Joseph received his mission call this week!
Last Monday, he got a call from his Branch President, who told him that the call had been issued and was in the mail. Wahoo! On Thursday morning, I ran out to the mailbox, and this is what I found.
To see the name of the Church on that large white envelope is quite a thrill! I yelled for Jesse and Mary to come out (they were out of school that day), and they ran and celebrated with me. Bruce was hollering from his office window to bring it in. The postage on it was $1.90. We couldn't remember for the life of us what the postage on Josh's envelope had been, so we searched the house up and down looking for his envelope and never found it. The postage is important because it's more if it's a foreign call because there's more paperwork. We texted Joseph a picture of his name on the envelope, and he called back and said, "Mom, right when you sent me that, I was blasting Called to Serve by the Mormon Tab!" He later said that nobody was in his college apartment, so he ran around the apartment yelling at the top of his lungs.
So there we sat, staring at the call for a day and a half.
In the meantime...
We went out to the Orchard to pick apples. I love it out there. I heard someone say that they have never seen such a plentiful harvest. I love the pictures that I take at the Orchard, especially of the children, because they inevitably look so happy.
They had a great time that night - thank you Victor for being a gentleman and friend!
And I just have to tell you about these shoes. These are exactly the shoes Jesse had pictured in her head when she bought the dress (yes - she paid for everything for Homecoming with money she earned teaching piano lessons). When we went shopping to find the shoes, these were the first shoes we saw in the first store that we went to. No joke! Talk about manifesting what you want...
He just returned from his French speaking mission in Switzerland and France, and came by with Grandma and Grandpa H. My parents happened to be here at the same time. What a treat!
Last Monday, he got a call from his Branch President, who told him that the call had been issued and was in the mail. Wahoo! On Thursday morning, I ran out to the mailbox, and this is what I found.
To see the name of the Church on that large white envelope is quite a thrill! I yelled for Jesse and Mary to come out (they were out of school that day), and they ran and celebrated with me. Bruce was hollering from his office window to bring it in. The postage on it was $1.90. We couldn't remember for the life of us what the postage on Josh's envelope had been, so we searched the house up and down looking for his envelope and never found it. The postage is important because it's more if it's a foreign call because there's more paperwork. We texted Joseph a picture of his name on the envelope, and he called back and said, "Mom, right when you sent me that, I was blasting Called to Serve by the Mormon Tab!" He later said that nobody was in his college apartment, so he ran around the apartment yelling at the top of his lungs.
So there we sat, staring at the call for a day and a half.
In the meantime...
We went out to the Orchard to pick apples. I love it out there. I heard someone say that they have never seen such a plentiful harvest. I love the pictures that I take at the Orchard, especially of the children, because they inevitably look so happy.
On Friday, we went out to the farm to do pull pipe. Peter's friend Hunter came along, so we had a 3 teams going, with Libby driving the four-wheeler. We moved right along - it was awesome! We had some trouble with horses getting loose and running hay-wire, but eventually we rounded them back up and put in their respective pastures.
After that we went to meet up with Joseph and Dane, who had just arrived into town with their ride. When we got home, we had about 40+ people waiting in the house to open Joseph's call. Luckily Mom & Dad got there first and welcomed people in.
Joseph opened his call to a crowd of expectant, happy faces all gathered around the kitchen table. His call is to the Argentina Mendoza Mission, speaking Spanish!!
He will report to the MTC in Provo, Utah on Jan. 23rd, 2013. What a coincidence - that is the same week that Josh reported to the MTC in Jan of this year, 2012! It's a perfect time to go in. It gives us about a month to get ready after Joseph finishes up at BYU-I. I really thought that my share of luck and blessing had run out with Josh going Spanish speaking, but the Lord saw fit to send Joseph to a Spanish speaking mission. Oh, I'm so grateful! Now the three of us - Josh, Joseph and I, can keep up our Spanish with each other. Bruce understands and speaks quite a bit too. WOW!!
To have that call happen on Friday night, and then to enjoy Conference Weekend with Joseph here has been heavenly.
The announcement on Saturday morning by Pres. Monson that the age requirement for missionaries has changed was stunning! I turned around and grabbed Jesse's hand, and we both started to cry together! Girls can go on a mission when they're nineteen and boys when they're 18! I told Jesse that when I was nineteen I prayed all the time that the Lord would make that change. It wasn't the right time then, but it is now. The cultural and spiritual ramifications of this change are widespread.
I told my family (tongue in cheek - somewhat) that this is a sure sign that Mitt Romney's going to win the election! And here's why: 1) Mitt has to win so that the economy will improve and parents will have jobs to pay for all these new unexpected missions, and 2) The Church is going to have so much more exposure because of his presidency, that more missionaries will be needed all over the world to take advantage of all the media exposure.
But seriously, what this means to me is, as Elder Holland said in the Press Conference afterward, that the work is hastening, and the time is short, which means the Lord needs more missionaries than ever. And the fact that so many more sisters will be able to go, well, this FB post by Porter Hoskins says it all:
I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who guides us through living prophets in our day. I love how this is going to energize the Young Men and Young Women's programs, and Seminary also!
Speaking of Sisters, check out this future missionary! She may have to tone it down a little, or the 18/19 year old missionary thing may not work out so well...
This is Jesse on the night of Homecoming. She went to the dance with Victor, the starting quarterback at the High School, who got named the Idaho football player of the week for his tremendous play at the Homecoming game the night before! Way to go Victor!
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| Victor and Jesse |
I found this yoga pose on Pinterest, and asked Libby if she could do it. Pretty close!! Libby is SUPER flexible.
Some more pictures - this is the last time Joseph will be out at the farm working with us for the next 2 1/2 years!
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| I love this picture! |
We finished pulling pipe on Saturday after the afternoon session of Conference. I couldn't believe the difference in our family's work. Everybody worked quickly, happily and efficiently. If you had told me it would be this way as little as 2 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it!
On Sunday, we got a surprise visit from cousin Matthew!
Wow, writing this post has made me so grateful for the Lord's blessings to our family. I feel like paraphrasing Mormon and saying, "Surely there could not be a happier family..." We are not without our troubles (the house is 60 degrees right now because we have no heat - the furnace is broken), but they seem minor compared to the Lord's bounteous blessings.
Coming up next week: Cider Festival!
1 comment:
Your joy and happiness just shine through in this post! The Lord does bless us bounteously, doesn't He? Have you tried out the fireplace until the furnace gets fixed?
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