Week 12 (6/25/13)

So I would first off like to point out... for those of you who were watching the brodcast, and for everyone who wasn't either... the the Florida Tampa mission is THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD. I have been trying to tell you, but now you all have proof. Elder Anderson said it himself... I'm pretty sure. I saw some people I know on there. :) I even saw my sweet mission president and his wife who are leaving next week :( BUT! Like I said, it is very clear what the best mission is. ;) haha and I have already set aside that the second best mission will be Sister Calder #3's (Ash's) mission :)

The brodcast was AMAZING! We all had our guesses on what it was going to be about. We really thought it would be member missionary work... and ipads. Our other guess was that they were gonig to make every mission a service mission (which would be the BEST). But it was about memeber missionary work! It was SO good! I loved seeing all those missionaries in the MTC. They are always telling us that this is such an exciting time to be on a mission! I truly believe and know that! I am in the middle of this happiness!!!! I am loving every single second of it!!!!

So Dawn didn't get baptized... she had to move like an hour away. But once she can get back into a homeless shelter down here she will get baptized :)

On Tuesday I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. We had a conference cuz my mission president was leaving. It was a zone conference, so it wasn't everyone. We did a musical number (Love is Spoken Here) I played the piano for it. It was so beautiful. Everyone was fighting back tears afterwords. We had tons of departing testimonies that made me tear up as well. Our mission president showed us a video. I wish I could youtube it cuz I really want you all to see it. It's about a man who was running a 400 meter dash. He was expected to win. He tore his hamstring in the middle of the race and fell to the ground. He didn't want to give up so he started hopping to the finish line. A man broke through security, it was his dad. He ran next to him and helped him the rest of the way. At the end he let him finish the race by himself. Of course. We were all balling and it doesn't help that it had Josh Groban you raise me up playing in the background. Oh man. Then he read us a quote that I loved- "All you have to do to finish the race is rise each time you fall." and he also said- "If you never give up, you can never fail." SO TRUE RIGHT! I love it!!!!! I cried a lot.

But here is what really got everyone. Our closing song for the meeting was God be with you till we meet again. We all started to stand as we sang it. It was already hard to fight back tears, but the last verse the Haitianaries started singing it in Haitian Creloe and the Spanish missionaires joined. I couldn't even sing! The spirit was SO strong I literally cannot even describle it. If you can only imagine this... all the Elders and Sister with tears running down their face in complete love for our missinon president. That's really what gets the spirit so strong... pure love. That's really what it was. We love them so much! I said the closing prayer and I still don't remember what I said and we all just cried together. 

In our mission to say thank you to people we sing Love one Another. It's our mission presidents favorite song. So when someone does something nice for us we all sing that song to them. As President and Sister Summerhays walked out we all stood in silence and then sang, without even planning it before hand, Love one Another. We all cried as we walked out the door hugging Sister Summerhays and shaking Presidents hand. It was a moment that I will never forget :)

Really nothing else is worth saying after that! I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me! I cannot even tell you how much I appreciate all of you!

I love you!
Love, Sister Calder

 

WAIT! The one peice of advice that my mission president has give us is-

"GET THE SPIRIT, AND KEEP IT"

Don't you forget it :) that the best life advice right there ;)

Week 10 (6/10/13)

So this day has been bitter sweet. Today it has been 5 years since my dad has passed away. I am so grateful and happy that I have this amazing gospel and the knowledge of The Plan of Salvation and the knowledge of each of our individual plans. But it's also hard being away from those that I love most to share this day with. My dad was the greatest example to me. He taught me to work hard, never give up, and always trust completly in our Heavenly Father. He never once complained about his life. He taught me that this gospel and our family are the most important things and we should alway cherish the good times in life. He was always smiling and could make anyone laugh. I never doubted that he had a firm testimony. I can feel him helping me every single day on the mission. I don't know what I would do without him and my father in Heaven helping me every second of the way.

This week reality hit me. As I got mountains of mail from my sisters and mom on Monday I felt homesick for the first time in my life. I cried as I read the letters and realized everything that I was missing. It was one of the hardest times that I have probably had in my whole life. I felt like I was being ripped in half. All I wanted to do was get on a plane to come home so I didn't miss anything else that has been happening in my sisters lives. But I wanted to stay here becuase I love my mission with all my heart and I love the people here. I prayed to have the comfort to fight and make it through. After I balled for a while I felt this immediate comfort and peace that I knew I was supposed to be here, and I could never deny that. Heavenly Father will take care of my family. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be such a sacrifice and I would never grow. He let me have a little bit of home for a while and then brought me right back to where I know I am supposed to be.

 

Sorry. Whew. Sometimes we need to share of hardships with others so they can learn and grow :)

 

Let's get happy...

This week was FUN! On Thursday morning at about 3:00am our weather radio went off. YES! We had been waiting to hear what it sounded like, but it was pretty scary too... it was a flood watch. We were like ok. Went back to bed, 10minutes later it went off AGAIN! This time is was a legit tornado watch. We freaked out for a sec (like happy freaking out) and then went back to bed. In the morning we got a text from our mission presdient telling us to stay inside ALL DAY. We were not to leave our apartments. It was stormy and windy all day long!!!!!! Sometimes we freaked out, and sometimes we laughed and coudln't stop talking about how this really was happening. We made a whole video sequnce of the events :) I will send that soon haha. We also built a fort and watched some movies. It was a party. :)

Friday DAWN committed to BAPTISM! She is getting baptized on June 22nd AT THE BEACH! We invited her to a beach baptism some Elders in our zone were having and she didn't make it for the ceremony, but she was like oh well, I'll just have to wait for mine! We are SO excited! I seriously cannot explain my JOY!!!! She was the one who just walked into our church off the street. So we started teaching her and will get to end teaching her as well! Oh man. Seriously guys. This is the best!!!!!!

Then we vistited a referal that we got from HQ. Her name is Mikelle. She is AMAZING! So sweet. She actually got a gymnatics scholarship to SUU so that's where she's been going for the past 4 years. Her parents live here, but she was introducted to the church by an RM at SUU. She's so interested and even came to church with her mom on Sunday! :)

Mom- I had my first FRESH Mango off a tree. Nothing compares. They are SO GOOOD!!!!

 

R.I.P. Pip Steve Williamson. A squirrel that Elder Rowan ran over, who is still living. He was in the middle of the road, we went to touch him so we could bury him.... but he moved. It's really sad.....

 

Every single day I have convincing evidence that THIS is EXACTLY where I am supposed to be. I love my mission and I love all of you so much!!!!

 

Love, Sister Calder

 

Week 1 (4/03-4/09/13)

Nicole Calder <nicole.calder@myldsmail.net>	11:25 AM (2 hours ago)
to me, wlbball33

To my amazing family and friends-

I don't have a ton of time, but I feel like I have so much to tell you!

This experience so far has literally been indescribable. Every day I find another reason that I was called to serve at this time and place.

The MTC spirit is crazy.I feel like we are always in a temple. I've only felt the spirit leave twice. Once when our district was having a meeting and an insane (but hilarious) comb-over Elder from our zone came in and started telling us things about another Elder in his district. It was probably the worst feeling. We all laughed and had fun, but then realized how the spirit was completly gone. We said a quick prayer to get it back. Then the other time was yesterday. We hadn't noticed till Monday that we had immunization notices in our packets (don't worry mom, we just hadn't submitted them right and since I had that paper it was all ok) and we went to the nurse. She was kind of scary,and mean. She yelled at us for not paying attention. We felt bad, becuase we were so scatter brained our whole day we didn't notice them. Luckly we had gym right after so we took our anger out in volleyball :)

I feel like I need to start from the begining. I just have SO much to say!!!

The first day wasn't too hard. Yeah, I cried when I left my family, but I was able to pull it all together because I had prayed that I would be able to. We got our name tags, looked at some papers, put our bags away and then did some online stuff with our district. The first time I met Sister Lee we literally could not stop talking. It was so funny! We knew we were meant to be!

Everyone kept saying- "the first day is super overwhelming, but if you make it till Sunday it will be ok."

Honesly, I did not feel that. I felt very at peace and haven't felt overwhelmed... until Monday. I'll get to that later.

We had a little orientation in a room full of hundreds of new missionaies. We sang, "We'll bring the world his truth." Can you imagine? I don't even know if you can. The spirit was... oh man. I don't even know. We were all chocked up by the end, plus we change the words to - "We are NOW the Lords missionaries. It's giving me the spiritual goosebumbs just talking about it. That's when I really felt like a missionary :)

The first night was AWFUL! None of us could sleep! I think we all got like 1 hour. I layed in bed.... thinking.... and staring at the springs. We have to be in bed by 10:30, you would think after a long day you would be able to sleep? Nope. We didn't even know, cuz we didn't dare talk, but all of us were awake all night.

Oh! Sydney Ackely is my roommate!!!! Crazy right?! We could not believe it especailly because she is going to Mongolia! There are 6 Sister in our room. 3 are going to Florida and 2 to Mongolia. Sister Sliger was the other Sister in our room. Her companion didn't show up so adopted her :) All us roommate get along so well. I can't tell you how much we've laughed :)

We are in class all day. It's amazing though! We love our teachers! Our district is probably the smallest anyone has heard of. Our AMAZING Elders are going to South Dakota. There names- Elder's Raia, Edwards, Morse, and Busch. We seriosuly could never exaplin our love for them. They were like family right from the start. Which is good and bad... we could not stop talking.... ever. They feel like our brothers. We tease each other and laugh so hard!

Conference was indescribable. I can't tell you how much more it means when you are there with everyone who is on the same page as you. Not to mention, it is the conference after they made the change and it's still really close to all of our hearts. Everytime they would talk about the missionaries we would all get huge smiles, point to our name tags or laugh. I wish they could have show our reactions to some of the things they said. We have so much pressure! When ever they would say something about missionary work you would see all our heads go down to frantically write what they had to say. Cedar City! That's for you Kailey and Jackie!!! We all gasped as we heard that! Right when President Monson got up to speak I wanted to cry because I was so happy and the spirit was so strong! I loved when they all said they were a witness. It gave me chills and I knew, with all my heart, that it was completly true!

Were ere thou art

Act well thy part.

They said that to us on the first day to so it was cool to hear that again!

I wish I could share everything about conference, but I don't have too much time!

Stay on the Lords side. You WILL win EVERYTIME

-Elder Scott.

CATCH THE WAVE! I can't tell you the laughs we all chucked (wow, I'm speaking like an old person) when he said again, "ASK THE MISSIONARIES"  the funny thing though, it was totally a nervous laugh. Hahahaha. The people here are awesome. Some sisters were sitting behind Elder Busch kicking him every time he dozed off in the very last session.

THEE coolest part of Satuday was when we came back from watching the Young Women broadcast and our Elder came back from Priesthood. They were beaming. I don't think I've seen a happier person in my life. They were literally jumping up and down because they couldn't wait to tell us what they had learned in Priesthood. You have NO idea how happy that made us Sisters. They shared so many things with us. They all wanted to talk and once and just couldn't contain their excitement. The funny thing is, that's how people here are. They gospel is so exciting and fun that we literally shout it and can't wait to share it with others. But that's what it's all about, and that's why we are here so it's pretty much amazing. 

Us Sister's went to be the night with huge smiles and we couldn't stop talking about how much we love our Elder's! Sunday they finallly admitted that they liked us too haha. The love here is amazing!

First session of Sunday was my all time favorite! I think our district would agree. I have so many notes! I loved some of thse quotes-

"A mission is a family afair"

-President Monson

"Missionary work has always been the identifying work of the church of God"

-Presdient Monson

OK! I'm running out of time!

We watched a re-run of a devotional on Sunday with Elder Holland (speaking of, in conference when they said he was going to speak we all cheered. Haha).

It was one of the most powerful and funny things I have EVER watched. I wanted to cry laughing and because it was so spiritual. We were all falling off of our seats. Nothing could be so funny I promise you that Haha I'm still laughing about it.

He said things like- "do you think us old crochity men just sat down, drank a quart of pickle juice and wrote the white handbook." That one had us going for hours and days afterwords.

He also said something like "standing on our tootsie feet." What the?! hahahaha oh my goodness.

The most spiritual thing that hit all of us was (imanine Elder Holland saying this, I promise you willl get chills) "The last words of of my mouth will be, Jesus is the Christ" Oh NO! I can't cry in the computer room. Embarissing. Seriosuly Though!

Oh man. I wish you could all just come here and then this would be heaven. I do not want to leave next Monday at all.

Everyone sings in the showers here. Everyone. It's like a chorus of people. It's so amazing! Also, we sing everywhere else too. And, we talk to each other in the stalls because we have so much to say. TMI I know. We just love each other.

We also pray. All the time. It's so amazing how our prayers have changed. We always pray for investigators. We kneel as a district when we pray and we always sing. We love our district so much. I don't think I've said that yet ;)

Anyways. Monday was when it hit. We were getting better with our investigators. Our confidence was finally up. We went in to meet with a non-member Lawanna. She scared us. A lot. We didn't bring the spirit like we should have becasue we were so concentraed on how well we had been doing. The lesson was a disaster. I was in tears. In the meeting. I pretended like it was the spirit. Perfect timing to share about Joseph Smith, but I had never been so terified. Our hearts were pounding out of our chests as we taught her. She critizized and us and kept asking us why we were there. We shared our purpose, testimonies, and FINALLY she like that Sister Lee said that God loved her. We had already said it a coulpe other times but it must have stood out to her. It's amazing how real these investigators are to us. We think about they all the time and are constantly praying for guidance on how to teach they. She told us to get out of her house, but that we could come back on Wednesday if we found out how to help her know that God loved her.

We cried afterwords. We were terified. The Elders tried to helpe but we felt so embariseed and inadiquite. We then decided to look on the bright side thanks to Sister Lee. We realized that was an amazing experience and that we reallly actaully needed it. We needed to know that this is Heavenly Fathers work. Not ours. That we always need to have the spirit. That we are going to get the door slammed in our face. It was such a good thing we realized that now, instead of later. We have been working hard ever since to find answers to her questions. Really- a lesson on Christ and His Atonement helped us calm down. Thank you to our teacher Brother Lester for that. And for humbing us.

This work is going forth. I can testify of that.

One more thing- funny experience that we are still laughing about today.

We were all in a really good mood after we had calmed down about the whole Lawanna thing. We couldn't stop laughing. EVERYTHING was funny. So funny we were falling out of our seats and coulnd't breath (I'm not exagurating). Then Elder Busch said something funny in an accent that is an inside joke that you wouldn't understand even if I explained, but we all started laughing and Sister Sliger fluffed (it was by far not a fluff, but I feel that is more appropriate) the Elders didn't hear it, but us Sisters rawred with laughter. For at least 5 minutes we laughed. Everytime we would look at her or the Elders we would laugh. The Elder's were laughing at Elder Busch, but we were laughing at something funnier. Then everything triggered that again. We could not control outselves. I have never been like that! We could not concentrate we were dying. After about 10minutes of on and off laughter resulting from everything out teacher told us we needed to take 2 laps around our hallway. We fell over laughing as we walked and every time we saw the Elders. It was so funny. But it made me realize how stressed we were, and that we needed a good laugh so badly. It was a moment we will treasure, and that we probably shouldn't bring up today hahahaha. Oh man. I wish I could put that in a bottle and never forget it. Heavenly Father loves us to laugh though, and I know he laughs with us :)

 My companion Sister Sliger doesn't get much mail, so if you could all go to DearElder.com and send her letters. It doesn't matter what you say, we just want to make her feel loved. Her info is the same as mine except her name! We want to overflow our mailbox with her mail. That would mean more to me than you writing me. If you could all do that, it would be much appreciated. :)

I love it here. I love my companions, our Elders, our teachers, our zone, the friends we've made and the experiences that we've had. I wish everyone in the entire would could feel as happy as I do now.

This work is true. This church is true. Nothing could ever make me deny that fact in my life. We are told to ask people on the FIRST visit/lesson if they want to be baptized. At first we were really sceptical of that, but then our teacher explained that everyone should have a chance to be asked. We should NEVER keep that from anyone. Even if it is weird, some do say yes the first time. Our goal is to help others come unto Christ. I can't wait to find those people that have been prepared for me. I want to teach them and shout all I know about this amazing gospel! I love my savior and the oportunity that I have to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ. That is such an honor that I hold so dear to my heart. This gospel means everything to me. I have already learned so much here than I have probably learned in my life time. Share the gospel with others! It will bring you more joy than you can even comprehend!

Also- we are trying to memorize D&C 4. We almost have it, we made up a song to it with the tune- "Called to Serve." We sing it on the way to meals and things.

I love you all more than I can even explain!
I will send you pictures later today :)

Oh- the 15th at 4:00am is when we head to Florida just to let you know. DearElder.com is probably the best option right now for letters!

Oh and thank you Sister Miller for the AMAZING package! We downed the chips and salsa and cookies in one day! :) A letter is coming your way!

With all my love and whole heart- Sister Calder :)

*I need ADDRESSES! And emails please!

God be with you till we meet again :)

I know you are probably laughing historically at the title of this post right now, but... I kinda like it haha...
I just wanted to tell you all how much I love you and how much I am going to miss you. So personal, I know, but I mean it :)
I've already told you a million times how excited that I am for all of this, but here is my last blabber (until next week).

I wanted to let you all know that I know, without any doubt that this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet called of God to restore the gospel in these latter days. I know that he translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of God. The Book of Mormon is true. Everything that was written is to us from our loving Heavenly Father. I know that if we read it, we can feel the loving power of our Heavenly Father through His words. I know that prayer is real. Our Heavenly Father listens and hears us. He knows what we are going through. Our Savior and Redeemer lives. He loves us more than we can even imagine. We can feel of Him through our own trials. He went through exactly what we have all gone through and will go through. Through Him, we can get back to our Heavenly Father and become kings and queens with Him. I cannot wait for that day. I know if we are faithful and keep our covenants we have made, that everything will work out in the end. I know that families are forever, and that through Gods holy Temples on this earth we can never be separated, even through death. I know that President Monson is a true and living prophet. Heavenly Father speaks through him so we can know what we must do to survive these last days. This gospel is the one and only way we can get back to our eternal home. If we trust in the Lord, and listen to the Holy Ghost we can know of our plan and what we must do to fulfill or duty in our life here on earth. The power of the atonement is real. We can become clean and free through it. The temple is the house of God and the covenants and promises we make there are binding, powerful, and real. I know that trials will come, for everyone. But I can promise if you take that time to turn your life over to you Heavenly Father something good will come from it. Trials make us stronger. They make us into the person that Heavenly Father sees.
Please never forget the feelings of the spirit and the peace and joy it brings into your life. Don't lose sight of what's important. I don't think I need to tell you what's important, I'm sure you already know.
Remember that your Heavenly Father loves you, more than you can even imagine. The love He has is eternal and constant.
If you have any doubts, fears, questions, or are even just feeling joy and gratitude, talk to Heavenly Father. If you ask, listen, and have the right intentions, He will always answer. No matter what.

Remember- NO EMPTY SEATS.

I love you!
See y'all later! ;) (oh the cheesey-ness)

Love, Sister Nicole Lee Calder :)

The Farewell

I am shocked/disappointed to inform you I have NO pictures from my farewell. I was far too occupied the whole time to even grab my phone. If I don't take them, no one will. I have ruined my family. So good luck seeing any pictures of them for the next year and a half...

I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night last week. So my mind wandered and started thinking about my talk. I laid awake for about an hour, and planned my whole talk! The next morning I woke up and typed it all up!

Saturday was pretty much insane. We had this job thing for the stake in the morning that my mom and I helped with. The Rabbit Run (Easter family party) right after that. And family pictures right after that. After the family pictures my mom ran to the store for some food and we went to my cousin Michelle's house to practice Karly's song for Sunday. After that we stopped at the store for a few things, and then came home and did a little bit of cleaning. After that we went to dinner at Los Hermanos. We got home at about 9:30 and started cleaning and preparing at 10:00pm. I "polished" my talk (which is how I apparently say things at 1:00 in the morning) in the middle of all of this
We went to bed at 3:00am the next morning. I could not even explain to you what we did, but I was beyond exhausted.
I woke up the next morning convinced it had only been 10minutes since I'd crashed. But it was 7:30 and time to get ready.
I wasn't nervous. I mean, a little bit because I felt like I had to pee and my hands were cold (two things that NEVER happen... ok I pee, but I can hold it for hours) but other than that I was totally relaxed. I had people telling me that I looked so comfortable and that it was really easy to listen to because I acted like I was just talking to a friend. Guess what guys? I was. All my friends and family were there! That's why it wasn't that hard to do.
The spirit was for sure there. I felt like some (not the weird things) of the things I said were not even me talking. I prayed all week, that morning, and all before the meeting, that I would have the spirit to be with me and that others would feel the convincing power of God through the Holy Ghost.
Afterwords was insane. I went outside because I knew that you weren't supposed to keep everyone in the chapel. It didn't work like I thought it would. People still stayed in there! Goodness ;)
We had hawaiian haystacks after at my house. It was insane. Literally there was no room whatsoever in my house. There were way too many people in there! But, like I said, no picture. I loved talking to everyone and seeing people I haven't in a while. I have so many great people in my life I couldn't even name they all to you right now!
Thanks to everyone who has been a great example to my in my life. I couldn't have done this without your love and support and I am eternally grateful for that. :)

The Day the Call Came

I cannot even begin to express to you how impatient I am. It took 2 1/2 weeks for my call to come (I know. So long right?). It felt like eternity. I had gotten everything done with my papers that I needed to within 2 weeks after General Conference. Pretty crazy.
I thought it would come the week before it actually did because I had so many people telling me people were getting their calls in about a week. That week, it didn't come. I was so disappointed, but then I knew that it would come the next week. Longest week of my life. I knew the mail came around a certain time... I was just getting so bugged that I knew I couldn't wait by the mail box, although I have to say, it was SOOO tempting (But really, I would probably look like a freak if I was standing by the mailbox to greet the mailman).
Karly was home for lunch or something so I was just hanging out and talking with her (I only had one class in the morning that day, so naturally, I skipped it). I told her to play me her song on the piano. A few seconds after she started I get a text from Cindy Gocken, it just said- "Mail is here!!!" I freaked out and looked out the window. There it was. I could not contain myself. I started screaming and jumping up and down like a crazy person. I didn't even want to go out there, mainly because I didn't want to be disappointed if it wasn't there. We both watched in silence (ok, that is probably a lie. I'm pretty sure I was just squealing the whole time). I thought for sure I saw him put a big while envelope in the mailbox... but I still wasn't sure. I pushed Karly out the door to go and get the mail. I remember seeing her look into the mailbox and then get this huge creepy grin on her face as she help up the envelope. I screamed so loud! I do not think I have ever been so happy in my life. I kept jumping up and down, laughing and screaming. That went on for about 5 minutes. Me holding the envelope and rolling on the couch and floor (when I am writing this, it sounds super pathetic I have to say...). Karly just laughed at me.
I then started texting and calling people telling them my call was here. I could not believe it! It really didn't seem real. I honestly do not remember what the rest of the day went like...
But I do remember getting ready for the day (it was about 5:00ish) and my call was sitting downstairs. Karly had some friends over. They decided to play a trick on me and tell me that one of her friends (who would totally do this) had opened the call. When I heard them say that, I was literally so mad, that I didn't even say or do anything. I just said- "What an idiot. Don't tell me what it is. I'll open it by myself later." They thought that it was funny, I was pretty ticked. Hahaha. Once I found out that he didn't do it, I didn't let that envelope out of my sight for the rest of the night.
I was planning on opening it at 6:00. Once 6:00 came, my grandma still wasn't there, so we decided to wait. But also, Katelyn wasn't there either. She was at her friends house down the street, even though she knew we were opening it at 6:00. Since I had already had a prank pulled on me, I was feeling a little bit mischievous.
So we decided to call her friend (Kate doesn't have a phone) and joke with her that we had opened my call. Hailee my friend did it. She dialed it and I said, "wait, where should I be going?" she quickly just said- "FLORIDA!"
She called her and yelled so excited, that I was going to Florida on my mission! Katelyn, of course, was ticked. We then waited for her to get home to tell her that we were joking. She was not happy. At 7:00 I finally opened my call. I didn't invite a ton of people, mainly because I think that is what the farewell is for. Besides that, I had a TON of family that almost all live about 30min away on both sides and I didn't want to leave anyone out. So I invited both my grandmas, my cousin Danny, and my friend Hailee ;) (other friends would have been invited if they lived close enough at the time).
I remember just not even knowing what to expect. I had no idea, and the next year and a half of my life was planned right here in this envelope.
Freaky huh?
I thought for sure I would cry.
Surprisingly I didn't.

I opened it and read-
Dear Sister Calder, You are herby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Florida Tampa Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

My jaw dropped. We couldn't even cry because we were laughing so hard. I was not expecting that at all. We had this huge map with almost every state and county covered with peoples names. But not Florida. I was SOOOOOO excited. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the night. Or month really. I got texts and calls from so many people congratulating me. :)
Best. Day. Ever.
Wait, I think I said that in the post where they made the change. Hahaha well, they both were ;)
We then went to Young Women's and Young Mens because they were doing a talent show and my sisters were all doing something together. Before they started, they actually asked me to come up and speak for a second.
Then the tears came.
I shared where I was going and my excitement. Then I shared my testimony of missionary work and this church. It was such an amazing moment to be able to share that with some of my favorite people who I have grown up with and seen grow up. I couldn't have asked for a better night :)
We had planning that wherever I was going that we would celebrate by going to eat food from that place. We had no idea what people in Florida ate... except Alligator and frog legs which we learned on the cruise. So we went to Texas Roadhouse ;) American Food I guess. Haha.
But seriously, I am beyond excited for what lies ahead for me. I can't wait to serve my Heavenly Father and bring my brothers and sisters into the light of the true and everlasting gospel. :)
And I get to back to Florida almost exactly 1 year later! (1 year from my cruise;))