Derek has planned on serving a mission for most of his life, and last year, when he turned 18, he made the choice to go to a semester of college before he put in his papers.  That said, we got everything ready and taken care of over the summer – all of the doctors and dental visits, etc – so that all he had to do at school was to have his interviews with his bishop and Stake President, and then have them submit the packet for his availability in February 2025.

That is just what Derek did, turning in his papers in the middle of November, and we waited the two weeks it usually takes for a mission call to arrive, only to have no call come.  We had Derek reach out to his stake President there in Rexburg to see what the status was of his assignment, and found out that because of his medication that he takes for ADHD, he needed to do some interviews with church family services. 

That made sense, but since it had been a few weeks and nobody had reached out, we had Derek call them.  By then, he only had two weeks left until he was leaving school to come home for Christmas, and would not be coming back. Because of that, the interview needed to take place with  the people here in Texas because they couldn’t get it done before he left school in Rexburg.  This also meant, that they couldn’t be scheduled until after the Christmas holidays, which meant that things were going to be delayed even more.

Derek had his interviews, and family services called me and said everything was fine – he had been on his meds long enough that although he would have to serve somewhere his meds were available to him, he was cleared to serve any type of mission.  The man on the phone said that Derek’s call should come in the next couple weeks.  So again, we waited, and yet again, no call came.  We had Derek reach out to the Stake President in Rexburg again, to check on the status of his papers, only to discover that none of us realized that his stake president needed to resubmit the packet after that. By now, it was then end of January, and so the likelihood of Derek getting to begin his mission the beginning  of February was not going to happen.  And of course, everything was complicated, because all of his information stayed with his stake president in Rexburg, not our stake president in San Antonio.  Good times ;).

Finally, we thought everything was fine, but instead of a mission call, we received an email from the mission dental office because it turned out the dentist filled out part of the dental paper incorrectly. Derek talked to the dentist, resubmitted the form, and we thought we had that fixed.  Not so.  Derek missed a follow-up email from the dental department that they also wanted the dentist to send them his x-rays. By now, it was the end of February, and everything was finally good to go, almost four months after Derek originally submitted his paperwork.  Finally, we got word from the stake president in Rexburg, that “hopefully, in the near future, Derek will be getting his call.”  Nice.

And so, there we were, sitting in a restaurant in Missouri, when Derek got the text that his call had come.  What was extra funny about it, was that Kevin told Derek that he thought he knew a way to find out if he would get his mission call soon.  And just as he was about to try it, the text came through on his phone for him that his call had come!!  Talk about exciting!!! 

We finished our dinner, texted Lily and the grandparents, and as soon as we got back to the condo, we set everything up for Derek to open his mission call on his computer.  We called Lily, my mom, and Kevin’s parents on Facetime, and then Derek read his mission call letter.

It was such an amazing feeling to have him reading those special words calling him to be a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not just because we had been waiting so long.  Derek’s assignment is to serve in the San Antonio, Texas Mission as a service missionary, starting his home MTC training on May 26th.  He is so very excited, and was prepared to serve wherever and however the Lord wanted him to serve.  

Arthur is especially excited that he gets to have his brother at home for another two years as Derek serves.  And Kevin and I, although this means changing up some plans and different things (like buying another car), we are relieved that we don’t have to say goodbye to our boy for two years.  We are also very excited, because things with service missions have changed a lot since Lily finished serving, as now service missions fall under the local mission.  Things for them are much more structured and together, making it much more of a good fit for Derek who thrives on structure.  We are so happy for our amazing Derek and can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for him!!