Called to Serve

This is Sophie.  She has chosen to set her life aside for 18 months and serve a mission for 

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

She got her mission call on March 16th, 2017.  It was right in the middle of our Spring Break and we had just gotten back from an awesome trip up north, temple hopping.  We stopping by Canyon View High School on our way back home to watch Josh's soccer game and by the time we got home we were tired and worn out.  Shayne and Konnor had stopped by to say hi around 9pm and asked if Sophie had gotten her mission call yet. We said that we hadn't even checked the mail.  None of us thought it would be here yet so we didn't worry.  But, Sophie went out to the mailbox and came back in with a big, white envelope!   So, we called everyone and told them to meet at our house the next night if they wanted to be there when she opened it.

We had put dots all around the globe with everyone's names on it on where they guessed she would be going.  It was common for people to guess the mission that they went on.  So, Joel guess Italy, Steve guessed New York, Kyle guessed Florida.

Not only was it just Florida but it was Kyle's exact mission.  Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Originally she had wanted to learn a language but after Jan and Paula, both told her how lucky she was that she DIDN'T have to spend time doing that, she felt better and was ready to work!

 

Her date to enter the MTC was July 26th so she had awhile but she wanted to hurry and receive her endowments so she could work in the temple before she left.  Which also made it super nice that everyone could come down here for their Spring Break a couple weeks later so we could all go to the temple together.  April 7th, 2017.  The lady in the first picture was that lady who helped Sophie through everything that day.  She was just leaving that same time we were, so we took a picture with her.  She was an angel.

We were only missing Andy, Sarah (Texas) and Casey(working).  All endowed, card carrying, members.  That is quite an incredible feat.  All 7 of my parents kids and both of the married granddaughters and their husbands.  Kyle is not featured in this picture because he is the cool uncle who hurried home to grab the rappelling stuff and the kids to take them up to the Sugarloaf to rappel before we all headed out to Brad and Ashley's to celebrate an early Easter together.  They had a blast!

Sophie said that she had "progressed to the other side of the temple".  Up until this point she had never taken a picture from this side of the temple.  She had always taken them from the baptistry entrance side or the front.  She felt quite grown-up.

A couple weeks later she started working in the temple on Friday mornings and said that it was the most important and wonderful experience of her life.  She feels it helped her prepare more for her mission by understanding that baptism alone is not the goal on her mission.  The temple is always the goal.  We are so proud of her and are excited to see her experiences and service.