Mission Call!

My mom and dad received their mission call yesterday. Their assignment is:

Europe Central Area, with the primary focus in the Family and Church History Department, which is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. They are to report to the Area Presidency, and the Area President will make specific assignments as to where they will be. They will serve for a period of approximately 23 months. Also included was that their call is to "Invite others to come unto Christ..." They report to the MTC in Provo August 26th.

This is especially poignant, since Dad served his first mission in Germany many years ago, and has always wanted to show Mom Germany and Europe. Nine children (& now 27 grandchildren) and serving the Lord in His Church always superceded. Now he gets to! That's the icing on the cake of the opportunity to go and serve the Lord full time again, help others come unto Christ, and grow leaps and bounds in the process.

So now it's a flurry of getting passports, visas, figuring out insurance, packing for 2 years in Europe, and figuring out finances for the whole thing. (A mission is a self-paid volunteer opportunity, and this one is more expensive than they were anticipating, but if the Lord thinks they can do it, so be it! They have sufficient faith it will work out.) We're praying as a family for them already.

My K's first response was, "They get to hear the bells!" She was referring to the stories she's heard about all the bells on all the churches in Germany tolling every Sunday, and especially every Christmas. That was sweet.

We get to see them again in 6 weeks as they head to the MTC...

AND they'll be back in time for the Merrill Reunion in 2011!