Kennewick Washington!

I've got some exciting news to share for this post. I got my mission call to serve in the Washington Kennewick Mission Spanish speaking! I report to the Provo MTC on January 16th. When I saw that I was going so soon, I was pretty shocked. Luckily my parents were able to catch all of my reactions on video while I was opening my call. They had fun playing it over and over. The next few weeks will be pretty busy trying to get everything gathered together. I am way excited to be able to serve a mission soon and in such a beautiful area. I know Kennewick is where I am supposed to serve and I'm anxious to get started.

Thanks for reading and I'll try to keep you updated.

Thanksgiving and Little More

Since its been a few weeks I figured I might as well write another post and I guess some stuff has happened for me to write about.

My papers finally got finished and I had my interview with the stake president. Now all I have to do is wait for my call to come in the mail. I'm hoping it will be here in the next week or two. I'm both excited and nervous to find out where I have been called to serve. It has been kind of fun speculating about where I'll go and what it be like. Countries in South America have been guessed a lot but there is always the possibility I will be sent to some oddball place that no one saw coming. However, I know where ever I am called is where I'm supposed to serve.

Thanksgiving was both an interesting time and a fun time. Though we didn't have the whole family over, we still had a full house with some family, the elders and a family from the ward. The dinner was really tasty with turkey, mashed potatoes, frog eye salad, rolls, Nauvoo sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and a few other things that I forgot. This year was the first time in a long while that the turkey wasn't bone dry but was moist and delicious.

After we ate our fill, we sat around the living room, chatting for a few hours. It was fun to hear all the stories that were told. Some were funny, some were embarrassing but it was all in good fun.

An exciting couple of weeks

So for this blog post I wanted to try out the Email-to-Blog feature that blogger has. Just as a warning that the formatting might be off.

The doctors appointment went well. He stuck me with a few needles and cleared me to go. I must say that church is very thorough when it comes to the health their prospective missionaries. I can't blame them for that though since I'll be away from regular check ups for two years. I'll be turning in my papers to the bishop soon so he can take a gander at them before they go to the stake president. Other than that, nothing else concerning my mission has happened.

BUT we did go to Utah for the blessing of Jed and Adrianne's daughter Juliet. AND I got to stand in the circle for it.

It was lots of fun to be able to hang out with my siblings for a couple of days. Jed and I climbed up the side of a mountain to a cave that he found earlier. The whole cave was barely wide enough to climb in sideways and went back only a few hundred feet. Although there were a couple of spots where you have to climb up and over a section to keep going back. Towards the end of the cave there is about 30 or 40 foot climb and I'll admit I was a bit of a chicken to climb it at first but eventually I worked up the courage to make the climb. There was never really anything to worry about since the space between the walls was pretty narrow and someone put a climbing rope in to help out any daring spelunkers. Jed wanted me to try to fit through a hole at the back of the cave, just to see what was back there but neither of us could fit. After we came out of the cave we wanted to see the view from the ridge just a few yards from the mouth of the cave. It was a beautiful view and I wish I would have taken a picture but thats alright.

Instead of climbing back down the way we came up, we decided to keep going down. It turned out to be a bit steeper than we thought to the point where we were free-climbing for certain spots. Of course Mr. Long-Limbs Jed could reach the footholds easier than me. I, however, looked like a starfish trying to hold on to the rocks. Jed is a little more, daring than I am and leaped a few feet to a ledge but lost his footing and fell seven or eight to some loose rocks. I decided to take the sure footing route down a crevice in the rocks. Each of us only got a few scratches for our adventures which wasn't bad considering it looks like a cliff from the base of the mountain.

The blessing that Sunday went well. Jed did an awesome job blessing Juliet. The rest of the testimony meeting reminded me a lot of my home ward. My dad and I would whisper to each other names of who we thought the speaker reminded us of. Afterwards we went to Jed and Adrianne's little apartment where 50 or so people gathered for chili and to catch up with each other. We had a great time chatting with cousins, friends, family, and in-laws.

Later that night Carly and I went up to Bridal Falls and Sundance just because we were bored and wanted to go for a drive. I loved being able to climb up to the falls and look out at the sunset and the pretty scenery. All of this stuff was within about a 30 minute drive which to me seemed really awesome and made me excited to go to school at BYU.

The next day dad and I flew home because we had to get back to work. OF COURSE I find my lost knives at the AIRPORT. I had forgotten about a couple of pocket knives in my bag, so they ended up in the trash or whatever TSA officials do with them. I didn't want to spend twice as much in postage as the knives were worth. Anyway, dad and I are one of last 15 people to board and all the seats EXCEPT the center seats are taken. So I ended up sitting in the row in front of dad. The plane landed in Denver as sort of a connecting flight. (we stayed on the same plane back to Kansas) So naturally I move a row back and take the center seat to be more comfortable for the remaining flight. (I tend to tilt sideways when I sit too close to dad) As the plane fills up, this very large gentleman asks if he can squeeze into the center seat. So I just moved over to the center seat since it would just be weird to have a stranger sitting between dad and I. After we get buckled in and situated "comfortably" dad and I just look at each with the look that says "Did he really have to sit there?" The flight was rather uneventful which is kind of a good thing. We didn't have any checked bags so we didn't have to wait in the airport at all before April came to pick us up.

All in all, it was a pretty good trip but going back to visit family always makes me want to just pack up and move there but we are in Kansas for a reason and my mission is coming up fast so there is no point in changing everything at the last minute.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.

Another Step Forward

So yesterday was a pretty exciting day. I was ordained to the office of an elder AND I finished the online paperwork for my mission. The only thing I have left to do is a doctor appointment, which is tomorrow afternoon. It's all starting to fall into place and its really exciting to be so close to going on a mission.

Time feels like it is flying by but it's only been two weeks since the announcement was made. Before my papers can be sent to salt lake I need to talk to the bishop and then the stake president. Hopefully in the next couple weeks my papers will be on their way to Salt Lake City.

Thanks for reading and I will try to keep you updated.

I think a little introduction is in order...

For a while now I have been trying to think of a way to share my future LDS mission experiences without sending a hundred emails every week or by getting on Facebook (since that's against the rules), a blog seemed like the logical choice. 

With the announcement from President Thomas S. Monson about the lowering the eligibility age to serve a mission, my need to start a blog got a lot more... rushed since I want to go on a mission as soon as possible. Seeing as I have never used this program, I figured I should probably get used to how it works otherwise my posts might end up a little jumbled and confusing.

Anyway, when we heard the announcement from President Monson I felt a lot like the kid in this picture and I'm pretty sure I looked like that too. (Mouth and everything I might add) After the initial shock wore off, (a couple hours later) it felt right that I need to serve a mission as soon as possible and that is just what I plan to do.

The two big things that need to happen before I can leave are:

1. Be ordained an elder (interview on the 14th of Oct 2012 and ordination on the 21st Oct 2012)
2. Mission papers turned in (only a couple doctors appointments and a of couple forms)

Everything is starting to fall into place and its really exciting because it won't be long before I get my call to serve and then not long after that I'll be in the mission field. 

I can honestly say that I am excited to serve the Lord by serving a mission to share the gospel with His children where ever I am sent. I know that the work done by missionaries is very important and I hope I can be an effective tool in the Lords hands to spread the gospel. 

Thanks for reading my post and I will keep posting my experiences and progress leading up to my mission and eventually the mission itself.