June 22, 2017
After waiting only 9 days Andrew received his mission call! He was thrilled, and because his dad is the stake president, he had asked his dad to check the mission portal a couple times. As a family we expected to wait 3+ weeks for the call, but were all pleasantly surprised when it came so quickly! Andrew picked it up from the mailbox at lunch. He was working at the University of Utah Stansbury Pharmacy, getting in his pharmacy hours. And then he graciously ate lunch and left it sitting on the counter. The girls and mom all went to do a little shopping, and made it back to get dinner ready, so we could open the call. It took quite a while to get all the family on google hangouts, or facetime or the phone, but in the end nearly everyone was able to watch him open the call live. He was so excited to find out he would begin service August 15 (his parents 20th anniversary), in San Fernando California. He will prepare to teach the gospel in the Spanish language. He spent the entire evening reading through everything he could about his mission. He discovered it's one of three US missions with an entire Spanish Stake including 8 wards, and 1 branch. He was thrilled to learn of the diversity of Spanish speakers from central and south America. He felt an immediate love for the people, and the area. That evening he logged into his mission portal and immediately wrote his letter of acceptance. He testified of Jesus Christ, and his privilege to be called to serve in San Fernando. He testified of prophets and apostles, and the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. He knows it will be hard, but anxiously looks forward to the opportunity to serve the people there. That night he began praying in Spanish. His parents and Makaela also spent a fair amount of time talking to him in Spanish to see how he would do. He's a natural!
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| Andrew heading to the mailbox. We might have already checked to make sure it was in there. |
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| Here it is! This envelope brings such joy. |
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| I wonder if I can see where? |
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| Private reading of the call to the four musketeers. |
