Called to Serve

 I get to make the first post in Tyler's mission blog, about him receiving his call.    When you open the mission call letter, it first talks about your worthiness to represent the Savior.  Then it talks about your purpose as a missionary.  Lastly, it gives you your assignment.  Tyler was really hoping to be called to a Spanish speaking mission, and the Lord answered that desire.  He has been called to serve in the Honduras Comayagüela mission.  Here's the story of how it happened.  

I'll start by saying Tyler's experience was not the way I wanted it done, but it was his mission call and it was done how he wanted to do it.   😏

Alright, so his mission application was submitted on February 19th.  The stake president (our good friend, Paul Van Slooten) had texted Tyler and told him he had sent it that day, so we knew it was in.  Typically, at least for the last years since my boys have gone, mission calls have come electronically on Tuesdays.   (Ashley age group was some of the last missionaries to get it the old-fashioned way-- in the mail!)  But I had also noticed the last month or so on the "missionary mamas" Facebook page that some calls were coming on Monday nights, too.   So 10 days in, on Monday, March 3rd, we thought maybe his call would come.  It didn't.  It didn't come Tuesday either.  At that point we thought it would probably be the next week and kinda put it out of our minds.  

Thursday, March 6th, I'm teaching piano lessons.  It's been two weeks and one day since his application was submitted.  It was around 4:40pm and Tyler comes into the office with a big smile on his face.  He shows me the text on his phone... his mission call was ready to be viewed!!!!! 😮

We were shocked and pleasantly surprised; it was so unexpected!  Of course I talked to him for a second, but he was like, "I'm leaving.  I'm going to the temple."  See, for the last couple of months he had said that he was going to open his call by himself first.  He and some of his friends had decided this was how they were going to do it.  I was hoping to persuade him to at least let Scott and I be there with him, but that's not how it happened.  I wanted to be able to watch his live reaction to it, but he wanted to do it on his own.  

I love that he wanted to go to the temple though to open it.  What a blessing to have the temple so close to us now, and that he knew it was a sacred place for that moment. We had gathered at the temple when Luke opened his call with our family, and it was so special.  Tyler had plans that night to go to the BHS girls soccer game at 5:30pm, so I think in his mind he saw a brief window of time where he had the 15 minutes to drive over to the temple, open his call, have a few minutes to process it, and get to the game on time.    But the whole thing felt like it happened so quick!  

Back to the moment with Tyler at home...So he showed me his call had come.  He texted our "homie" thread that includes myself and his dad, and he was out the door by 4:45pm.  About 30 minutes later, when I was finished with piano, I texted him and asked him how he was feeling about it.  He replied with the big eye emojis 👀and said, "muy bien".  That was it.  That was all we got.  I didn't press him for any more information because I wanted to be with him when we found out where he was going.  But it was enough for us to think he was speaking Spanish, which was the ultimate desire of his heart.  He wanted to speak Spanish like his brothers (and he has uncles and aunts and a grandpa that speaks Spanish, too).  He has taken Spanish in high school for 3 years and has said for a few years now that he hopes to speak Spanish on his mission.  

He got home around 8:30pm after also watching the BHS boys game (he has friends that play on both the girls and boys teams) and then he texted our family group chat the picture from above.  Of course the chat exploded with excitement, and we messaged Luke to see if he could join the call in 30 minutes.  He said he could, so we made the plan to have a family group call at 9:00pm. (which was 10:00pm for Luke).   Luke initiated the call through What'sApp and everyone joined.  

So, so grateful for technology that let us be together for this moment, even though there are thousands of miles between us.  Here we are in Utah, Colombia, Idaho, and Arkansas (Centerton, and Bentonville).

He's been called to serve in the Honduras Comayagüela mission and began on Monday, August 11th, speaking Spanish.

He pauses and smiles just before he reads the paragraph with his assignment.

Friday was a very busy day, but we got word out that he would share his call with friends and family. That night, at 9:00pm he invited friends to come over as he shared his call with them. He also shared on Instagram live for extended family and others who couldn't make it over. We are so very grateful for every single person who came over to support him in this. The picture below mostly just shows the youth, but there were about 25 adults there as well standing against the wall behind me with the camera... adults who love him and have had influence with him. We had around 60 people in our home that night.

Tyler is in the section of the couch below the window cutout. 

He's so excited. I'm excited for him that he's excited, but naturally I'm also a little worried. 

Honduras is located in Central America. 

Tyler's mission boundaries

We have actually been to Roatan, Honduras before. We spent a day there when we went on a cruise many years ago. Tyler's part of the mission is more central in the country though, so he won't go up to the coast and the beaches. There are 4 missions in Honduras, but we've only ever known one friend to serve in the mission next door. (Trevor's friend, Josh Jarvis). There is 1 operating temple there, with one under construction, and the good news is we believe the Tegucigalpa temple is actually in Tyler's mission boundaries.


Definitely putting my trust in the Lord that this is where He wants Tyler to serve. After his papers were submitted, I prayed every night that the Lord would grant Tyler's desire to serve Spanish speaking and that whoever assigned him his call would know perfectly where to send him. This is the assignment that he was given, so I will go forward with faith trusting that the Lord will watch over my son, keep him safe, help him grow into a powerful missionary, and love his mission!