The Call

     As mentioned, Leesa and I met with our Stake President in early November, and I spent the next three weeks full of hope and excitement, along with a lurking fear of disappointment. We both badly wanted to return to the land of our first missions.

    I woke up on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 29th, and with bleary eyes saw a text message: "You may now view your mission call on your missionary portal." 

    Suddenly, I wasn't so bleary-eyed anymore. Leesa was still fast asleep (she is a nightowl, staying up into the early hours knitting and watching playoff reruns of her beloved San Francisco Giants. Every year, just after the World Series, she begins watching each postseason win of the Giants' championship years of 2010, 2012, and 2014. I can't forget an evening two years ago, when she started watching the first game of their 2010 playoff run against the Atlanta Braves. That year, the Giants had picked up a fringe player by the name of Cody Ross, an outfielder who suddenly excelled and really helped the Giants win it all. I was in the kitchen fixing dinner when this shriek comes out of our office: "The legend of Cody Ross starts NOW!!!)

    So here I was, debating whether to wake her or let her sleep. Fortunately, I used a little good sense and woke her up: "Hey, wanna come in and see our call?" She woke up pretty quickly, too. We threw on our robes and headed for the office. I logged in to the portal, and after a few clicks found the letter from Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church. We scanned to the third paragraph: "You are assigned to labor in the Alpine German-speaking Mission."

    Well, the tension finally broke, and I started calling, texting, and emailing everybody we knew with the exciting news. The AGSM covers all or part of four countries: the lion's share of the southern German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the German-speaking part of Switzerland, which covers about 75% of the country, all of Austria, and all of the tiny European micro-state of Liechtenstein, tucked in between Switzerland and Austria. The entire mission covers an area roughly the size of Utah.


    So, much of December, in and around getting ready for Christmas, was spent accumulating documents which are intended to satisfy the exacting demands of the German government. We needed certified copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificate from Utah, and our "criminal" record from the FBI. All of this required an "apostille," which is a kind of notarization on steroids. Each of these had to be certified by the California and Utah departments of State. 
    The smaller stuff needed was six passport photos each, exactly 35mm x 45mm, color copies of our driver licenses and passports, along with our California driving records. All of this got done in due time, so now we are preparing our personal effects and financial systems.


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