I Hope They Call Me on a Mission...

One of our church's Primary children's songs goes:

I hope they call me on a mission

When I have grown a foot or two

I hope by then I will be ready

To teach, and preach, and work as missionaries do!

While we were in Utah, we were lucky to be there when my nephew, Alex, received his mission call.  Being 18 years old (and having "grown a foot or two") he is eligible to go on a full-time 2-year mission for our church.  It is always fun when the prospective missionary has submitted his/her paperwork, and then they get to wait several weeks for that big white envelope to arrive in the mail, telling them where in the world they'll be serving for two years.

Much of the family gathered at my parents' house late one weeknight for Alex to open his mission call, which had arrived in the mail that afternoon.  We were all just as anxious and excited as he to find out where he'll be serving the Lord.  But first we had to call as many of the family as possible on our cell phones and put everyone on speaker.  It was quite the spectacle to see all the cell phones!  Despite our best efforts to remember everyone, we overlooked calling Camyll and Jason!  Clearly we were too excited to be thinking straight.

In our family missions have been in (these are all from memory, so I hope I'm right):

Grandpa Christensen was excused from serving a mission because he was serving in WWII at the time
Georgia, Atlanta (Grandpa Kurt and Grandma Lela Christensen)
Utah, Salt Lake City, Temple Square (Grandpa Kurt and Grandma Lela Christensen)
Delaware/Pennsylvania (Grandpa Willis and Grandma Karlene Mower)
Australia, Perth (Grandpa Willis and Grandma Karlene Mower)

Mississippi, Jackson (Nathan)

Washington DC/Delaware/Pennsylvania (Alan/Dad)

Ukraine, Donetsk (brother Bryt, and I'm sure I slaughtered the spelling of that city)

Canada, Alberta (Uncle Ron)

can't recall where my Uncle Dean went...??

Kentucky (Uncle Keith)

West Virginia (Uncle Kay)

Oklahoma (Uncle Bob)

California (cousin Carsen)

Bulgaira (cousin Daniel)

Romania (cousin Royce)

Texas, Houston (cousin Lara)

Alabama (cousin Lacey)

Texas (cousin David)

Wisconsin (cousin Aaron)

California, Sacramento (brother-in-law Jason Poulson)

Germany (brother-in-law Stettsen Olsen)

Thailand (brother-in-law George Stewart)

. . .

So you can see that Alex comes from a long line of missionaries (that's just family from my Grandfather down), who have spanned the globe in their missionary service.  There was no limit to the possibilities of where he could be called.

We all held our breath as he opened the envelope and read those words:

Elder Alex Jay Christensen...you have been called to serve as a representative for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...in the...

MEXICO, GUADALAJARA mission!

Much whooping, hollering, crying, cheering, hugging, and congratulating ensued.  I think little brother Tyler was the first one to give the new missionary a hug.

Congratulations, Alex! We are so proud of you for choosing to serve the Lord for two years!

And congratulations Jayson and Anna for getting your son to this point!

Alex reports to the missionary training center in Provo, Utah, in April.