A call to trust
Guys, hello. Everyone looks so cute. I'm so happy you're here. My name is Dani Doyle, and five months ago, I was called to serve in the Fort Worth, Texas, Spanish-speaking mission, so soon I will be Hermana Doyle on the 23rd. I told Bishop I didn't want a topic for my talk, but he just told me he didn't want this to be, in his words, a thank you fest, so I tried to keep the thanking to a minimum.
If you know me, you probably know I've dreamed my whole life to serve a mission. I dreamed of all the amazing places that people go and serve, maybe an island or Europe. This is hard for me to admit in front of all of you, and I'm going to be as honest as I can when I say that when I first read the word "Texas" on my mission call, I was a little discouraged.
I thought, why? What is there for me in Texas? But over these five months, I realized I don't exactly understand God's plan for me, and I probably never fully will. But what I do know is that Texas is where I'm meant to be. I know that because I have faith in him. I'm not going because it's where I imagined myself going. I'm going because I love God, and I trust that he sees a much bigger picture than I do.
I'm so excited to love the people of Texas, but I think my mom is just most excited for me to become a cowgirl. As I've been waiting to serve, I have talked to so many girls that are going to my same mission. We actually had a group chat of about 30 girls all going to Fort Worth. It's been so empowering to see these sisters leave over the course of these five months, reading all of their emails about the miracles and amazing parts of the mission, but also the hard parts too.
I have read in many of the emails that there is a thing called gaining the Fort Worth 40, which means gaining 40 pounds. I mean, with all that funky Mexican food, it will be hard not to, but hopefully when you see me at my homecoming talk, you will see a real change in me, and hopefully that's not too much physically.
More than a place on a map
Over the months from January to May, I attended around five mission calls a week, so I've been able to think a lot about what being a missionary actually means. During this time, I heard the mission call letter so much. I swear I almost had it memorized. A few years ago, the beginning of the call letter was, "Dear Elder or Sister, you are called to serve in the blank mission." Now there are paragraphs before you announce where you will serve.
Even though reading those paragraphs in front of so many people you love is so very suspenseful, it teaches a very valuable lesson that we really aren't just going to serve in a location, we are serving His people. Some of my favorite parts of the call letter read, "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be an official representative of the Church. Your purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ. As you serve with all your heart, mind, and strength, the Lord will lead you to those who will hear His message." After hearing so many of these letters, I never imagined how different it would feel to hear those same words spoken to me.
I spent so much time thinking about where I would be called, but I've come to realize that the location is only a small word in the much bigger story of what it truly means to serve. I'm not just taking my name with me on that tag, I'm taking Christ's name, and that's the biggest calling to me.
Willing women, willing hearts
A day that was very prominent to me in preparation for my mission was November 21, 2025. The first presidency announced that a young woman who chooses to serve a full-time mission may begin their service at age 18. Following graduation from high school. About 20 minutes later, Grace Freeman shared a post on Instagram that changed my whole perspective on what it meant to me to serve.
It read, "From the beginning, God has used willing women to move His work forward. God has this pattern. He doesn't wait for the loudest voices or the fanciest titles. He looks for willing hearts, and it is not a new thing that those hearts belonged to women." A woman at a well, tired, misunderstood, carrying more shame than water. She became one of the first missionaries by simply dropping everything and going.
She didn't preach, she didn't quote scripture, she said, "Come and see what He did for me." And an entire village believed. Mary Magdalene stood outside an empty tomb. She was crying, confused, heartbroken. Then Jesus called her by her name. She didn't get a lesson plan or training. She just got a message. Go tell them I'm alive. The first witness of the resurrection, a missionary.
It's almost like God keeps hinting, "I need women who will tell the story. I don't just need women. I need them now." Some will wear name tags and some will just wear a smile and a story, but God will send them because He always has, because the world still needs women who will tell the story.
Finding peace in a decision
Now I'm going to read you a testimony that I wrote on November 22nd. Or, yeah, 22nd, 2025. I read this passage for the first time yesterday when I received the news that I'm able to serve my mission at age 18. Even though my whole life I have prepared to serve my mission, it feels like pushing it up one year is such a monumental change.
I'm feeling really overwhelmed with so many thoughts and emotions after hearing this possibility for me and the future of the girls of the church to serve so soon. I just opened my HXP handbook to the questions page. The question right in the middle reads, "If you need help making a decision." It reads, D&C 9, verse 8, "But behold, I say unto you that you must study it out in your mind, then you must ask me if it may be right.
And if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you, therefore you shall know that it is right." I am on an emotional roller coaster right now because when I read this, I did have those feelings and I knew I would be leaving on my mission in nine months. Through all of this, my prayers have truly been answered.
I felt uneasy about what I was going to do after high school, but now I feel so much peace. I'm crying right now in front of the Draper Temple, thinking of all the ways God knew this was coming for me and how He was only preparing me to be able to serve. Love, Dani. This peace I felt became one of the first confirmations of my mission.
You are part of His work
This brings me back to how impactful women are in our church. From my preparation, I have really loved studying women in the scriptures. My young woman's president, Carly, taught a lesson about these women and something she shared has really stuck with me. She shared a quote from Emily Belle Freeman that said, "One of the things I love most as we think about these names is looking at women in the scripture.
They were not quiet women. They were women who were difference makers. I think sometimes as women, we forget how important we really are. One of the things I love so much about this church is that I don't believe Heavenly Father has ever wanted women to feel like they are less important or that their role is smaller. I think He has always trusted women with some of His most important work." Heavenly Father believes in you.
Jesus Christ believes in you. The prophets, apostles, and the church believe in you. And I hope that you believe in yourself too. There are probably women in this room who have felt like they are not doing enough or that their testimony isn't strong enough or that they don't know enough about the gospel. And I know that feeling because I've felt it too.
I felt that way when I found out I was able to serve at 18. I felt that way when I was reading my call letter and I even feel that way right now in front of all of you. But when I think about women in the scriptures, I realize they didn't have everything figured out either. They were just willing. And I think that's what God asks of us.
You are not just watching God's work happen. You are a part of it. You are building His kingdom right now. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to go on my mission. I'm not going because I'm somehow more prepared or more spiritual than anyone else. I'm going because I've been given an opportunity to use what I have to help someone else come closer to Jesus Christ.
A message worth sharing
This is one of the reasons why I picked my mission plaque scripture, which is John 4, 28 through 30. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the men, come see a man which told me all the things that ever I did. It's not this the Christ. Then we went out of the city and came unto Him.
Jesus revealed to her that He is the Messiah that she's been waiting for. So she left her water pot and told the people of Him. If we knew the truth, we knew the word that needed to be spread. Why wouldn't we want to share? In my last mission prep meeting a few months ago, President Kirkham shared about a podcast he was listening to.
In it, a sister missionary was talking to a Jewish rabbi and the rabbi asked, how do you send all of these missionaries out? There's about 90,000. How do you get that many young people to go out and serve for so long? And the sister missionary answered, if you knew the cure for cancer, but you want to go out and tell the world, you wouldn't want to keep that message to yourself.
And the message of the restored gospel on earth is more than even the cure for cancer. It is the cure for life itself. It saves eternally. When I heard it that way, it was just another confirmation to me of my importance of serving. I may not know everything about the gospel, but I do know that God is living and I know His love flows through everyone here.
I know God. I feel Him in His love for me. That is why I pray and that is why I take the sacrament and that is why I continue to make covenants. Oh gosh.
Peace in the hardest moments
A time when I knew God was with me more than ever in my life before. My dad was involved in a head-on collision on October 5, 2024. I remember driving with my mom when OnStar called. They told us my dad was struck going 70 miles an hour down Spanish Fork Canyon and he was being life-flighted to the hospital. My mom drove an hour and a half from Price to Provo comforting each other, telling each other he was going to be okay when we really had no idea what was going on or what was coming.
I remember praying so hard, more than I had in my whole life. I remember a rush of peace coming over me and a voice telling me that he was going to be okay. I didn't understand why I was feeling so much peace when I didn't know if my dad was going to live anymore after today. I know God heard my cries and he was there hugging me and my mom as we drove.
I know he didn't leave me when I saw my dad [unclear] for the first time. I know he didn't leave me when I had to drive 45 minutes every day to see him. And I know he didn't leave me when I got the call that his kidneys were failing. Get one of these. Okay. Because during those times I felt God more than I ever have in my entire life.
He showed me my family love through everyone around us, people constantly checking up on me and making me feel loved. And now as my dad sits here today listening to me speak at my farewell talk, I want him to know I'm so grateful to him for pushing through the hardest time in his life. If he can get through all of that, I'm sure I can get through the next 18 months.
What I’m taking with me
Now before I come to a close, I would like to share with you all what I'm packing in my suitcase for the next 18 months. I'm packing my dad's perseverance because I now know he can truly overcome anything. So I can at least survive the Fort Worth 40. I'm packing my mom's caring heart. She would give up herself to help anyone and any chance she gets to serve, she will try her hardest to make it happen.
I'm packing my brother Drew's spontaneity and adventurousness because he never doesn't have big plans. And I'm going to try and pack my dog, Delilah, in my suitcase. When I first opened my mission call, I questioned it, but today I don't question God. This is where I'm supposed to be. Now here's my testimony in Spanish.
[Dani closes with a testimony in Spanish. This portion is not reliably transcribed in the supplied text. Please listen to the recording.]
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Returning to Japan
Crazy you leave for two years and your little sister grows up so proud of her she's an example to me in so many ways like she's awesome so thank you so much Dani and you're gonna be an amazing missionary hello I'm brother Doyle some of you might know me today I've been asked to speak about my mission Japan Sapporo Mission I'm so excited to talk about that with you guys firstly I just want to thank those that administered the sacrament for that ordinance so important and that was great I want to thank my family and friends those that are in attendance and those that couldn't make it.
So grateful for you and your support and love I'm especially thankful to my parents my mom she has a really big heart and she has always loved me even when I was being a total idiot at certain points and so yeah she's really awesome and then my dad he always has good advice for me whenever I need help or need to make a decision he's always like yeah this is what you should do or here's your options.
One example of that is after his car accident when he was in the hospital and I was like dad like there's a lot going on at home and like I feel like I should put off serving a mission a little longer and help out at home and things and he said you need to go so and I did and a few weeks later my YSA stake president president Jackson called me and he's he said how'd you like to go back to Japan.
And so yeah for those of you don't know I was a I served a mission for a little bit during COVID when I was 18 came home was on for three and a half years and then was able to be reinstated as a missionary so pretty cool miracle that happened with that but okay a.
The frozen chosen
Little bit about my mission so my mission the Sapporo mission is the entire island of Hokkaido Hokkaido is the northernmost island of Japan it's right across the ocean from Siberia so it gets pretty freakin cold and there's a lot of snow so there there would be we'd come out of our apartment and not be able to open the door because there's snow piled up in front of the door.
And so we'd have to you know open it a little bit and stick a shovel through and like slowly scrape it away and get it open and then we walked down the the sidewalks and foot deep snow with huge piles around us you know it was really crazy you'd see cars buried in snow and it was it was a really cool experience and the summers were super green yeah really really beautiful mission we have a saying in our mission and it's that we are the frozen chosen many are cold but fewer frozen so yep and it's so fun talking to the young missionaries and being like oh you haven't had your first winter yeah I hope you got your good boots so yeah it's good stuff again.
Learning from my companions
I wanted to talk a little bit about companions so one thing that some people tell you before you go on your mission is you know you're gonna have some really good companions that are gonna be some of your best friends in the world and you might have some difficult companions and I love all my companions so much like oh my gosh but I think when you're with someone 24-7 with the same person it can be really challenging and it can test you.
So I learned a lot of patience and one of my companions who's here at the Iraq and see you can test to that so thanks so much for coming but I have a story about him later actually so I was a bit older when I entered the mission I started the mission when I was 22 yeah 22 and when I got to the MTC.
I was in the MTC with a bunch of 18 year olds that had just left their parents home for the first time and I kind of took on the role of like a father figure type person I was kind of telling them don't do that don't do that don't do that a lot and I was like man this whole mission is gonna be a headache.
And then I got to the mission field and these elders that were leading the mission that had been out these were men and I was really surprised because even though I was older than a lot of them they knew a lot more about life than I did and how to be responsible and dependable people focused on Christ so that was really humbling and yeah learned so much from from my companions and all the missionaries I served with.
So grateful for them yeah and and if you're gonna go on a mission don't fight with your companions like you'll just regret it and they're never they're never trying to go against you they love you so much they're doing their best too.
Faith beyond the language barrier
Okay so when I pictured coming on my mission I pictured like I was going to be in like a lot of what's the word I know the word in Japanese inaka it's like a countryside so you're in a lot of like I thought I was going to be in a lot of countryside which is like rice fields and like cows and stuff nope.
I was a city missionary basically my entire mission I was in the city of Sapporo for about a year and then I was in some kind of suburb areas around Sapporo for the other year or eight months of the reinstated mission part anyway so yeah okay another super hard thing about Japan Japanese it's so hard so I knew it was going to be hard but I think it's the hardest thing I've ever done because I mean you've got three writing three alphabets you've got hiragana katakana and kanji there's 40 symbols in hiragana and katakana.
And then kanji there's like 5 000 so it's pretty crazy I think I can read maybe 700 kanji and I can write maybe 200 or 300 but yeah it was it was crazy a story with the language I was we we found this lady her name is Takera-san and we were teaching her for a while and she was also being taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses actually.
And so she was kind of like going back and forth like oh like is this church true is this church true and we'd answer her different questions about things and my last day in the area and I still at this point did not know a whole lot of Japanese I mean I thought I did I could share scripture bear my testimony things like that but I I didn't a lot of times know what was being talked about in a conversation and we're going to disappoint her and it's my last day in the into makamai.
And I was companions with Ewa Larkins and he's my he was my senior companion and he has a mustache now which is crazy but so then we were going in and her door was open which is weird because it's usually closed but we're going in we're like oh and she's like on the phone in there she's like oh come in come in and we're like talking and elder Larkins is like okay this one's all you you're leading this lesson.
And I was like oh no I'm so scared and I went in there and I just had faith that somehow would work out and for whatever reason I understood pretty much everything she said I understood her questions maybe not all of the but I knew what her question was and I was able to answer it with scriptures and with with different testimonies.
So I know the gift of tongues is a real thing and I remember right after that lesson I went back to not really knowing any Japanese and and in the moment I didn't really know kind of what happened I was like wow I just I guess I was speaking Japanese but I know it was the gift of tongues.
Following a quiet prompting
Another miracle that happened is we were teaching this guy for a while and we were coming back from zone conference on the bus and we had the impression that hey let's study at the church today and we very rarely study at the church if ever usually at the apartment or at a park or something like that we're like yeah let's try it you know.
And so we get back to our area we go to the church we're sitting there we study for about an hour and then all of a sudden there's a knock on the church all right what the heck who knocks on the church that never happens and we go to the front door and it's our friend and he's like hey I was just walking around in the area in the middle of the day and just was wondering maybe you guys were here.
So I just came to see and yeah he it was so crazy he didn't end up getting baptized because his ancestors have been Buddhist for many generations and he didn't want to be disrespectful to his ancestors we tried to explain to him about how they would actually be so happy if he got baptized and where they are now and and about eternal families going back to that lady that we taught where the gift of tongues really happened she was actually [unclear] a month later which was super cool super happy for her okay let's see where was I oh.
A personal witness
So there was one transfer where I really wanted to solidify my testimony of the Book of Mormon and so I decided okay I'm gonna read the whole Book of Mormon this transfer I was reading it and so many good things stuck out to me and I got to Moroni 10 the last chapter in the book and.
I was like I want to save this chapter and I want to read it in sacrament meeting so I was like I was ready to go I was waiting a couple days for Sunday and then I'm in sacrament meeting I go in my bag to pull it out my Book of Mormon it's not in there I'm like oh no I forgot it dang it.
I was so sad and I was like I'm not gonna read Moroni 10 on my phone because this is like my special Book of Mormon it's all marked up and then second hour comes and the lesson in second hour in Sunday school was about Moroni 10 and that to me told me that this book is true you don't need to wonder anymore this is this is a true book so that was that was crazy.
And then I went home and I I can I read Moroni 10 again and I started to read the index and I remember when I got to like a Malachiah or something I felt really strong spiritual impression there and that was really cool so.
The people right in front of you
I wanted to talk about a scripture that really changed my life actually so when you're a missionary there's a lot of things you need to think about and a lot of you that serve missions know this you need to think about your friends the members you need to think about your family and things that are going on at home which it's better if you don't but like you really it's hard to kind of separate your life from the mission.
And so you're thinking about all these things and you're thinking about your language and you're thinking about how you're trying to develop spiritually and physically and emotionally you're thinking about your relationship with your companion and all these things and I was I was getting caught up in this trap of thinking about all these little things and and how I needed to make them all perfect and make it all work.
I wanted to be the perfect missionary when I was reading in 2 Nephi 2 there were a lot of good scriptures in 2 Nephi 2 if you haven't read 2 Nephi 2 in a while definitely go read that it says in verse 27 "wherefore men are free according to the flesh and all things are given them which are expedient unto man and they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." The part that stuck out to me is this second sentence where it says "and all things are given them which are expedient unto man."
When I read that the Spirit came over me so strongly and said "Elder Doyle, you're so focused on all these things that are just dragging you down. Just think about what's right in front of you. The things that are expedient unto you are given you. Just focus on the people in front of you and love them and do what you can for them." And that changed my mission. That completely changed my mission.
And so I know that that's true and if we focus on the things that we can't control or the things we don't know it can overwhelm us so just focus on the here and now and what's right in front of you. Definitely set aside time to prepare and plan and set goals but for the most part right here is where you need to be.
Coming home
So towards the end of my mission we got a new mission president, President Bickle, awesome awesome guy. And during his Meet the Mission President meeting we I felt I needed to extend my mission and so I met with him and he was able to help me extend to October 31st. And then about a transfer went by and I started to get really bad migraines.
And I don't know exactly why. They haven't been as bad since I've been home so partly some stress I'm not really sure but I was talking with him and it kind of made sense to just go home because if I went home then I could start school the next week see my sister who I wasn't going to get to see because of the extension and everything just kind of made sense. And maybe maybe the Lord gave me those migraines so that I could see Dani and help her a little bit. She already knows so much but just help her in whatever way I can so yeah I'm going over time here I'm gonna wrap it up. So what am I doing now? I'm going to Utah State online, I'm living at home and I'm gonna start like a little computer company so if anybody needs their computer fixed let me know. okay I'm gonna bear my testimony in Japanese for you guys.
[Drew closes with a testimony in Japanese. This portion is not reliably transcribed in the supplied text. Please listen to the recording.]
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