The great thing about being a grandparent is that you keep getting news about your grandchildren and all their activities. While we were still on our vacation, we got one of the happiest e-mails ever! Our second grandson, Bracken, received his mission call for the Mormon Church! We had all put in our ideas of where he would be called since these calls come from the church headquarters, and the young people can be called anywhere in the world.
This is the big map that John and Alison posted in their home with everyone's ideas pinned on as to it.
Oh, how I wish George and I could have been there as he opened the call.
You can see that he was all smiles as he read his call:
"Elder Wilde: 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 Australia Sydney North Mission." It, also, states that he will be speaking Mandarin (Chinese) on his mission. That will be just perfect for him after living in China for six years and taking a Chinese course the entire first year of college. He will be leaving in January and return two years later.
Another thing that made this so exciting that with all the places he could have gone and with so many guesses by aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces, and nephews, both Amy and I got it correct that he would be going to Sydney, Australia, Chinese speaking! So, we both were pretty happy with ourselves!
During this two year period, the missionaries preach the gospel, as well as participate in service projects wherever they are sent. They can e-mail once a week and call home twice a year--Christmas and Mothers' Day. Because they are intent upon the work, there is no dating whatsoever. They devote themselves entirely to serving the Lord. They have missionary "parents" who watch over them and give them their assignments through the leadership within the mission. Usually, there are about 250 missionaries in each mission. It is so exciting that there will soon be 85,000 missionaries serving throughout the world.
To learn a little more about being a Mormon missionary, click on this site:
We are so proud of Bracken in accepting this call. I think back about when he was a little boy with so much hair and always a big smile. He has always had the biggest heart and has always had so many friends.
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We know that Bracken is going to be such a great missionary just like our oldest grandson (Taylor) was. He is the son of Kevin and Angie. Upon returning from his mission to Pennsylvania Spanish speaking, he enrolled in college as well as married in the temple to a beautiful girl who faithfully waited the two years for him to come home.
5 comments:
What a thrill it was to be with you and George when you opened the message about announcing where Bracken would be going on his mission. He will be a wonderful missionary since he has lived all over the world already. Also, it was fun to see that cute photo of him when he was a baby. With all that black hair, he was darling.
It is wonderful to see these young men dedicate two years of service as a missionary to spread the gospel message to the world.
Great post!
Love, Beverly
Thanks for including us in Bracken's announcement on the cruise! It's wonderful that with modern technology we can instantly receive information that we are so excited to hear (and see). You should be so proud to be his grandparents!!
When I saw the title of you post I had three ideas on what it could be. A mission call was one of those ideas! How fantastic!! Congratulations!!
Thanks for your support Mom and Dad, and for always being supportive in good times and bad. This is definitely one of those good times! He was so excited to announce the news to his grandparents, and was excited you were correct on his mission location! We look forward to a lot more "Copeland" missionaries in the future!
Oh Laura, I am so happy for you!!!! And for Alison. What beautiful things to happen to you! Thank you for the love and support you continue to give to me. It means a lot, you know. A lot!
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