We’ve Got News

The secret is out!

About a month ago, our daughter Sara sent us a text and asked if it was too late to Skype.

Always happy to Skype with our kids, we hurried to call her.

When her video came on, she looked lit up like she was bursting with good news.

I wonder if she went on a fun date or met a cute boy, the mom in me wondered.

Maybe she decided where she wants to go for graduate school.

So what’s up? We asked, trying to set the iPad just right to get both my head and Doug’s in the camera lens.

“So, I think I’m going on a mission!” she said.

Our mouths dropped open, we instinctively moved in a little closer to the screen.</

Did she just say she’s going on a mission?

That would mean leaving school in her senior year and being gone for 18 months to who-knows-where teaching people about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She’s never been interested in that. Didn’t she just tell us last summer that going on a mission was the last thing she wanted to do? She said she’s not the missionary type. She’s an introvert, even shy about meeting new people sometimes. And she wants to go on a mission?

We continued to stare with our mouths gaping open as she told us her story.

True, she never wanted to go on a mission.

Never even considered it actually.

She had plans to complete an internship, earn a certificate in her field, graduate

and then decide whether to go to graduate school or work for a year before going.

Then one night while studying, a new thought popped into her head.

You should go on a mission.

What?

Go on a mission?

No.

I’m not the missionary type.

You should go on a mission.

She couldn’t get it out of her head.

You should go on a mission.

She did what she knows to do when she has a big decision to make.

Make a decision. Pray if it’s right. If it is, you’ll feel at peace. If it’s not, you’ll feel confused and unsettled.

The thought persisted.

You should go on a mission.

She felt calm, peaceful, excited, ready.

After she was 100 percent sure, she called us and told us her decision.

“I wanted to tell you sooner but I needed this to be my decision.

I knew you would be supportive, but I had to know for myself. I didn’t want to be swayed one way or another.”

Doug and I still stared at her in disbelief.

All I could say was “Wow!”

That’s still all I can say.

Wow that she felt that impression, took it seriously, acted on it, and made a tough decision.

Wow that she is so excited, confident and sure about the direction in her life.

Wow that she is mine.

An even bigger wow that she is God’s, and that she is willing to do something this big for Him.

So now we wait.

She has finished the paperwork.

She has one more ecclesiastic interview.

The paperwork will go into LDS Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Someone there will prayerfully select where she should serve.

She will receive a letter from President Thomas Monson, asking her to serve in the area where she is needed.

We will wait, not so patiently, for that letter to arrive in the mail.

We will freak out with excitement when it arrives and be happy to know where she’s going and when.

Will she be able to use her French language skills? Will she stay in the U.S.? Will she go to California where she’ll blend in with her blonde hair? Or will she be a tour guide at Temple Square in Salt Lake City?

Wherever she goes, she will accept the call to serve.

And she will start an unforgettable new chapter of her life.

She will be one of over 52,000 full-time missionaries in the church.

She will teach the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever she is sent.

She will wear the honorable missionary tag indicating she is a representative of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes the word “proud” is so inadequate.

This is one of those times.

Here is Sara’s blog announcing her decision: http://saraturner64.blogspot.com/