Today (or I guess yesterday since we're past midnight) a member of the seventy asked us to keep record of all that we do as chaplains so that our history can be cataloged for future generations. I can't remember his name (names have never been my strong point), but I felt the truth of it, so here I begin my chronicle.
For me the journey began during priesthood session of general conference a few years back. I don't remember exactly which one, but it was well before I was married(2007). Something one of the speakers said reminded me of a question that had been on my mind for some time; what should I do with my life? There came into my mind a resounding that that I needed to try and be a seminary teacher. The thing that bothered me a little was the word try, which almost implied that I was going to fail. Nevertheless I began the process of becoming a seminary teacher. My wife, being the more spiritual of the two of us knew that something was wrong before I did. All through my final months of training she kept asking me if I was sure that this is what I wanted to do. After a semester of student teaching I finally realized this myself, and began the search anew.
College seemed like the place to be with the waning economy, but we had no way to pay for it. That brought in the idea of the military service. We looked at several branches and compared army/navy/reserves, etc., and the idea of being a chaplain got thrown in the mix too. The real change happened on the way home from by brother-in-law's graduation from MCRD San Diego. There was a car overturned on the side of the road, and in our caravan we had an EMT, police officer, MD, and a marine (he directed traffic). We stayed there until the ambulance arrived. While the rest were doing what they could my wife and I got out and helped pick up the papers that were scattered across the side of the highway. I felt an overpowering desire to help, and not just here and her daughter, but everyone I possibly could. Somehow, in that moment, I knew the way that I could help best was to be a chaplain. At a chaplain conference (held annually in conjunction with LDS general conference) about a year later, my wife and I both felt prompted that we were to join the Navy.
The process of getting here is quite a bit of paperwork and time. The first step is to get in touch with military relations at the church office building. To even be considered you have to have an ecclesiastical endorsement from your bishop, stake president, a member of the seventy, and the military relations division of the church. Once you've been endorsed you then have to get accepted into a masters of religion program somewhere. While it's possible to go to any divinity school and earn a masters, we chose BYU because of the scholarship opportunities and the benefit of being educated by those of your own faith. Once accepted you can then start all of the paperwork. You need a complete background check, so just about everything you've done and everywhere you've been for the last 7 years. You'll need to get references, peer reviews, interviews, health papers, etc. If all were to go perfectly and you had all of your paperwork down lickety split you'd be lucky to get it done in three or four months. As it is, near the end of my first semester of college I'm still a couple months from officially being in as a chaplain candidate. Then it will be two years of school, the officer version of basic training, and chaplain schools (6 weeks, like AIT). Then if the board accepts you, you're officially in. It's a long process, but I have faith that it will most definitely be worth it.
Next post I'll go into the semester so far, and schoolwork in general.
