Coelton was accepted to BYU-I on the Fall/Winter track. We were so excited to be on this track. We decided that he would finish 2 semesters of college and then go on his mission. His birthday is March 18, so he would only be 19 a few weeks anyway. Winter semester ends April 9th. He put his eligibility date on his mission papers as that.
Coelton had his interviews with the stake president (the last step before the papers are sent to church headquarters) on November 21st when he was home for the Thanksgiving break. The papers were approved by the stake on December 5th and sent. Coelton's call was issued on the 10th and his call was mailed on the 14th.
Mission calls always come on Thursdays. We had figured it would hopefully arrive by the 23rd of December. If we didn't get it by then we feared it wouldn't come until Coelton was already back to BYU-I for winter semester. WE didn't know what to think with the holidays and also the many many calls they would be issuing with all the BYU-I students who put April 9th as eligibility date.
Coelton called all day on Thursday the 16th. Finally the mail came and there was no call. We figured it would hopefully come next Thursday.
Joel and I were flying to SLC the next day (Friday) to attend his Company Christmas party. We decided to call our bishop and ask him to check the status of the call. He did and told us that it is on it's way here! We were shocked, and didn't know when it would arrive. We thought perhaps the holiday mail slowed it up a little.
I figured it out that if his call did come the next day (Friday) he couldn't open it until Saturday, December 18th. This is a special day, because it's the day my Mother went to heaven, 3 years ago. My family gets together on this day and meet at my Dad's house to assemble "goodie plates" to deliver to he and my Mom's friends, neighbors and family members. They call it a day of service. I thought "hmmmmm, I wonder if Mom had anything to do with Coelton's mission call being opened on the 18th...what greater service on that day than to have her first grandson called to serve the Lord on a mission." But I just wasn't sure when the call would actually arrive.
Friday we landed in SLC and Caden called us and said the call was in the mail box. He called coelton who was on his way home from college. He said to go ahead and bring it in the house. Coelton promised us that he would wait until we returned to Boise the next morning. None of us could think of anything else the entire night. We didn't sleep and we were up early headed for the airport to get home as fast as we could. Our flight was delayed an hour and then we had to de-ice, it seemed to take forever. Finally we arrived home. A few of Coelton's friends had come over to see the big event. We quickly found cameras and had to wait a couple of minutes to charge my little camera's battery so we could tape it! Finally he was able to open it.
For the "opening story" see the post "Called to Serve Him."
Coelton is to report at the Provo MTC on March 23rd. We were surprised at this because school doesn't end until the 9th of April. Our bishop and Stake President are looking into it. I think we may have some options. 1- perhaps the date can be changed 2- Coelton can take block classes that would end in March. 3- He doesn't attend winter semester. I'm sure whatever happens will be fine.
Coelton will spend 3 weeks at the Provo MTC and then 6 weeks at the Dominican Republic MTC.
For a fabulous talk on how Mission calls are extended...go to LDS.org and look up The Divine Call of a Missionary by Ronald A. Rasband.
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