Mission St. Louie

My Mission Call finally arrived. Took almost three weeks, but the wait is over. Yesterday morning we went and picked it up at the post office around 8:15, after about 45 minutes of waiting around for them to call.

I'm going to St. Louis Missouri! I enter the MTC on November 3rd. Wow... here goes.

Who am I?

So, you're actually reading my blog. Maybe you're wondering, "Who the heck is this guy?" Probably not, but I'll give you the quick version anyway.

My name is Brian. I live in a small town called Hyde Park, Utah, of the Good Ol' USA. Although Hyde Park is pretty inconsequential to the world, the nearby Utah State University in Logan is quite a landmark.

It's not perfect, but I love my home. Beautiful, mostly-peaceful Cache Valley boasts 100,000 residents, and the vast majority are really wonderful people -- caring, friendly, kind, neighborly, polite, etc.

It's going to be a little tough to leave it all behind for a couple years.

No call yet...

My call to serve did not arrive today. I wasn't convinced it would, but I was very hopeful. It will probably be another week before it comes.

This is my first entry here, so I guess I ought to explain that better. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (sometimes called the Mormons), and I know with all my heart that it is the true church on the earth today. After several years of challenges and delays (I'm to blame for that, not the church!), I have finally completed the paperwork that will allow me to serve a proselyting mission for my church.

The turnaround time for a mission call is typically about 10 days to three weeks, and they almost always arrive in the mail on Wednesdays. So today -- being a Wednesday, nearly two weeks since the papers were sent off -- I had high hopes that I find that oversized envelope in the mailbox. But alas, it was not to be.

So, I'm pretty disappointed. I know it will come eventually, I'm just not looking forward to waiting yet another week to find out where I'll be spending the next two years of my life, what language I'll be speaking, etc. I'm also very anxious just to get the call, to know that it's really happening, that after almost six years (young men are eligible to serve from the age of 19, and I'm almost 25), I'm actually going to be a Missionary.