Getting the call to serve

For Andrew's entire senior year, he was unsure if he would serve a mission or not. He applied for college and was offered a scholarship at Southern Utah University. For awhile, he had decided that he would just go to college the fall after graduation and make his decision about a mission later. Then, he got his patriarchal blessing, and that all changed. His decision was made to serve a mission immediately after high school, and he never again strayed from that decision.

He worked on his papers and submitted them...and waited. His older brother, Aidan, was arriving home from his mission in Honduras on June 15, and it started to look like he would get his mission call right around the time that Aidan got home.

What we didn't know is that it would get here...

on the same day. And... Andrew wasn't home. We had arranged for Andrew to fly to Atlanta to surprise Aidan during a layover during his flight home from Honduras. When I told Andrew his call had arrived, at first he wanted to wait until he was home, and have a call opening party with family and friends. He texted me later and asked me to bring it to the airport when we picked him and Aidan up, in case he changed his mind and wanted to open it then.

Aidan's flight was delayed about five hours and didn't end up getting in until about 2am on June 16 (side note: it was a HUGE blessing that we had Andrew in Atlanta with Aidan and Elder Anderson as they traveled home as we and the Andersons had no other way to get in touch with our missionaries and get updates about the flight delays).

After our family greeted Aidan, Andrew decided he wanted to open his call right there in the Salt Lake City Airport. It was so cool!

June 16 @ about 2:30am in the SLC Airport

Andrew was able to open his call with his brother, who was still a missionary - pretty awesome! He was so excited to open his call and see California Anaheim, Spanish-speaking. He, his brother, his stepdad Rob and his stepsister Danielle all spoke Spanish on their missions.

So proud of Andrew for his decision to serve and so excited to hear about his experiences over the next two years! We love you, Andrew!