We all went up to their house to witness this EXCITING event.
There was my family of 7 and about 100 other people there, too. Really, maybe half that many. Or a third. I really don't know how many, but there were enough to make quite a ruckous with our cheering and clapping when she read aloud her mission she has been called to serve in.
MADRID, SPAIN
And the shouts continued when she read from her call that she will report directly to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in SPAIN - not the traditional one in Provo, Utah that everyone else in the family has gone to.
And the noise [of gladness & congratulations] burst out again when she read that she will start her mission on June 12, 2013.
I am thrilled for her!
With the new announcement from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, at last October's General Conference that the new age for women to serve a full-time mission was changed to age 19 instead of 21, she immediately was eligible since she was already 19 yrs. old! There is now a SURGE of women submitting their missionary applications -- and I think IT. IS. WONDERFUL. Sister Missionaries are SO effective and amazing. They were THE BEST in my mission, but, unfortunately, we were in the minority......but things are changing now with the lower age! Amongst some of my neice's other "fans" there to watch, there were three other girls who had their mission calls, too!! It's so great.
Being there tonight, I couldn't help but recall receiving my OWN mission call.
Although, my experience 21 1/2 years ago was very, very different from hers today, it still brought back the EMOTION associated with it.. Tears filled my eyes as I listened to her read her call, just the same as they have the other few times I have been privileged to be a bystander when future missionaries have opened their calls.....BECAUSE I KNOW what it's like to open a Mission Call. I have been there! The tears were there when I opened my OWN call, too. It is SO important and SO profound. It is SO BIG - a call to serve from The Prophet.
After being a part of her "Mission Call Opening Party" with the masses, Matt asked me if it made me wish I would've done it like THAT.
No.
That may surprise some because I am very much a "social creature" by nature and a "People Person" who loves friends and being around others. USUALLY. But, opening my mission call was NOT a USUAL experience.
There is not a wrong way and a right way to do it. The way I did it was just PERFECT FOR ME!
I chose to open my Mission Call all by myself, in private, out in nature, next to a river in the beautiful surroundings of Logan Canyon in Northern Utah back in the summer of 1991.
I wanted to have my own true, REAL initial reaction to the call - without having to "put on a show" for an audience.
So, when I learned of my call, FUKUOKA, JAPAN, there was no fanfare. No deafening crowds whooping and hollering. No eyes on me - at least not of the human kind. But I felt very, very close to my Heavenly Father & Jesus at that moment - I KNEW They were with me.
(Signed by Ezra Taft Benson, the Prophet in 1991)
Even though I am "Geographically Deficient" and I didn't even know WHERE Japan was....North? South? East? West of here? Even though I had indicated on my application that I was NOT interested in learning a foreign language.... And even though I [might have] exclaimed, "Holy Cha!" when I read it, I immediately prayed - right then and there on that big boulder I was sitting on out in the open air. I was surrounded with just the sound of the trickling water, the fluttering of leaves in the trees up above and the occasional chirping of a bird. And as I did so, I felt The Spirit confirming to me that I was "up to the challenge!"
For DAYS afterwards, it still seemed like an "Out of body experience" to think about ME serving a mission in Japan. I still can't believe that I did it sometimes, now! But, that day will always be a tender memory for me.
I did go to my parents home the next day where the rest of my "groupies" had gathered and I "opened" my Mission Call (however I already knew where I was going) in front of them. Then they were all made privy to the BIG NEWS for the first time -- and they shared in my joy and excitement, too. So, I got BOTH - a private and a public opening - I've always been one to prolong the CELEBRATION as much as possible! ;) haha.
GO Sister Missionaries!
(This plaque hung in the glass case at our church building the whole time I was gone.)
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