The Call

Eric, just before opening his mission call

Today, Brenda and I pulled into our driveway and Eric came running out front while waiving a white envelope at us. His mission call had arrived. We had been expecting this.

Curtis, Eric, Brenda and I quickly joined together in the living room. Eric sat in the over sized chair in the living room with the large envelope that contained his missionary call.

He pulled the call letter out and began to read:

"Dear Elder Layton:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission."

He was so excited that he stopped reading while we were all congratulating him. Then he realized there was more. He would be going to the MTC on September 12, 2012, only 6 days after his 19th birthday. (By the way, he leaves for his mission on September 11, 2012...an infamous date in our history.) Of course he will be learning Spanish. But he will only spend 3 weeks in the Provo MTC before leaving for the Guatemalan MTC (called the CCM) for the remainder of his training.

He still has several months, but they will be busy. He graduates in a couple of weeks from High School. Almost immediately after that, he's off to Provo, Utah to attend BYU for Summer term. Then back home for a couple of weeks before he leaves for his mission. Lots to do and very little time to get it done. But this is a great time in his life.