Mission Call!

I just realized that I never blogged about Carter's mission call!

Carter's official mission picture, which we included with the paperwork when he applied.

First we must begin with the story of the Prom invite.

Prom is coming up fairly soon and Carter really screwed up at homecoming and never officially asked his girlfriend to go.  They still went but he felt kind of bad about how he bungled the invitation.

Bungled isn't really the right word...FAILED is more appropriate.

Anyway, he wanted to ask his girlfriend to Prom 

and not wait until the last minute and also do a good job.

So we came up with the idea of asking her when she was here to see him open his mission call.

He wrote up a prom invite that looked like a mission call 

but instead "called" her to go to Prom with him.

Then, when his mission letter arrived (he was at work), I steamed it open and inserted the Prom letter.

No I did not peek at his call when I did this.

(I know everyone wonders about that)

So when he opened his mission call, with everyone watching, the first thing he pulled out was this prom letter.  He looked at it and said, "This is for you, Harley"

Everyone was pretty confused.

Some of his friends were thinking that it was a new thing to include a letter in the mission call telling prospective missionaries not to have girlfriends when they leave.

Haaa!

Anyway, she read the letter and it was cute and funny.

_____

His letter arrived on Monday, March 21st.

Frank happened to be out of town that week so we knew he would be missing the mission call opening.  It was kind of sad, but he knew Carter didn't want to wait til the end of the week to open a letter that came on Monday.  So we set up Skype with Frank.  We also had two of Carter's friends from Massachusetts on Google Hangouts as well as Amber in Alaska.  We called Branden on the phone who was at work in Alaska as well.  Plus we had some neighbors, friends and family here at the house.  It was mayhem.  We also wanted to get Austin on the phone but with all the chaos it just didn't happen so we filled him in later.

Frank later said that he had a hard time hearing and that next time he wants to be here.  

Since Carter is our last kid, that "next time" isn't going to happen.

Poor Frank.

I did tell him that he will definitely be around for the next mission call that comes because it will likely be ours!  But that's a few years away yet.

I had put up a world map in our kitchen for people to guess where Carter was going.  Everyone had a fun time writing in their guesses.  I wrote in various guesses that were sent in through Facebook and text.

Carter and I had a running joke that I thought he was going to Boise, Idaho.

It was just my way of reminding him that it doesn't matter where you go!

You are going to do the Lord's work, it's not a vacation.

So it was only fitting that I write this guess of mine on the map.

He opened the call and will be serving in

Fukuoka Japan!

The first thing my sister said to me was, "A first world country!"

haha yes, indeed that is a good thing for a worrying mom.

We still have a lot of preparing to do before he leaves on June 22:

Clothes to buy, passports and visas to get, and hopefully some practicing of the Japanese language as well!

I will not be helpful on that last one.

We did have several correct guesses for where he would be called, one of which was my young nephew, Randy, who was here at the opening. 

Fun!

I wish I had thought to buy a prize.

I failed to take any pictures during the event.

There was just too much going on I guess.

I'm annoyed that I forgot though...

I had both of my other boys pose with their mission calls after they opened them and totally spaced it with Carter.

My brother took a few pictures of the people as they waited for us to get started.

Don't they all look super excited?

haaa!

We are very happy that Carter has chosen to serve a mission for our church, 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

We know that he will change and learn a lot, serve the people of Japan and grow to love them, and share the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.