"Called to serve Him..."
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, C.A.
Under the direction of President Cesar Augusto Morales Alvarez, I was able to serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as a full-time missionary in Guatemala. Having very little knowledge of Spanish, I embarked on a wonderful journey with many lessons to be learned.
The Call
The Call
I received my mission call on a Friday in April 2005, just three weeks after turning in my mission papers. I opened the envelope with the letter from the first presidency on Sunday with family members and friends present (or on the phone). I read the letter out loud and it went something like this, "... you have been hereby called to serve in the Guatemala...SOMETHING Mission..." Not knowing how to pronounce "Quetzaltenango", the word "something" was appropriate.
Upon hearing that I would soon be leaving home to serve as a missionary, many friends and family members had some questions for me. I distinctly remember a few of them, like, "What are you going to do with your cell phone?" or "Where's Guatemala?" Another one was, "Why would you PAY to live and work in Guatemala?" I think one of my favorites was, "How are you going to style your hair?!"
The days leading up to May 25, 2005
The last few weeks, days, and hours before I was to fly to Utah were spent slowly preparing to go. The Sunday before I entered the MTC I was set apart at the stake center. That night I finished packing my suitcases for my flight in the morning. Wanting to make sure I had everything, I didn't get a minute of sleep before getting into the car to drive to the airport. I did, however, get a few minutes of shut-eye on the drive to the airport. In the airport, I said my last good-byes to my family, went through security, found my gate, sat down, and fought the urge to sleep. I boarded the plane and slept until I arrived in Utah, where Chris picked me up.
May 25, 2005
On the morning I was to enter the MTC, I was only lacking one thing from my packing list-an alarm clock. Knowing this, Chris went to the bedroom and donated his to my cause. A month or so later, I realized that the alarm clock that he gave me was the same alarm clock that I gave him years earlier when he was about to leave for his mission in Brazil. That alarm clock made it through two missions (one mission was tiring enough for me).
Chris and Callie took me to the MTC, and off I went with my newly designed comeover hairstyle, a new suit and hiking books while trying to figure out how to pull three pieces of luggage with two hands.
