Andy Gets His Mission Call!

So Andy's mission papers were submitted to the Church on August 30th.  Before he left for his mission he wanted to see Gichan and Aichan in Japan and so we sent him over on September 1st for a visit.  We figured  it would be a great distraction to be in Japan while he waited for his mission call to come...what we didn't plan on was that it might arrive at our home before Andy did! 

So, needless to say, we were excited to see the call come in the mail on Thursday, September 9th, and yes, there was some talk of whether we should call Andy and let him know (and even a very brief discussion about steaming it open :)).  We decided to just let him end his visit to Japan in peace and didn't mention it to him...we could wait three more days till he got home!

Whenever we would tell people that his mission call had arrived but that Andy was still gone and didn't even know about it, the reactions were varied, including:

• "Steam it open!"  
• "How can you stand it!?"
• "What willpower you have!"
• "You know, if you put it in the freezer you will be able to open it"

As tempting as it might have been to open it ahead of time, we knew we were not skilled enough to act adequately surprised when Andy actually opened the letter...so we opted to put it on the mantle in front of the big map of the world and let it be.

We brought the envelope with us to the airport when we went to pick Andy up...we gave it to him in the car...he looked at it, turned it all around and over and up and down...but didn't open it at that point.  He was sort of nervous and way excited to open it, but tortured us a bit longer while he got ready for church and unpacked a little...finally he came down and had a nice big glass of chocolate milk to prepare himself and opened the envelope.

He started reading while we all held our breath...when it came to the exact name of the location where he would serve, we were clueless as to pronounciation, but got the Brazil part!  Leaving January 26th to the MTC in Sao Paulo.  The actual name of his mission is Joao Pessoa.

 

Shock and awe...total amazement...where is this place and how do we say it !!??

After the intitial excitement we all headed to our respective phones and email accounts to spread the great news! 

How fun for Andy that one of his best friends, Jeff Walton had entered the Sao Paulo MTC just 2 weeks or so before all this...going to a different mission in Brazil, but still learning Portuguese and everything!

We went to church not long after that and Andy was mobbed with people congratulating him and wishing him well.  He even got lucky because the member of the bishopric who announced his call had gone to Brazil on his own mission and could teach us how to say the name of the mission!

The fun continued when, that Sunday night, Andy learned that another good friend, Christian McComber, who opened his call that night, was also going to Brazil...again a different mission, but entering the Sao Paulo MTC just one week before Andy!!