Called to Serve

Well, the day has finally come. My "baby" brother, Taylor, is going to serve a mission. Yesterday he got his mission call and we all headed up to be there when he opened it. He will be serving in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma mission and he enters the Missionary Training Center on December 3rd.


We have a tradition in our family that we all put in guesses whenever something major like this happens (don't even ask me about March Madness!). Here's the board with all of our guesses mapped out. Most of us picked out of the country, but there were a few that stayed inside the United States. And funny enough, my little nephew Branson, guessed Oklahoma, so he was right on! I think it was rigged since his Dad travels there for work all the time! :)


My Mom was on pins and needless all day long and I don't think she could hold still for anything. Of course Taylor had to take advantage of her nervousness and took his time opening the envelope, pulling out the papers, and reading it. Finally after we all were about to do something drastic, he finally told us where he was going.


My kids are so excited for him. I don't think they quite understand exactly what's going on, but all they know is that they are going to be able to send Uncle Taylor tons of letters, pictures, and packages. He's probably going to be the missionary with the most mail from home.

Now that Zach is in first grade, he has to write in his journal twice a week. When I asked him what he wanted to write about tonight, he didn't hesitate to tell me he wanted to write about how excited he was that Taylor is going on a mission. Here is his journal entry:


Translation: I have an uncle named Taylor. He is going on a mission. He will go to Oklahoma. I can not wait for him to go on his mission.

He also drew a picture of Taylor as a missionary - isn't it the spitten image of him??? Well, I can see it. Here's a close-up of the drawing. You'll notice the colored in part is his suit and to the right is his name tag.



We are all so excited and proud of you Taylor! Thank you for being an example to us all, especially the kids - they both want to be just like you!

(Thanks to my sister Kylie for taking these great pictures. Since I conveniently forgot my camera yesterday - again - I stole them off of her blog! Thanks Ky!)