Called to Grow

by Kazuko Tamaki

My calling followed me across the ocean—because the Lord always knows what I need.

I spent a year away from my family in Japan, living in Utah as a high school exchange student. After I returned home, I received my first calling in the Church—president of our Mia Maid class. In a letter to my host family in Utah, I wrote about my calling.

A couple of weeks later I received a letter from my host “father.” He wrote:

“I didn’t tell you then, but one month before you left for home, our bishop told me ‘We want Kazuko to be class president of the Mia Maids. How long will she be here?’

“I told him that you would be leaving the following month. So they didn’t give you the calling.”

I found it remarkable that the same calling the bishop in Utah had been inspired to extend to me was given me when I came back to Japan. It made me realize that God knows about me no matter where I am—in Utah or Japan or anywhere else. I believe he knew that particular calling was what I needed then in order to grow.

I have received various callings since then. When I look back on them, I am amazed to find that each calling was somehow necessary at that time in my life to strengthen a weakness.

I have learned to accept any calling that comes to me, even when it seems difficult. I know that it comes from Heavenly Father, who knows me.

Photography by Sachie Tamaki