Amoryn - Being "Normal"

My name is Amoryn Mund and I can read your mind! (It’s pronounced Am-or-in and Mund is like Monday without the “ay” at the end.) I live in Ogden, Utah but I grew up mostly in Nampa, Idaho. I’m married to William Mund of Willard, Utah and we have 3 daughters, ages 6, 3, and 6 months. My husband and I have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints our whole lives and we attend our meetings and fulfill our callings. My life is pretty ‘normal,’ but I hate the word ‘normal’. Let me tell you why…

I’m a stay at home/work at home mom. My husband has a busy full time job as a service engineer for machine tools and his company covers the area of all of Utah, some of Wyoming, and some of Idaho. He mostly works close to home, but occasionally is traveling throughout the state. On top of all that we do as parents and adults, we also live on-site and manage a Storage Facility. I run the office which is in my home, by making and taking phone calls, renting out units, and all the other stuff. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from BYU-Idaho and I get to teach online part-time for BYU-Pathway Worldwide which is a wonderful and awesome thing! I love all that I do, but being a mom is my favorite and I am so grateful that I get to have this in my life.

 

I grew up with 7 siblings and we had a ‘normal’ healthy family. No one ever broke a bone or had to have their tonsils out. We all had your regular cold, flu, stomach bug, and ear-aches but we were all ‘normal’, healthy and happy. When I was I young teenager I started having unexplainable seizures. I had 5 grand-mal seizures in 5 years, and most of these happened when I was at school. I know it is a blessing that my mom actually never saw me have a seizure. It was always either my dad, my brother, or the teachers at school. My mom believes that she wouldn’t have been able to help me if it happened with her because it would have been too hard for her to see me like that. I know the Lord was merciful in that.

After my second seizure I started having ‘visual disturbances’ or ‘visual auras’ on a regular basis. They were the same thing that I would see before my seizures but I wouldn’t seize. Sometimes I would have up to 6 episodes in a day. We saw doctors, ran tests, all sorts of things. My parents were told that I needed to be on an anti-seizure medication in order to have a ‘normal life’ but…(you know those advertisements for medications that give you 10 seconds of the good side effects and 40 seconds of the bad effects? This medication kind of was similar.) I wouldn’t have the seizures, but I might have a whole slew of side effects. My parents and I fasted and prayed about it and together we made the decision to live my life as before, without the medication. The Lord was merciful in that because if I had been taking the medication the seizures would have stopped but it very likely would have led to bigger problems in the end.

We kept track of everything that I ate, drank, how much I slept, etc. We tracked everything to see if we could find some kind of pattern. The doctors really couldn’t give us any answers but we learned triggers and patterns that helped me cope with this in my life. The Lord was merciful in that because I could still live and enjoy life as myself and in a way it helped me to grow as a person as I learned how to live my life with what I was given. Even though I was an odd duckling and I was not ‘normal’.

 

 

I used to pray and cry to the Lord that I could be ‘normal’. 

 

I wanted to have the posse of friends. I wanted to be able to learn to drive. I wanted to just go about life and be ‘normal’. I used to pray that I could just be free from whatever it was that I was dealing with. I wanted to be cured. I wanted those priesthood blessings to cast off this thing and for me to be just a ‘normal’ kid. This was my constant plea. 

 

I remember one night after another difficult day, praying and reading my scriptures and asking for ‘normal’. When I heard a voice say, “No.” It wasn’t harsh or hurtful. I wasn’t condemning or mad. It was just a simple “No.” This took me by surprise because I thought that if I had enough faith and enough prayer then I would get what I wanted. This is not true. I don’t believe that we are taught that if we have enough faith that we will get want, but rather that our prayers will be answered. It took me awhile to learn this, but sometimes the answers to our prayers, and the things that we want…are not the same.

Someone once told me “There’s no such thing as ‘normal,” and I have learned that the path I have walked was the path set for me. The lessons I have learned were selected just for me. There was a general conference talk of my youth where the Apostle started speaking about how oftentimes when we are faced with difficult things, or a challenge in our life we ask the Lord, “Why me?” But then the speaker challenged us to change our question, and to change our plea. Instead of asking “Why me?” Change it to “What?” What is required of me? What am I to learn in this? What is the meaning of this challenge? What can I learn from this? What can this challenge or trial do for me that will build me in the future? This became my guiding force as the questions of “Why me?” became questions of “What?”

 

 My life has not been normal but my family and especially my parents, have always been a strength in my life. I know through all of my journey they never quit praying for me. I know when the diagnosis of a benign brain tumor was finally made at the age of 15 that they still never quit praying for me. I know that through 9 hours of a very scary surgery and 9 days in the hospital they never quit praying for me. I know that even now 15 years later they still pray for me and my family. Prayer is important. Remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood, KJV Luke 8:43-48? Remember that act of faith that the woman made when she reached for the border of Christ’s garment knowing that if she could just touch it she would be healed? We can show the same faith when we reach for the Atonement in our prayers and we too can be healed of whatever ails us, spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally.

My life is not normal and I like it that way. I have a family that loves me. I have blessings beyond my dreams. I am still learning that the timeline in my mind and the timeline of the Lord are not the same. I try to see the challenges that come my way as lessons instead of trials and I try to focus on the lessons that are sent and what I am meant to learn. I’m not always good at it and I’ll probably have to do it over and over again far too many times, but I hold on to the knowledge that I have of my Savior and His love for me. If I could go back and tell myself anything in my youth I would try and teach myself that there is a greater plan in motion, greater than I’ll ever fully understand. I have been chosen to be a part of that great plan and I should work to play my part to my fullest and my strongest. One not-so-normal day at a time. Besides, ‘normal’ is overrated anyway.