My Mission Call Video!

Throwback post!

This is a video of me from Thursday, March 14th = the day I got my mission call. For those of you unfamiliar with the "mission call" process, let me explain :)

Step 1: Fill out alllllll the paperwork. Kind of like a job application, but more extensive. You have to go to doctor's appointments and dentist's appointments, etc. One could theoretically finish this in one or two weeks, but from the time I started until the time I finished was about 3 months.

Step 2: Interviews with your ecclesiastical leaders. I had one meeting with my Bishop (the head of our congregation) and one meeting with the Stake President (who is the leader of a large group of congregations). [For more information on the leadership and organization of the Church, see here.] These interviews are fairly low key, its simply a little talk where my leaders gave me more information about what exactly I was getting myself into by choosing to go on a mission, and evaluate my ability to live the commandments and be a righteous example while I am on my mission.

Step 4: Send all the paperwork to the Church leadership in Salt Lake City.

Step 3: WAIT. This is the absolute hardest part! We have to wait, anywhere from 2-3 weeks, to find out where we are going to go. That's right, I didn't CHOOSE Brazil. When I turned in all my paperwork, I had absolutely no idea where I would be going, and I didn't even know when I would be leaving. The Church has missions all over the world, so I could have gone anywhere, speaking any language! The Divine Call of a Missionary, a talk by Elder Rasband, gives more insightful details about how my mission call was chosen by the leaders in Salt Lake.

So finally, on March 14th, I got my mission call :) Needless to say, it was one of the happiest days of my life. I had started all my paperwork the week of Thanksgiving - so it was nice to finally have the big white envelope in my hand!