Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Call

Sam worked on his mission papers without telling anyone in his family.  His call came December 23rd while he was at work.  He clued in his sister-in-law Rebecca and she watched for the mail while he was at work. The rest of the family was clueless.  He waited until we had about 32 family members over on Christmas Eve to stand up and wave  his big white envelope around and tell us all that he had an announcement.  We were all pretty flabbergasted!  He opened the envelope and announced that he had been called to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Mission and was leaving February 23rd.  He had always wanted to go foreign but you can't get much more foreign than Louisiana and still be in the states. His close friend Dillon Andrus came over, he had received his call the same day Sam did, but had already opened it.  He was leaving for Paraguay in May.  The next few hours were spent texting and/or calling everyone he knew.  This was the biggest and best Christmas surprise his parents had ever received.