Submitted.

I had my final interview with my stake president, so my papers are officially in. It was so liberating to know that my worthiness was validated by two representatives of the Lord; I was almost crying as I drove because I was just so joy-filled. I wish I had finished them earlier so that I would have had my call by the time I went home for Corinne’s wedding this past weekend; alas, it was not to be. I’ve never understood the hype about having all of everyone and their grandma around when the mission call is opened. How can anyone possibly wait to see where he or she will spend the next many months so that other people can also hear where the call is? It’s you who’s going; you can just tell them later.

Well, wait, I pride myself—yes, humility comes hard to me—on being open minded, which is honestly just the nice way to say indecisive. But really, I am open minded and have very few opinions on anything. I see this as both a good thing and a bad thing. But let me apply it to this situation.

Pros of opening mission call with friends/family: I don’t have to call everyone afterwards to tell them individually because they’re all there to open it with me! I feel loved because everyone wants to know where I’m going and made an effort to be there at the opening of my call. Friends/family feel loved by me because I’m including them in my life. It’s a good excuse for a party.

Cons of opening mission call with friends/family: I have to wait for them to gather. I have to be the center of attention. If I get called somewhere deemed unexciting by people, I have to accept their fake pity. I’d have to host a party.

You can add your own pros and cons; as for me, I actually did feel a little bad while writing the pros that my family won’t hear at the exact same second that I do where I’m going. But not bad enough to wait for them. It’s not really feasible for me anyways; the time change and the various schedules of my family would mean I would have to wait weeks for all of us to be in one place. Besides, I want to be just like Corinne, and I read her call out loud to her over the phone while she was in Ecuador.

At the end of the day, I’m just really excited to serve. People ask where I would want to go if I could pick, and due to my international interests, I would love to learn Mandarin (not a place, I’m aware), but I just want to GO. Anywhere. Perhaps initial disappointment with a Utah call, but only because I live here most of the year. People also ask (mostly close friends) how I decided to go, and God’s pattern in my life has been to let me pick. Helaman 14:30. But now that it’s so close, I only feel happy about it, so I think that’s a good indication that the mission field is where God wants me to be.