The Call

Maren's papers were in and she was counting down the days until she'd get her call.  She had several delays as medical reports weren't sent to where they were supposed to go and church leaders were out of town, and she was getting anxious.  We'd been told that most mission calls come on Wednesdays, but that Thursdays were common, too, so we were thinking her call might come on January 13th.  Imagine our surprise on Saturday January 9th at noon when a knock a the door brought a FedEx delivery man and an envelope marked Extremely Urgent Saturday Delivery.  That was our first indication that she'd be leaving really soon!

We figured that she better open it right away since we'd learned a lesson from Grandma and Grandpa Symons' mission call.  They got theirs in the mail in the middle of December and decided to wait until the whole family got together at Christmas to open it together.  They were quite shocked to realize they'd be leaving in just three weeks for their mission to Kirtland,Ohio!  

 We called family and friends and let them know she'd be opening her mission call that night.  Becky and her girls surprised us by jumping in the car and driving to Pocatello to be with us for Maren's big moment.  

 Family and friends made guesses, wondering where she might be called.  I thought it would most likely be in a South American country since she took two years of Spanish in high school, and Del was sure it would be stateside, but Maren was excited to go anywhere---even Twin Falls, Idaho (or so she said).

Excited and proud parents stood by.

No, I am not taller than Del.  He is sitting on my piano.  :)

  When Maren read "You are called to serve in the Central Eurasian Kazakhstan mission" there was a surprised gasp that spread through the room.  I think we were all thinking the same thing:  How exciting!  Where's that?  

She actually said, "Kuh zak uh stan."  We had to look it up on Youtube to know how to pronounce her mission.

 Everybody ran to the maps to see exactly where it was.

 

 Some of us were a little concerned when we realized it was right above Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.  Not the safest neighborhood in the world, but we knew she would be blessed.

 Maren was notified that she'd be speaking Russian but that could change according to the needs of the mission president.  She was also told she'd be leaving in 4 weeks!  She'd been preparing for months, but we still had a race ahead of us to get her completely ready.