The Lost Call
I sent my mission papers to Salt Lake in June. I have always wanted to go to Italy and I mentioned in my papers that it would be nice to go to Italy, the land of my ancestry on my father’s side. Fat chance, right?
Mission calls typically come on Fridays, and it was expected on July 10th and I was planning on opening it on Sunday, the 12th.
The problem with that was, I was going to be at a Priest Quorum camp down in St. George until Saturday the 11th and I wouldn’t be there to pull it from the mail box. On Wednesday the 8th, my mom and sister Josie, anxiously waited for the mailman to deliver. He came and went… but no call was left. They gave me the disappointing news and we still hoped it would come the next day. It did not…nor the next day…or the next. At this point I was dying. It had been 2 weeks since I had submitted and I was ready!
Sunday afternoon, around 5:30, we heard a knock at the door. When I answered, there was a man standing there I had never seen before. He proceeded to tell me that they don’t check their mailbox very often but when they did they found, “something you might have been looking for.”
My call had been delivered to the wrong house. I could not have been more pleased to see this unfamiliar man on my porch. I thanked him and ran to show my dad and he laughed when I told him the story of the “Lost Call.”
A Dream Come True
We quickly got the word out that I would be opening my call on Monday evening at 7:00. We put a world map on the wall so people could put a sticker on the map to guess where I would be serving. My dad ask me if I could choose a mission where would it be. I said,” I would choose Milan, Italy.”
A few hours before our family and friends arrived, my dad ask me, “So, when are you going to put your guess on the map?” I told him I couldn’t put Milan, Italy, otherwise I wouldn’t go there. He reminded me that the call was already here so it wasn’t going to change. However, I wasn’t going to jinx it, so I didn’t put my sticker on the map.
The evening came and there were loads of family and friends who came to learn where I would be serving. They put their stickers on the map where they thought I would go. There were stickers placed all over the map.
I opened the envelope and began to read…first, the formalities…then, “You are assigned to labor in the Italy, Milan Mission.” The room exploded with cheers except for my Nana. She asked, “Now, where are you really going?” So, I read it again, “You are assigned to labor in the Italy, Milan Mission.” My dad couldn’t believe it and exclaimed, “Let me see that paper!” Of course, he was excited and my mom cried.
At first, it was hard to get my head around that fact that I was going to the mission I wanted. I’m excited to serve in that area of the world among the people of my ancestry.