After over a year of waiting, Isaac was able to open up his mission call tonight. It was one of the coolest experiences my family's ever been able to share with each other, but especially for Isaac. Isaac's spent the whole of 2011 preparing for his call--getting himself temple worthy, learning the discussions, reading the Book of Mormon, teaching with the Young Men in our word. He's become twice the man he was a year ago, so it was especially rewarding to see him get what he's been working for, for so long.
Anyway, it all began yesterday morning. I was walking upstairs and heard the mailman drive by. Since we'd been waiting for the letter for so long, I was pretty on edge. I ran outside (in shorts, sans makeup and shoes), opened the mailbox, saw the letter, let out a "skreeeeeee!," ran inside, and handed the letter to my brother. We did the obligatory, "Oh my gosh, this is crazy," then I ran to call my mom. Isaac proceeded to call all of his friends, and we tried setting up a time that night when he could open up his call in front of everyone.
When we thought we'd arranged everything for that night, we hit a snag. Our oldest brother, Taylor, lives in Falls Church, about 30 minutes away, and couldn't make it on account of having to work. Isaac became pretty stressed trying to decide whether or not to open the call without him, an eventually decided to wait until the next day (today).
Which brings me to about 4 hours ago. Isaac invited a few deacons over to see the call being opened, and about 3 showed up. He also had friends sending in predictions via text message. We got everyone's predictions down on a huge map of the world on our dining room table, then proceeded to make calls to all of Isaac's friends at BYU, my friends, and grandparents. We put them all on speaker as Isaac ripped open the envelope.
Isaac looked through the letter silently before he said anything. As he read through the letter, his eyes got really wide. We all knew he wasn't going to Podunk, Idaho. Then, he started reading that all important first sentence: "Elder Sine, you have hereby been called…" and started choking up a little bit. He took a huge breath and blurted out, "HONDURAS SAN PEDRO SULA MISSION." We all let out a bunch of yips and "WOWs." Then, Isaac let out an Indian battle cry out of nowhere.
The rest of the night was full of googling Honduras EVERYTHING and going out to Chipotle, which was the closest we could get to Honduran food. Now, I'm sitting here thinking about how Isaac will be reporting to the MTC in exactly two months from now, then on to HONDURAS, and I won't see him for 2 years. It's such a strange thought.
Reading the letter has also got me thinking about my own call. I still have a ways to go with my papers, but this has given me the boost I need to really focus on them. And there's something about hearing your little brother being called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that makes you REALLY want to be a part of spreading the gospel. I'm so, so, so excited.
EXCITED.
Alma 37:31-14. I smile so big every time I read this.
That's all I got.
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