You are hereby called to serve...

Tommy's mission call arrived in the mailbox on August 11, 2011. That evening our family gathered in our family room to watch him open it. Chris and Mandy and their children, Angela and Grant and their girls, Dan, Jolie and Cohen, Mike, Joe and I were all there. Celestia and Fatih and their boys were in Turkey visiting Fatih's family. Elizabeth and Mark and their children were gathered in their home and on the phone so they could "be with us" too.

When we were all gathered together Tommy opened the mission call and read it. “You are hereby called to serve in the California Sacramento Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. Then he read on to himself and announced that he would be speaking the Laotian language. That was surprising. His mission call was addressed to Elder Thomas Spencer Cheney and it was signed by our prophet, President Thomas Spencer Monson.

I think it’s a great call. He kind of wanted to go to Japan because he has studied Japanese for several years and can speak and understand quite a lot. He also can read and write kanji. Unfortunately, he is allergic to soy so it would be difficult for him to eat there. He’s also had a lot of health problems in the past. This is a good compromise. He is in the states where he already knows how to avoid soy in what he eats but he also gets to learn an Asian language. It sounds like it’s a very challenging language to learn but I’m sure with the Lord’s help he’ll do fine.

We had root beer floats to celebrate and then when everyone went home Tommy called Grandma and Aunt Luetta, the stake president and the bishop.

Later, Tommy sent out an email to the relatives about his mission call announcing the winner of the “Guess Tommy’s Mission Destination Contest”. Debbie and Steve Banda who were the first to send their guess won because they were the closest with California Ventura. Lance and Brianna’s daughter Arianna came in second with California Los Angeles and Elizabeth and Mark’s son Collin came in third with Disneyland (California Anaheim). It was a fun contest. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!!!

A few days later Tommy made some of his yummy English Toffee and sent it to Debbie and Steve for their first-place winning guess.