SWEDEN!

Hej, hälsningen!

That is the extent of my Swedish ability at the moment. (But don't worry, there's an app for that.) It's already Facebook official, which is what really matters in our society nowadays, but figured I still ought to update this Blog. I have been called to the Sweden Stockholm Mission! As far as I can tell it's the only mission in Sweden and covers the entire country. I report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, July tenth. So I've still got a while. There's actually a countdown for me on the Missionary Website: I report in 132 days. Is that weird or what?

Naturally I pored over the packet I received along with my call last night, and when I was done my thoughts went something along the lines of "This can't possibly be all the information they want me to know!" One of the worrisome parts of the packet was about cold weather clothing-buy it in the field so it will be warm enough. How cold does it get in Sweden anyway? No need to fear though, it's currently one degree warmer there than it is here, and it's midnight there! They're eight hours ahead of us so it's already tomorrow!

But anyway, I'm so excited! I've had so many people tell me I look Swedish, which has never happened before yesterday... I'm also excited to learn Swedish! In fact, it's really hard to motivate myself to study for my Chinese midterm coming up, because it's not Swedish! Maybe I'll meet someone in Sweden who speaks Chinese and my skills will come in handy there. That would be so cool!

Hej då!

The Divine Call of a Missionary

I think writing helps me be more patient. Even though there's no news, I just wanted to say that I'm super excited to receive my call and serve the Lord! This morning as I was getting ready for school I listened to a talk by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy called The Divine Call of a Missionary. He described the experience of observing President Eyring make the assignments for the new missionaries one particular week, and the process that the apostles go through to do so. The part that was most meaningful to me was that President Eyring started with a prayer asking the Lord "to bless him to know “perfectly” where the missionaries should be assigned." They're not just vague impressions or arbitrary decisions. The apostle who makes the assignment is guided by God and has enough faith that God can communicate exactly where He wants that missionary to serve.

With my own papers among the queue that should be assigned in the next couple of weeks, this knowledge is especially comforting to me. For 18 months I will be exactly where God wants me to be. Not where President Eyring wants me to be, but where God wants me to be. And I can't wait to find out exactly where that is!

You can read, watch, or listen to the talk here. It addresses young men because the talk was given during the Priesthood Session of General Conference, but it certainly still applies to myself and all the other soon-to-be sister missionaries out there!

Place Your Bets!

My papers are in! My stake president said there's about a 10% chance they'll make the assignment on Friday, which would mean I would probably get my call next Wednesday or Thursday. (That's right, a week from tomorrow.) If not, it would be the next week. Either way, it's coming up soon! Everyone who wants to can guess which mission by going HERE and placing a pin. (There should be instructions on the map but I think you might have to have a Google account.) Whoever's closest will be hailed as a really great guesser! And maybe get a gold star or something. Everyone's welcome to guess of course!

Never mind, the map doesn't work because MATT IS A LIAR. Just message me your guess on Facebook and I'll put it on the map, so you can see where all the guesses are. :)

The Waiting's Just Begun

So, I'm waiting around for time to leave to my interview with my Stake President to finish up my mission papers. This is obviously super exciting because I'm turning my mission papers in! But with all the exciting-ness, there's no way I'm getting my homework done any time soon. Not even homework for my mission prep class (which, by the way, is getting me EVEN MORE pumped about going on a mission!). I figured since it worked so well for Matt to put all his mission stuff on a blog (and later on to have my parents put his letters and emails up) I might as well carry on the tradition so everything is in one nice easy-to-access place. I'll keep you updated on everything, then once I'm gone to...well to wherever I go...my parents can put my letters on here so everyone can see what I'm up to! In case you were wondering about the address, it comes from the nickname my dad always calls me and Peyton: Bo Grill. (I thought about going with Gomer, which is even a biblical name, but I liked this one better.) I tried to come up with something that rhymed (like Matt did with Latterday Matt) but it ended up getting really long and including Pig Latin, which was just a little bit too crazy. So Bo Grill it is!

Anyway, here is my blog! Once my papers are officially submitted I'll put up a nice little map so everyone can guess where I'm going to go. No I don't have any idea. I've had dreams that have included Sweden, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Scotland/Ireland, and California. The California one was scary because I was called to speak Spanish and Chinese and I only got two weeks in the MTC because they figured I was already good enough at both. Wouldn't that be nice if I actually was!