I haven't posted in a LONG time, but I find myself with oodles of time right now, it being Thanksgiving Break.
This is what I'm thankful for now: I'm thankful that soon, I'm going to have the opportunity to go on a mission!
I'm working on my mission papers this week. I went in to the dentist's yesterday and got everything checked out and I'm heading into the doctor's office today for the physical, though because of my knee injury and consequent surgery a year ago, I need a note from the surgeon saying I'm all clear and that will happen next week. For my interviews, I believe I'm sending in my papers through my home ward but I'll be doing my temple interviews through my singles' ward. For those of you who don't know what that means, I'm not entirely sure myself. Basically, I'm just going to do what my bishops tell me and hope it gets okayed by the First Presidency.
What I'm going to be doing on my mission
Primarily, I'll be preaching to and doing service for the people in my mission. The church is trying to fade out the whole knocking on doors bit of missionary service because it's not as effective as having the members in the area find the people to teach and the missionaries doing the teaching. To those of you who might think that I'm going out there to force my Eurocentric ideas on an impoverished people, don't. We do not believe in doing that. As soon as somebody says they're not interested, we leave them alone. Well, that might not be entirely true. But our church is all about choosing as an individual and asking yourself "What do I believe?" Not many other churches preach from the pulpit the importance of gaining a well-balanced education, of being critical--though not cynical--of what our leaders say and being so accepting of others--even in the same religion--with different beliefs.
Secondarily, I'll be playing basketball or football. The real football, that is. The one where the players kick around a ball and aren't allowed to touch it with their hands. I also might be learning a different language, one different from the one to which I am called. I know a guy that had to pick up some Samoan while serving in Anchorage, Alaska, though he was called English-speaking. His dad had to learn Spanish while serving in Texas, also called English-speaking. Both Indian missions are officially English-speaking missions, but if I go there, I will definitely be trying to learn whatever language I can while I'm there.
When I'm going to get my call and what I'm going to do with it
First, I have to send in my papers. That will be anywhere between one week and four, I think. Like I said earlier, I'm having to work with two sets of bishop/stake presidents. I've never gone through the process with one, let alone double duty. It might be fast, or it might be really, really long. After I send them in--actually, Bishop Newby will hit the "submit" button--it usually takes two or three weeks until the call comes. It'll come in a big white envelope. Then there's going to be a lot of excitement. Most missionaries open it with their families or roommates gathered around. I don't want to do that. I'm going to open it by myself in my room with the door shut. Then--if there's a restaurant in town that serves food from the place where I'm going--I'm going to pack my family in the car and blindfold them and drive them to the restaurant and tell them there. And then it'll go on facebook.
For anyone that wants to guess--and I'm opening this up to anybody--hopefully I can figure out how to make a website where I can put up a map of the world's missions and people can click on the mission that they think and write their name and date and maybe language that they think I'll be speaking and somehow it'll show a tally or something. I'm not sure how it'll work or even if it'll work. But that would be really cool.
Last note: I'm thinking about having this be my mission blog, where Mom will post my letters and pictures and other things about my mission, so just be forewarned.
