LAKE STEVENS — Sean Lavering, 17, just graduated from Lake Stevens High School. He is planning to serve a two-year mission in Brazil for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before attending Brigham Young University in Utah. He is the son of Kevin and Natalie Lavering.
Question: Are you getting ready for the mission?
Answer: I’m attending a mission prep class. There are missionaries in the Everett area and they teach the class. They just share tips for talking to people about the church.
Q: Are you going to have fun this summer?
A: I have to get a job to save up money to go on the mission, and I still plan on doing stuff with my friends.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: Hiking, playing tennis, hanging out.
Q: Have you thought about what you want to study?
A: I’ve been flip-flopping a lot. I put astrophysics for my major, but that could change.
Q: Because there is so much research to be done in that field?
A: I always liked watching space videos, like “Through the Wormhole” with Morgan Freeman. Black holes and stuff like that are super interesting to me.
Q: What will you miss about high school?
A: Having a place where I can see my friends every day. Even now, I can see we’re all getting different jobs and maybe I can hang out with them a couple of times a week. At school I could hang out with them every day.
Q: What would you tell incoming high-schoolers?
A: Just get involved as much as you can. … You really have to put in the work if you want to get a good experience out of it.
Q: You’ll be learning another language?
A: The language (in Brazil) is Portuguese. I took two years of Spanish at the high school. … There are a lot of similar spellings and pronunciations, but it will still be a hard thing to do.
Q: What’s on your mind as you think about leaving home?
A: The most I’ve been gone from home is a couple of weeks. I’m not really sure if I’ll be affected by homesickness or not. I know my parents will be really supportive.
Q: What is the purpose of a mission?
A: It’s two years of your life inviting others to come into Christ. You go and teach people about our church and invite them to investigate our church.
Q: Why was this an important step for you?
A: God has given me so many blessings. He has blessed my life so much. It’s just a small way I can give back.
Q: Have you had a role model?
A: Definitely my dad. He is pretty involved in our church and he often speaks at meetings. Seeing him speak and seeing him talk about our church, it really is inspirational for me to do what he did. He also served a mission.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.
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