IT CAME!! THE CALL!

Just as Gary predicted it when we submitted our papers on March 3.  It happened like this for us.

I was out walking at Jensen Pond around 9:00 am.  I had gone about 1/4 of the loop when my phone beeped and I looked to see the text-  "Your mission call can now be viewed at the missionary portal (with the actual link included)."  There was that brief second where I thought--it would be so easy to just click on it really quick and see it before calling Gary.  But overwhelmingly the feeling followed that the memory I wanted was being by Gary as we read our call.  I immediately called him and turned back to make it home as quick as possible.  On the way, I reached out to our kids and to my dad to see if they could be available by 10:15.  As I turned into the neighborhood, I was just hoping to see someone to "tell" that our call had arrived, but no luck.

I also sent a group text to my siblings, because I thought they would all want to be anticipating our call as well as they went about their daily lives--for about 45 minutes anyway.

Because Gary's mom is not an expert with Facetime, Gary and I had decided that we would go to her house and open our call with her (with proper social distance) while facetiming our kids and my dad and his wife.  As it worked out, Gary's sister, Vonette and her husband were coming down at 10:00, because the two Gary had plans to do a wood run.  So I quickly sent Charon an invitation for her and her husband to join us.  Charon didn't respond and I was worried that she was out running or something, but right at 10:15, she drove up.  She hadn't seen the texts, because she had been buying flowers for her mom's garden.  I was so glad that she came right at that time to join with us for this sweet experience.

We called our kids and my dad on Facetime and we got to look at the cute faces of everyone, including some of our grandchildren as they watched us open our call.  The wording of the mission calls is different with a couple more paragraphs before the section identifying the place where you are called to serve. I had watched some recent mission call openings on Facebook Live and expected the additional paragraphs, but Gary did not.  And,  there are actually two letters--one for each of us, rather than one letter addressed to both of us.  That surprised us.

I had decided that I wanted Gary to read the letter, because I did not know that I could have done it without crying.  So he began reading my letter out loud.  At about the second paragraph, he commented under his breath about the extra paragraphs and scrolled down to see how long the letter was.  In that second, I saw in his eyes that he had caught a glance at the location.  I don't actually know what he felt at that second, but I knew that it was the right call for us--just in the light that I felt from him in that second.  It was a sweet moment.  He turned somewhat guilty said, "I know where we are going."  I replied, I know you know.  It is okay."

He continued to read the letter--and this is what I posted on Facebook later in the morning:

"After waiting (a lifetime) eight weeks, we were called to serve in the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission Family History Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We enter the MTC on Oct. 26th. We will serve for 18 months. Jena will serve with us but her assignment has not been made yet. We are so excited. We are grateful to serve our Heavenly Father and to represent Christ and our Church and being involved even more closely in family history which we love."

Then later in the evening, while I was working--Gary pointed out that I didn't communicated it exactly right so I had to add the following 'edit.'

EDIT: Gary clarified that our call actually says we will be serving primarily as Family and Church History missionaries in the Headquarters Mission, so I guess it expands our possibilities a bit. (In my defense, Gary read the call and I was a bit excited about it all.)

SO TO SUM UP:  WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO SERVE IN THE SALT LAKE CITY HEADQUARTERS MISSION SERVING PRIMARILY AS FAMILY AND CHURCH HISTORY SPECIALISTS.  WE ENTER THE MTC ON OCTOBER 26 AND WILL SERVE FOR 18 MONTHS.

Here are a couple of pictures taken after we read the call.  I wore my mask even though we did practice social distancing because my allergies are crazy at this time of year so I was sneezing all of the time.

One parenting fail was we forgot to call Ben on the phone when we read the call.  He is not currently on Facebook so we couldn't include him Facetime and although we had arranged it with him, we just forgot to call.  So I got to tell him on the phone afterwards.  That was also a sweet moment as I felt a calmness around him as we talked about us being in Salt Lake.  I think it made him happy and I was reminded that Heavenly Father is so mindful of the people we love and what they need as well.

Then I went home with Jena, Gary went off with Gary Kerr to buy wood, and I started texting "the world".  Certain people I wanted to tell individually but I ended up doing some group texts just to reach out to my neighbors.  And then, right before I went to work for the day, I posted it on facebook.  Oh, how sweet all of our friends and family have been.  We feel your love and support and it means so much to us.  When I finished work around 9:30 last night, we took time to read the texts and facebook comments to each other and to Jena.

I wish that we could put them all into the post, but that would take a while. My dad emailed his confidence that this was a right call for us. We learned about a variety of people who have connections with someone who has served in that mission or have served there themselves.  We knew already that our friends, Pat and Joyce Abernathy, are currently serving there and they are ready to give us all of the information that we would need.  We are making plans to go on a social distance walk with them very soon.

Scott said that now he doesn't have to worry about us getting lost on the first day.  (Kids are great for keeping it real.)  Our friend, Kim Savage, who has taught us so much about family history, is SO excited.  I told her that we will try not to waste all of the things she has taught us over the past several years.  People are happy for us and we loved sharing this with all of you.

A dear friend from Hong Kong sent me this sweet text: "Thank you for letting know about your mission call.  You won't be traveling far from home, but people will be traveling far from home that you can help. You'll have adventures that transcend centuries and cultures--I think it's an exciting call!! And you've always had the spirit of adventure whatever you are doing."  I couldn't have said it better myself.  I had not yet thought in terms of "adventures that transcend centuries and cultures (which likely will appear in my mission talk if we are invited to do such a talk)" but I have felt that we will be helping in the work on both sides of the veil and that is an amazing part of the work to be doing.

On a more personal note:  Gary checked in with me by phone while waiting for Gary Kerr to pick wood.  He wanted to make sure that I wasn't disappointed.  We were open to going anywhere and of course, I have loved Asia forever. The Family History Center was his number one pick, but he knew that I might have preferred something else. That is why I love Gary, because he cares so much about me. But, I truly am so excited for this opportunity to serve.  In April Conference 2020, Pres. Eyring stated "He has a plan for your service."  At that moment, I felt a peace and an assurance that a plan was in place for our service.  That feeling was only strengthened as we read the call.

This past few months as we have read the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me, I have been struck by the repeated references to "How beautiful are the feet of them..."  One example is Mosiah 12:21:

"^aHow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him ^bthat bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;"

It is an interesting phrase and appears in a variety of settings, often referring to missionaries.  I made a note to do some more research into it, but haven't done that yet.  But I feel that our calling allows us to take our place on the mountains...on our feet...and bring tidings of good.  Not sure our feet are beautiful, but the work will be as long as we are engaged in the work to which we have been called.

Love you my friends and family, but most of all, I love God and His son, Jesus Christ, and our sacred opportunity to serve as missionaries in the SLC Headquarters Mission.

One final note:  Our stake president stated that the mission department had indicated to him that they would like to wait to start working on Jena's Church Service mission call to see what is actually open at the time we are set to serve.  So it will be a few months until we know what she will be doing.