instructor works now at Skywest with me and we flew together not too long ago. I reminded him of what he said to me 11 years ago and he had no recollection of saying it. Funny how I had wondered for YEARS what he meant and when I finally figured it out and had the chance to tell him, he didn't even know he had said it.