My Mission Call!

On Saturday, October 6^th, 2012 I was sitting in the Forum in the Jerusalem Center watching General Conference.  I made my list of questions and conference began.  President Monson announced that the age that missionaries can leave at is now lower, it meant I didn’t have to wait any longer to go on a mission!  Within five minutes of conference starting half of my questions were answered and I sat there bawling, just experiencing every emotion possible.  I don’t remember what else was said for the rest of the day because I couldn’t focus on anything besides going on a mission!  Within a week I had started my papers (meaning my incredible parents started my papers) and I met with my home bishop and stake president shortly thereafter.  It was quite the process getting everything taken care of from Jerusalem, but somehow my parents did it and before October ended my papers were in!  I have attended mission prep every Shabbat (Saturday/Sabbath) night for the past two months now—Will and Bethany are the greatest teachers ever!  Two girls here turned their papers in just a few days before me (Erin and Mikele), and another one  turned hers in a couple weeks after I did (Laurann).   I decided that when my call came that I wanted to open it at the Garden Tomb, simply because that has been such a significant site for me here and it means so much to me.

Anyways, I asked my parents to not tell me when my call got to my house, and then have them fast-track it to Israel, hoping to be surprised with my call a few weeks later!  Wanting to be surprised might have tested my patience at sometimes, but it worked out better than I could have imagined.  My call got to my house and my parents kept it, hoping to surprise Sara and me by bringing it to Jerusalem with them and Reid.  That is a story in and of itself, but they were unable to come out here and ended up fast-tracking it (keep in mind they haven’t told me any of this until after I opened my call).  It was supposed to take 3-5 days for my call to get out here, but ended up taking a couple of weeks instead.   Erin and Mikele received their calls in Galilee and Laurann got hers Thursday morning, so I was the only one still waiting.  Sara followed the t racking online, and it was in San Francisco for quite a while.  Thursday morning the mail came but my call did not.  A few hours later Sara found that it had reached Jerusalem.

I realized about a week ago that there had to be some reason my call hadn’t come—not just that it might be stuck in the mail, but that I needed to learn something.  I had a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish and study before my call came, but I had pushed them back a little bit knowing that if my call came I could do it at the Garden Tomb…”knowing…” right.  Wednesday I finished that list and that night I had a dream that I got my call.  I remember covering the postage so that it wouldn’t give it away whether I was going foreign or not (I know that’s not supposed to be different, but Erin got called to New York and Mikele got called to Chile and Mikele’s postage was definitely more than Erin’s).  Just like most dreams concerning my mission call, I woke up before I found out where I was going.

We had a final Thursday morning and two Friday, but Thursday afternoon we decided that we needed a break from studying since we hadn’t gone out that past two days.  When we leave the center we have to be in groups of three and we had seven of us going out to the city.  Jake wanted to take pictures in the Old City and at the Garden Tomb, and Bethany needed to stop at Aladdin’s (the money changers), so we decided to split—half of us went to Aladdin’s and half went to the Old City (including myself).  Then we met up at the Garden Tomb; little did I know that they did not go to Aladdin’s, but they stopped by the post office!

We took some pictures and then Sara turned to me and said, “Umm Liz… Bethany has something to give you.”  I can only imagine how big my eyes must have been as I watched Bethany reach into her purse and pull out my call!  I was more than shocked at that point and then Jake handed me his phone with my family on the other end. I was able to open my call just 20 feet away from the tomb—St. Petersburg Russia leaving January 30^th, 2013.  I never could have dreamed that I would get called to Russia, but I can’t wait!  There are a lot of Russian Orthodox churches here, so I’m excited to revisit all of them this next week!  There are three other students here that speak Russian (two served in Ukraine and one in Russia), so I’ve already learned a handful of phrases!  I cannot wait to share the greatest message I know with Heavenly Father’s children in Russia!  Jerusalem has prepared me so much more than I ever could have imagined!