Sr. Queen of All Saints, SSVM

Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará

I knew I had a vocation at 12 years old, but I did not have any example of religious life and I wanted to help and serve others. I graduated high school from Gervais Oregon in 1998 and I entered the United States Marine Corps following my older brother, and served our country for 5 and half years. I was a jet engine mechanic and then a Marine Security Guard at foreign embassy of Rangoon, Burma and then Vienna Austria.

While I was serving in the Marines the call to religious life became even stronger and I knew I had to follow God’s plan for my life. I finished my tour of duty in the Marines and signed up to go to college at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio at the suggestion of my very good Catholic friends.

While I was there I realized even more that God was calling me to be a religious sister. I was in the household, Mary Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and those friends help me understand what religious life was. After graduating with a bachelors in Theology, Catechetics and a concentration in Youth Ministry, I still had not found my religious life home. I returned to Oregon to drive school bus, and be the youth minister at my parish.

That following summer the other youth ministers in the area, and I took a group of teens on a Nun Run to California. We were at the tomb of St. Juniperro Serra when we say young, happy, nuns in blue habits. We asked them to talk with the teens that were with us, it was at that moment that I knew this was the order for me. I called afterwards to visit, to do the interview, and then to enter on November 1, All Saints Day, and since then everyday has been an amazing adventure. Praise God.