Called to Serve!

Today, Daniel received his mission call! We had always been hopeful that he would receive it this week, but after speaking with the bishop and discovering the status of his call was not yet "assigned", we honestly thought it wouldn't happen this week. We checked his missionary portal in the morning with no change in status so he went to school and started to let people know it wouldn't be this week. Fast forward a couple of hours, I was in the grocery store when I got a very excited text stating that he did, in fact, receive his call! He wanted to wait until the evening to open it so more people had a chance to join us. He also had lacrosse tryouts that night so he had to wait until 9:00 p.m. to finally open it! Two of his friends, twins - Luke and Levi, also receive their calls so they decided they'd open them together. After an agonizing several hour wait, it was finally time. Because of the large group of people we were expecting with three mission calls to be opened, we held it at the church. I went earlier to set up a few decorations and Luke and Levi's family provided some refreshments. The wait was finally over! The boys drew straws to see who would read his call first. Danny won. (And yes...Danny was wearing the now infamous flowered shirt that each of his older siblings wore when they opened their mission calls.) The boys read the body of the mission call letter before opening the sealed envelope that contained the actual location and date of service. Daniel has been called to serve in the Kansas Wichita mission! Yes... that's the exact mission that Laurin served in nearly 8 years ago. Because I had printed out the mission call, Daniel, at first, thought it might be a joke. He looked at me, almost pleading for me to tell him it was a joke, but I confirmed that it was not. To be honest, I think there was a little disappointment when Levi reported that he would be serving in El Salvador and Luke would be going to Guatemala, but, after the initial shock wore off, Danny has more fully embraced his call and trusts in the Lord. He will start his missionary training at home on June 26 then move to the Provo MTC on July 5. That's only 112 days away (no...I did not count it out. It states it on his missionary portal.)! It will happen so fast! I know he will do well. I know this may not have been what he had hoped for, but I know Danny. I know he'll embrace it and make the best of it. Ready or not, Kansas here he comes!

Luke, Danny, Levi

All the kids in the flowered shirt...