It was in The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints as a young convert that she learned about the great eternal plan of happiness which God designed for His spirit children. She treasured the teachings she learned in the primary. She often boldly testified of the wonderful legacies that her teachers in the primary organization of the church has bestowed upon her childhood life. She loved to share her delightful impressions about her young women experiences. She held dear the wonderful camaraderie she shared with her fellow young women and her young women teachers. She prized the lessons she learned in youth Sunday school classes and in the Seminary more than her secular learning. She understood many of the truths of life while young and with some seed of faith she trailed the path of truth in her journey to eternity even at a young age.
Notwithstanding the early pressures of youthful life, KAREN MYL REYNA ALINSUNOD did not waiver in her spiritual commitments, but remained an avid advocate of truth and virtue. She lived a life that exemplified a true Latter-Day Saint young woman. Despite earlier family challenges she remained true to the faith and immovable in her convictions to hold on to her eternal journey. While in high school she served as youth Sunday school teacher, then as a new member class teacher, and at the same time served as a branch missionary helping full-time missionaries in finding and inviting people to come unto Christ. She is a defender of truth notwithstanding her yet immature and tender mind. Walking beside her was the mother who gave her earth life and who from infancy had been her guide into the path she faithfully trudged leading to her eternal goals.
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| While young with her family |
Obtaining the highest education possible was a tradition of her maternal ancestry. Her maternal grandmother was a public school principal. Two of her uncles are lawyers. Her mother earned a degree in teaching and a Master of Education and now served as District Supervisor in a public school. Both her two elder brothers were college graduates. She chose to follow the career path that her grandmother and her mother pursued. Qualifying for a Commission on Higher Education scholarship she then enrolled for a teaching course. She combined her college studies with faithful obedience to God’s laws and service in the church. While in college she was called to serve as Primary President, presiding over the primary organization of the branch, teaching little children the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, she continued her service as a branch missionary. But despite faithfulness and obedience her collegiate life was never free from challenges. For physical reasons which required her to rest and temporarily stop schooling, she lost her scholarship. However, she never waived her faithful perspective and with able parental assistance she eventually graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, major in Science and Health.
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| With fellow teachers |
Immediately after graduation she took and passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers. She then worked as an elementary teacher in a private school to help finance her planned full-time missionary service which had been a meaningful part of her eternal goals. She received her call and served at the Philippines Bacolod Mission of the church as an emissary of Jesus Christ from June 2004 to December 2005. As a missionary she served with diligence, patience and faith. After her mission she returned home with honor. Her eighteen months missionary service opened for her an even magnified vista and deeper understanding of her eternal journey. It may not have been the best years of her life, but it has taught her great lessons of true discipleship and prepared her for a greater and more challenging voyage to the future. Her first time Temple experience in Manila as a missionary added an intensified focus to stay on course along the narrow road to eternity, with clearer vision for a prospective Temple marriage. She committed herself not to settle for less than to be married in the Holy House of God and create a forever family.
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| With her student winning a contest |
Back into the world of secular life she started finding new avenues to embark into the field of her chosen career to prepare for another lap of her race through life. A wider door of opportunity was opened for her to work as a public school teacher intriguingly in an area nearest her family home and church. To her contemporaries it was a work of administrative bias, but to her it was God’s timing in response to earnest prayers. Her efficiency and effectiveness as a teacher coupled with diligence in attaining scholastic goals and expectations allowed superiors to see her potentials of quality teaching. As a result she was reassigned and accommodated at the best public elementary school in town---the Surigao City Pilot School.
Still demonstrating and proving her worth as a teacher, she was made coach not only in writing and academic competitions but also in sports contests. Upholding her religious values she taught her pupils the morals of consistent and honest academic efforts over and above scholastic marks. She repeatedly taught her students that honesty and hard work should be paramount and valued on top of their quest for higher grades and honors. Throughout her teaching career she is humbled and honored by the achievements that her students attained through her diligent coaching and tutoring. Her attention was once called because her students refused to accept probable answers to questions in a national evaluation examination, yet she stood with dignity in defense of her students and for the reputation and nobility that she wanted the school to uphold. While she hides from the accolades attendant to her accomplishments, yet her sincere efforts and consistent triumphs and successes in academic competitions with her students flaunts and were publicly unveiled. For such she was recognized by her high school Alma Mater by an invitation to be an honored guest speaker during one of their school year recognition and promotional program.
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| As honored guest at her High School Alma Mater |
Even during her busiest career life she continued to keep in balance her secular and spiritual realities. While pursuing a Master in Education and teaching pupils in public schools, she was also called again as Primary Organization President to preside over the spiritual education of children in the Church. She was called and voluntarily served as Seminary teacher for high school students and also taught the Missionary Preparation class in the Institute Program of the Church. She served as President of the Young Women Organization which gave her the opportunity to guide young women into the paths of righteousness and virtue. She exemplified to them her love of the gospel and her willingness to serve. In return she was more respected not only by the young women but also by the parents. She had served as District Young Single Adults (YSA) representative and on different occasions served as Branch YSA representative, which calling she currently holds. All these voluntary ecclesiastical service and continued obedience to God’s laws kept her right on track of her eternal perspective.
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| With young women at church |
However, her dream for an eternal marriage appeared aloof. Her probable future eternal partner seemed ever to be unapproachable. She had been in a relationship once, but the man’s spirituality and commitments did not merit a potential eternal partnership. Many of her fellow teachers and friends were wondering about her remaining single. She has so much of the qualities and experiences that are deserving of any man’s choice of a wife and of a future motherhood. Many thought that she must have been very choosy and highly selective. Her beloved mother had a hard time telling her friends that she never looks at a man’s countenance or economic station, but that she just wanted to uphold the standard she hold dear as a church member. Yet she never lost hope. She has the faith that God will never forsake her. She believes that she had done what is expected of her to qualify for such a blessing, but if Heavenly Father wills that she would have to remain single in mortality then let it be. She is willing to wait for God’s timing even if it would mean hanging on until the millennium. She trusted in God’s promise: “… I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-6).
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| With husband-to-be Joshua Hammond |
While she best understood that God has His own reason for delaying or postponing the desired blessings, she believes though that “faith without works is dead.” She needed to postpone her quest for a master’s degree in education to give way for her most cherished spiritual interest---temple marriage. She really wanted to prove God that she has every desire and ever willing to build a family of her own while in mortality, but still it should be in partnership of a worthy man. She thought that if she could not find a covenant man in her own land, then she might as well seek him in a foreign country. She was inspired by the story of Isaac and Rebekah.
Consequently, as an exact opposite to the most popular love story of Isaac and Rebekah in the Old Testament, Karen Myl did not wait for the supposed servants of Isaac’s father Abraham to come. Equipped with the miracle of modern technology she opened an account in the LDS Planet to find her Isaac. She did found the worthy man in the person of Joshua Hammond, who perhaps like Isaac earnestly desired for a worthy woman to wife. Joshua did not also wait for the imaginary servants of father Abraham to go far and find the woman for him, but instead posted his name in the same LDS planet hoping and earnestly praying that his Rebekah will find him.
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| With Joshua at Cebu Philippines Temple |
As their personal prayers spanned and meet at the crossroads of the realms of heaven, as did the petitions of Rebekah and Isaac, in answer, God connected the link of their common feelings notwithstanding the divides and distances of oceans and seas, continents and mountains, rivers and lakes, like Rebekah’s Mesopotamia and Isaac’s Canaan. Contrary to Isaac’s waiting for Rebekah from the land of Mesopotamia to the fields of Canaan, Joshua instead traveled far from the land of milk and honey to the pearl of the orient seas, and right at the door of the Cebu Philippines Temple kneeled before the waiting Karen Myl and uttered the most awaited four word phrase: “Will you marry me?” To which like Rebekah’s excitement over Isaac, Karen Myl answered Joshua with a resounding “yes.”
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| Her family |
Karen Myl and Joshua both trusted the Lord and they will soon be joined together in the Billing Montana Temple as husband and wife for time and all eternity. They both knew that the covenant they will be undertaking as they kneel before the holy altar between the mirrors of eternity at the Holy House of God will be a reminder that married life is not all calm, there will be winds and storms; it is not all sunshine, there will be shadows and rains; it is not all abundance, there will be times of deprivations; it is not all joy, there will come sorrows. Yet they understood that along the path of the storm tossed seas of life and down the valley of depressions and despairs there beckon the Lord’s lighthouse to guide the path of the faithful travelers. They believed as did Democritus that, “Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."
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| ITFF Coaching Training |
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| With friends at church |
The path that Karen Myl plods still requires a long story to tell. Her upcoming temple marriage will be just a beginning of another long chapter of her life’s chronicle. The subsequent episodes of her personal narrative will be enhanced as she begins to walk together side by side with Joshua while trailing her journey to eternity. Her personal history will be a treasure for her family and forthcoming posterity.
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