Called to the Work!

11/10/11

After 5 1/2 weeks, we finally got our call! It came in the morning, but I was determined to wait to open it when we had all the family on the phone, or for the ones who live close enough, at the house. We set up a conference call and notified all the kids of when it would be. Chelsea had a wedding reception she had offered to do the decorating for, so I went to Turlock to help her so she could come back down to Merced for The Opening. Before I left for Turlock, I said to Richard, "Well, before we open the call, do you have any last guesses about where we'll go?" He'd gone to get a haircut earlier, and he said that while he was diving down the street, the name, "Baltic States" came to him. I said, "Really? You know that's kind of by Russia?" Then I made him promise not to open the envelope until we were all together. I left to go to Turlock and while I was gone, Jenny called Dad and suggested that he steam the call open, tell her which mission we were called to, and then seal it back up. Good for him that he turned her down because I know he was really, really tempted!

When I got back from Turlock, I said again, "Any more impressions about which mission?" Richard said that Baltic States had come in his mind again. As for me, I just said that I felt sure it wasn't any place that anyone in the family had guessed. We had to wait a few minutes for Magan to log on to the call, and when she announced herself, some of the kids started talking to her. But as soon as Dad heard that she was on, he had that envelope open and started reading. I started reading at the beginning, but Dad dropped right down to the chase and read, "Hungary, Budapest Mission." He read it again, and my eyes found it on the page, and we looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear. At that moment, we both recognized that this was where we were meant to go. On conference calls, only one person can talk at a time or some of the people don't hear the conversation. Some of the kids were chattering their surprise and congratulations, and others were saying, "Where are they going?" Finally everyone got the news and we had a chance to share our excitement, look it up on the globe and realize how close it was to the Baltic States.

I also went back to the Senior Missionary site on line, and looked up the cost that they list for this mission. When we filled out our application and put down how much we were able to pay per month, we realized that the amount we put was too low for some of the more expensive missions. But when I saw that this mission was much lower than the amount we had put we could pay, the Spirit again testified that the Lord wanted us to work in this mission; not a mission at the level we had committed to. We're going to Hungary!