The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

The Mission Call

19 years in the making…19 years of preparation…3 weeks of paperwork…1 day of Dr. visits and 1 hour of turn your head and cough.

Ladies and Gentleman the call has arrived! This past month has been filled with excitement with talk of my little brother’s upcoming mission call. For those that don’t know my relationship with Ryan, need to know that we are the best of friends. You should also know that I am always playing pranks on Ryan. The last time I got him, I had him convinced that he was blessed in a girls dress. For the past few weeks, I keep telling my bro he’s either going to go to the Ogden, Utah mission or the Boise, Idaho mission. He hated it. Last night, the Stake President pulled my mom aside and let her know that the call had been released and that Ryan would most likely get his call in the mail today. Do I hear opportunity screaming?!? Early this morning I got right to work in making official Church letterhead, envelope and a fake mission call. I even forged the Prophets signature.
T scribble, S scribble, M scribble. Ryan would never know otherwise.

Fast Forward to 8 pm. My parents house was packed full of family and friends awaiting the big call. My mother handed Ryan a very official looking envelope. Ryan opened and started to read aloud: “Dear Elder Bird: You are herby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Burley, Idaho Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months. You should report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah on Wednesday June 25, 2008." Ryan’s face was devoid of any emotion as he put the call down and looked around and then everyone started laughing and cheering for him. He was clearly not excited but trying to muster up some kind of appreciation and I’m howling the entire time. My mom told him to keep reading. He finished the paragraph about serving the Lord and then got to the next paragraph: “This is a fake mission call created by your brilliant sister Michelle who has your REAL mission call in her possession. Please remember that inflicting any kind of pain on her is not Christ Like.” The look of hope in his eyes, was priceless. I handed him his real mission call. Gulp. “Dear Elder Bird: You are herby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Sierra Leone Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months. You should report to the Missionary Training Center in Ghana on Friday August 29, 2008." HUGE CHEERS!! Ryan is going to Africa, folks. Speaking English. LOL. I’m a bit nervous about this but I will save my rant for later and just be proud of Ryan. When doing his interview with the Stake President, Ryan was asked what he couldn’t live without for two years and his response was, “running water.” I laugh and laugh and laugh.