Hello. My name is Noah. I just graduated from High School and am attending Temple University in Philadelphia this fall. I am a fairly recent convert to the LDS Church. I know that this is Christ's true church because it is led and organized by the authority of His Priesthood. I, after months of study and struggle, have gained a testimony of Joseph Smith, the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and the Church, so i plan on magnifying my position in the Church to my fullest potential. Going on a full time mission is definitely a part of this magnification process, thus i am left with some questions regarding the relationship between missionary work and education. I know that it is fairly typical for men to go to one year of college, leave for a 2-year mission, then come back and conclude their studies. I assume that somewhere like BYU would be 100% cooperative with this process, therefore they would be more likely to hold a missionary's scholarship until he/she got back from their mission. However, i am not exactly sure how a non-LDS university would handle this. i don't necessarily want to wait until after college to go on a mission, but i am worried that Temple wouldn't hold me scholarship, which would probably make me want to go to BYU since it would be more accepted there. I am set for Temple in the fall so there is no changing at least this first semester, but i need to start thinking whether or not i need to transfer, considering the situation. I would also have no problem at all going to BYU. In fact, i would in some ways probably enjoy it more because i would be surrounded with such a potent spiritual environment which is vitally important to the strength and growth of ones own testimony. So, essentially it is not a matter of which school i would like better, but which school would cater to my needs, desires, and future plans. Thanks for reading. Feel free to share advice!
