Our Soon to Be Missionary!

So last Wednesday was a pretty exciting day for us. The day we were expecting the mailman to bring Kimball's mission call. I think we all woke up with a bit of excitement in the air. Kimball was up and out the door early, as he has a 7:00 am astronomy class. All morning I was hoping that the mail would come early, but it still had not arrived when I left for the shop at around noon.

That morning I was reminded of the day that Brad's call came. We were expecting that it would come the following week, so we weren't even watching for it to come that day. Emilie checked the mail box when she came home from school, and found it had been delivered that day. I had to take the envelope and hide it under the table cloth of the dining room table, I was so tempted to just rip it open right then & there!

The mailman came sometime between 12:00 & 1:00. When Kimball got home after class, his call was in the mail.


We gathered that evening, for the 'opening' party. First we passed around a paper & let everyone guess where they thought he would be going:


I sat next to Kimball as he opened the envelope. I was going to read ahead to see where he was going before he announced it (I did that when Brad opened his call), but decided to sit back and just find out at the same time as everyone else. To say we were all VERY surprised when he read that he had been called to serve in the Philippines, Angeles mission would be an understatement. Kimball will enter the Provo Missionary Training Center on June 23, 2010, where he will prepare to teach the gospel in the Tagalog language.


As you can image, the the first thing we did was grab the world atlas book to find out just where the Philippines is located.



Kimball and his friend Dennison (soon to be Elder Conger, serving in the Charleston, SC mission)

We've also been learning a lot about the Philippines this week. Did you know they celebrate their independence day on June 12th! Yes! That is also Kimball's birthday.


I also learned that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is celebrating it's 50th year in the Philippines. President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the island for the Filipinos to open their doors for the missionaries in April 28, 1961. The culminating event of this celebration is to take place in April of 2011, so Kimball will be able to take part in that once in a life-time celebration!


The next 3 months will be a busy time for us, as we prepare to send Kimball off to serve the Lord for the next two years. I have started a new blog that will follow Elder Hill, if you would like to - feel free to visit this blog also. And remember, if you see a couple of young men in white shirts & ties with black name tags, smile and greet them kindly. One of them could shortly be my son or one of his best friends.