Getting My Mission Call Part 1

For any non-members reading this blog, a "call" is what we Mormons have named the place one is assigned (called) to serve as a missionary. Not to be confused with a  "calling". You can look that one up yourself. 


Also, a "ward" is what we call individual Mormon congregations. All the Mormons in a certain area ("Stake", as in the stakes that hold town a tent, not the meat) are divided into wards of about 300 people based on where they live, kind of like school zones, and then are assigned a time and place to meet for church.


And now to continue with my story...






Eventually I had my interviews and my papers were submitted. And then the waiting began for my call.


This was the hardest part of the whole process. There is really no set time that it takes. One normally hears that in Utah it takes about two weeks, but not always. And whenever someone heard that I was waiting for my call they felt that they had to tell me all the horror stories. Most of them had to do with their Stake President forgetting to turn their papers in or losing them all together. My roommate's call took 4 months! When she called to see if they got them at the mission office in SLC they just said that they had received them, but they just didn't know where to send her yet.


So with all of these stories in my head I waited. Then, a week later, a guy in my ward who'd turned his papers in the same day as me got his call to Sweden (Yay Nick!) and my call didn't come. 


I was given some interesting piece of news though. Apparently the Bishop of our ward got news from Salt Lake that Nick's call was coming the weekend before it came. I had no idea it was possible to know before hand. So now those of you working on your papers right now know that this is a possibility.


But seriously ya'll, the waiting was driving me crazy. I was checking the mail every day, filled with a thousand disappointments every time it didn't come.

The next Sunday came and the executive secretary told me the Bishop wanted to see me. I was convinced it was something bad such as the mission office had just told him they would be unable to give me a call for whatever reason. We had just had a lesson in Relief Society about how the Lord is with you through all trials, so while I walked downstairs to his office I just kept telling myself that I was going to be OK because I had the Lord on my side no matter what (not as comforting as I would have hoped, but I still believe it today).

When I got there the Bishop told me I was going to receive my call either on Wednesday or Thursday depending on how long the mail took. This would be a good time to inform you that in Utah (Provo) calls almost always come on Wednesday. Then there was the awkward moment where I wasn't sure if he was going in for the handshake or the hug. It ended up being this weird sort of side hug.

But I digress. And it's getting late so I'll have to do Part 2 of this experience tomorrow.