Remembering

This time of year always makes me think back a few years. This year is especially reminiscent for me, as the actual dates and days match up again. It was Monday, July 16, 2001 that my mission papers went in. (Wow. Has it really been that long?) A week and a day later, (Tuesday, July 24), at our stake Pioneer Day activity, my stake president asked me if I thought my call would come that week. Since it usually took about 3 weeks for calls to come back to Arizona at that time, I told him that I definitely wasn't expecting it for another week or two. He said something along the lines of, "Well, you never know!" Looking back, I wonder if he knew something that he wasn't telling me.

I got my call 3 days later on Friday, July 27, 2001. We almost didn't even check the mail that day--and you can imagine how surprised I was to see that big white envelope with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the return address. My parents and sisters had plans and my brothers were both at work. So, with a phone on each ear, (to each brother at work), I opened my call--which told me that I was going to the Lithuania Vilnius mission, Russian speaking. RUSSIAN?? I was totally surprised. I didn't even know where Lithuania was! When I got out my parents' encyclopedia, Lithuania wasn't even in there because at the time the encyclopedia was printed, the USSR was still one big country. I was so surprised that I was being sent to a formerly communist country. As a side note...There really is no feeling like opening your mission call and reading where you get to serve the Lord for the next couple of years. There is a definite power in each mission call. I KNEW that's where Heavenly Father needed me.

That night, I had a date with one of my good friends, Joe. He were going to a Chinese restaurant and then to watch movies at his apartment. On the way out to the car when he picked me up, I asked him where he thought I was going on my mission. His facetious response was that he was going to have to fast and pray about it before he could tell me. When I told him that I already had my call, he was shocked! I think I made him guess and then I couldn't contain my excitement any longer and told him where I was going. I was so excited about it all that I had to call a few friends and tell them about my call--which I did on the way to the restaurant. At the end of dinner, we each took our fortune cookies and read what they said. Mine read, "You will take a pleasant journey to a far away place." How appropriate!! It's been six years and I still have that fortune in my wallet. All through the movies that night, I couldn't stop thinking about the next part of my life. I barely remember what we watched--or what happened. For several months, I had been searching for the right place for me to be--and I finally knew what that place was!