Friday, August 18th, 2006

Shocker!

posted by lizzie    « 2 Comments »    tied to Uncategorized   

My family is all about surprises. Like the time when Jon called two days before he was supposed to get home from his mission to tell us he was extending for another month. Or the time when I came home from Ohio, pretending that Micah and I had broken up and then, slowly, quietly, told my siblings that we were getting married instead. That was a good surprise.

But we are always trying to out-do each other. And I think that is what Abby had in mind with her latest shenanigan. Imagine my surprise when last night we get a call from this particular sister of mine asking what we’re doing tomorrow. At 6:00 in the morning. Of course if we have to wake up at 6:00 in the morning, we’ve got to know why* so I pressed her for details. “Well, I decided to go on a mission, and I just got my call today, and I’m going to open it tomorrow at 10:00, which is 6:00 your time.”

So at 6:00 we were waiting with bated breath for the phone call. The gathering Provo took a little longer than expected and it was 7:15 before we were brought into the party through a series of satellites and cell phone towers. But it was well worth the wait to hear Abby say, “You are hereby called to serve in the Washington, Everett Mission . . . it is anticipated you will serve for a period of 18 months . . . speak the English language . . . report to the MTC in Provo, UT Nov. 1, 2006. ” Or something like that. Obviously I can’t remember the exact wording of these things.

We are happy for you, Ab, but sad that it’ll be another 2 years before we see you again . . . unless of course you make a little trip to Hawaii before you head up north to beautiful Washington.

*I’m just kidding. We wake up at 5:30 every day. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, they say. Or maybe just tired and cranky.

Comments

  1. Sarah says:
    August 18, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    Yeah, I have to say that there are some very good secret-keepers (reminds me of Harry Potter) in this family. She’s known since April! And I didn’t find out until she said “Well, now that you’re all here . . . I’m going to open my mission call.” Holy moley! Abby is definitely one for the theatrics. Although I want to say congrats Ab, if you read this. You’ll make the friendliest, happiest missionary ever!

  2. Mom B. says:
    August 20, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    Shocker is the word all right! We are all gathered in the front room, Abby is opening a white envelope and saying something about mission call, and Grandma and I are sitting there with our mouths hanging up trying to figure out what’s going on. If ever Abby wants to write a screen play about a missionary receiving a call, I think she ought to consider the one she’s already scripted. It was, as we say in the business, a “one take shot” and she shot it flawlessly.

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