My Brother - The Missionary!!

I need to give a shout-out to my brother, Michael. He had quite an eventful weekend! He is preparing to go on a mission and submitted all his paperwork a few weeks ago. He's at BYU for his freshman year, but he flew home this weekend to be with my parents and Steven to open the call. Since now the mission call process is done online, you can check the status of your mission call and see if it has been issued or mailed out from Salt Lake. They saw that the call was mailed Tuesday, so my mom had figured out that the letter should arrive at their home in Arizona on Thursday or Friday. Michael had his flight booked to arrive in Arizona Thursday night and would go back to Utah on Sunday - so they were anxiously checking the mail!

Thursday .... No call

Friday ... No Call (my mom even saw the mail carrier drop the mail off this day, and had him double check in the truck)

At this point we were all really freaking out because he was flying back to Utah on Sunday, and the call was supposedly in the mail headed to Arizona! So Saturday was the last chance.

Luckily, even though the mail came 3 hours later than normal ... it FINALLY arrived on Saturday afternoon. Tyler and I were in Florida of course, but we quickly got home and on Skype with our webcam, as did my sister Paige and Ben from Ithaca New York.

So fifteen minutes after the call came in the mail, our family was all "there" and could see and hear each other - don't you love technology! Now, finally Michael was able to open the call. He had always said he really did not care at ALL where he was called. He didn't have a dream call, or any preconceived ideas of where he'd go. Mostly, he was just hoping he'd be able to leave as soon as he could after he turns 19 on May 20th. "I'll go where you want me to go..."



So we all watched as he opened the call and found out he'll be serving a mission for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the UTICA, NEW YORK mission!!! He reports to the MTC on June 2nd!!

We were all freaking out, first of all - he's going to New York, who would have guessed?? But especially because Paige and Ben happen to live in that area! Seriously as soon as he read the call my mom dropped to the ground freaking out. My mom just visited Paige and Ben 2 weeks ago in New York and while she was there she met the Mission President who just happened to be speaking at church that day. What are the chances??? Ok let's be honest, it didn't happen by chance. Now instead of having her kids all spread across the world, she just has one in Florida and two in New York - not too bad, right?

I am so excited for him, especially because he leaves June 2nd, he was thinking he might have to wait around until July. He'll be out in New York by the end of June, so awesome!!

So now Tyler and I can plan our summer trip out west - we will be out in Arizona at the end of May then we'll be in Utah the start of June. But maybe I should rephrase ... our BABY BOY ... will be in Arizona and Utah at the aforementioned dates. I think everyone is just a bit excited to meet him! We'll be excited to introduce him to the rest of our families and friends!!

For now, Tyler and I are getting really excited to meet him -- 29 days, ahhh!!!