Hall Mission 2.0- The Call

On Sunday, August 28th, my "spy" in the mission department texted me that we were now showing "assigned" on the mission spreadsheet.  So, we were anticipating that our call would be delivered on Tuesday of this past week and we were not disappointed---at 9:58 am, we each received a text and then an email indicating that our call could be found in our missionary portal.

We had decided if it came in time that we would head down to the skilled nursing home where Dad was at and open our call with him and Karla.  We were able to have Scott and Tosha on Facetime--but couldn't catch Jessica and the plan for Ben didn't work out.

Our first call we opened in Gary's mom's back yard in masks..... so it a bit of a deja' vu  situation, we were also in masks because of Dad being at the skilling nursing center.

This time, I read the call.  It is really hard to continue to read the three paragraphs prior to the assignment paragraph---you really want to know the "where" and "what" of it all!

For us, it is:  ARKANSAS BENTONVILLE MISSION serving a member and leader support missionaries.  We report to the MTC on March 27 and leave for Arkansas around April 8th--so 2 weeks of training at the MTC.

It was different than last time  (as spiritual things usually are)--This time, the only way I can describe it was I felt this overwhelming of sweetness and peace.  Gary had been leaning towards Hawaii, I was hoping for Lubbock Texas, but Arkansas Bentonville suddenly felt like the right and only place for us at this time of our lives.

The Arkansas Bentonville Mission included NW Arkansas, a big part of southern Missouri, the SE part of Kansas and the NE corner of Oklahoma.  The exciting thing for me is that Springfield Missouri where Gary and I lived the first 10 months of our marriage is in this mission.  How cool is that!  And. we actually know the mission president slightly--Richard Collins was our financial advisor over the past several years prior to him being called as a mission president.  (and no, we did not request his mission nor did he request us.  He offered to but we said we wanted to be assigned without any special requests.) This mission was one of 7 we put as places we were interested in.  So the apostle who assigned us would not have known that we had lived there 45 years ago or that we knew this mission president.  Of course, our Heavenly Father knows and I think that is why I felt such a feeling of sweetness.  Springfield is a pretty place and we expected to live our lives there when we got married, but our life went in totally different directions than we first planned--and now we can go back for a brief season.  It seems just right and balanced in some way--even though it is not likely we will serve in the Springfield area at all.)

For the map lovers in my family,
here is the mission map.

Gary took us to Zupa's for a celebration lunch before heading back to the library for our afternoon meetings.  We hadn't told any of the missionaries that we had received our call....YET!

Gary not cooperating with our selfie
and then teasing Jena as I took her picture...

We had our weekly zone leadership meeting with our assistant zone leaders and we wanted them to be the first missionaries we told---After the opening prayer--I made the announcement and everyone was surprised and delighted for us!!!

No one more than Sister Dixon who is from Bentonville.  She returns home from her mission at the end of October so she will be there in April to greet us.  How fun is that!  Of course, I wanted a picture of Sister Dixon hearing the news, but thought it would be a bit obvious if I was pointing a camera at her so Elder Elder took this re-enactment photo of the moment--

We love Sister Dixon and are excited to share pieces of our new adventures with her.

Since then we are learning about lots of people with connections to this part of the world and to the mission.  One of our missionaries has a grand daughter who just arrived in this mission about 3 weeks ago.  How fun is that!

After our meetings that day, I spent the evening texting friends the news and also shared the following post on Facebook---after most of my friends and family knew  (except my Sister Lynette--she was having trouble with her phone and didn't read our sibling thread and didn't learn until Friday about our call.  I felt bad about that.)

"Sample from our lives: Today we opened our mission call for our next mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more about that later in post). I was sharing the news at our mission office and one of the missionaries there said, "That is awesome. They are so lucky to be getting Jena...(pause) and you two as well. Of course, you will do great...." Yes, we think they are lucky to be getting Jena, too.

Who is "they"? The Arkansas Bentonville Mission!!!

We are so excited. This mission includes parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Special for us is that Gary and I spent the first ten months of married life in Springfield, MO, which is part of this mission so many years ago. It seems like a special sweet thing to go back to that beautiful part of the world. We have been called to serve as member and leader support missionaries, will start on March 27, 2023, and serve for 18 months. Another exciting thing is that the Bentonville LDS Temple will open early next year--a special time to serve! How blessed we are!

Ever wanted to see the Ozarks or visit Branson, MO, this is your chance to visit us, too! And they have fireflies, too!

For those keeping track, we will have about four weeks between ending our current mission and starting our next one. #missionadventures!"

The photo I included was from last summer when we attended the Jordan River Temple.

We have loved reading the comments people have posted on Facebook and appreciate so much the support of family and friends.  We feel so very blessed to be able to serve currently as missionaries and look forward to our next assignment as well.  Each will mark a "remarkable" period of our lives!  We are so blessed.

One quirky note:  When we had extended our current mission, we had changed our availability date to April 10.  That allowed us to spend spring break in Washington with Tosha and her family which was the first week of April.  Of course, we are now reporting on March 27th.  I told Gary that in a quirky way, that was another sign to me that this was the right calling for us.  We need to go when they need us.  (I know it is weird, but my mind works in these ways sometimes.)

One last note:  Bentonville Arkansas is getting an LDS Temple and it will be completed in the first part of the year.  There is a slight chance that we might be there in time for the Open House and the Dedication.  That would be amazing!  Temples bring such a blessing to the members of the Church in an area.  Here is a photo of the temple on the Church's website.

How great is our Heavenly Father and how blessed are we!

Watch for more Hall Mission 2.0 posts coming up!