This is how We/I felt. We all wanted to know where the Lord needed Ben to go, but I was a little afraid to find out. Ben was always saying, "Mom, I'm going to be a little salty if I go stateside. I would love to see another part of the world." Then I would follow it up with, "Oh buddy, I have been PRAYING for stateside and God hears a Mother's prayers more!" We all know that isn't true, but I was hoping. 😉 The anticipation and excitement was all consuming. Between Ben constantly telling us how excited he was and us trying to guess where he was going made for an emotionally charged day, to say the least.
As he thanked everyone for coming and ripped open the call the words seem to drag on forever and then he read it, "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to the California Riverside Mission."
My Mom heart was so relieved. Stateside meant McDonald's, peanut butter and even Wal-Mart. So many of the amenities the US had to offer. He seemed content with the call which made us happy too and he reads on.
"You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Mandarin language." WHAAAATTTT! The shock was real! MANDARIN?? My first thought-OH BOY! My second thought-HOW COOL! I guess those Chinese classes in HS will come in handy after all.
When I hugged him I asked him if he was OK with the call he said, "Oh ya Mom. I was OK with California or New York." Oh OK, I guess the Lord knew his choices. LOL
All in all, not where anyone guessed he would serve and definitely not the language he would teach in, but what an adventure this was going to be!
The anticipation this week has been intense knowing that at any given day we could receive "the call" in the mail. Everyday I would check with excitement and nothing until one day....IT CAME!
That big white envelope made its appearance on Thursday Sept. 1st. As I opened the mailbox and saw the envelope, it took my breathe away and then the tears came. Tears of excitement, fear, worry, anticipation for where he would be called. ALL human emotions came to my eyes in that 30 seconds staring at that big white envelope. I will admit I had the thought of slowly and carefully heating the glue, opening it and reading where he would be going, but in good conscience I couldn't look him in the eye and know his fate before he did.
He was out when it arrived so when he came home I couldn't wait to tell him what had come. He was so excited, practically jumping around and wanting to call everyone important in his life to rush over and share in what would be his future for the next 2 years. It was about 7:00pm when this all happened. He realized that at this time of night people were home with their families and probably tired from work. So as hard as it was he decided it would be better to make the necessary phone calls and invite everyone over the next evening.
