So begins the story of Gabe's mission! I (Tiffany/mom) am going to write my version about Gabe opening his mission call, but once he starts to serve his mission, I am just going to copy and paste his emails, so this will switch into his point-of-view later on!
After filling out the application online starting in early February, Gabe met with Bishop Johnson and President Rawson. He was eager to get everything submitted so he could get his mission call hopefully before Josh had to leave for his FBI Academy on March 26. After Gabe's final meeting with President Rawson on Sunday, February 18, everything got officially sent off (via online) to Salt Lake!
A week went by, and on Monday, February 26, I started posting on social media for everyone to get their guesses in for where they thought Gabe was going to get called! We really thought his mission call was going to come the next day (on Tuesday, February 27) because lots of his friends were getting their calls at the nine day mark, but that day came and went, and alas, no mission call came to Gabe's phone messages! So then we figured we had to wait another week!
On Tuesday morning of the following week (March 5) at about 10:30am, Gabe got the text notification saying, "Your mission call is available to view!" He sent me a screenshot and we were so excited! It was really hard to think we were going to have to wait until later that night to open it! So Gabe decided to do something kind of crazy. He called Grandma Sue in Wisconsin and said, "I want you to take my login and password, log in, and read where I am going. Then, I simply want you to tell me if I'm going within the 48 continental United States, or outside the continental United States. Then I can wait to find out until tonight."
So my mom logged in from Wisconsin (as Gabe), read his mission call to herself, and then texted him, "Foreign." Then, I found out Gabe had done that, and of course, I had to call her and try to read her voice tone. She sounded so calm about it that I felt like I immediately ruled out him going to Africa in my mind. I said, "You sound so calm and comfortable," and she said, "I am!" And I said, "Well, maybe he's going to like, HAWAII?!" And she laughed and said, "Well... not THAT comfortable." LOL So then I was thinking maybe it was someplace like Canada for the rest of the day!
When school ended and I left the junior high at 4:00, I went to Albertson's and got a cake (the lady wrote "Called to Serve" on it) and then I stopped at Crumbl to get a few cookies in case anyone actually guessed the place correctly! Then we had to wait until 6:30.
At 6:30, we gathered across the street at the clubhouse and got ready for the big moment! Lots of friends and family came, and we had the big map with pins all over it filled with guesses of where everyone thought he might be going. With everyone watching and me filming a Facebook Live, Gabe started to read his email off his phone. He was reading so fast that it was hard to even understand him! He said later that he just really wanted to get to the part where it told where he was going as quickly as possible! Finally, (after about 3 minutes) he got to the part where he read, "You are assigned to labor in the Spain Madrid South Mission" and everyone gasped and hollered! I think my first emotion was shock because I felt like my mom had been so calm that it was going to be someplace that was *barely* considered foreign. But I can't even imagine a better mission for Gabe. I think it will be amazing! I really wanted him to learn Spanish, but to go someplace that was somewhat safe, and I feel like this exactly fits that description!
He starts the home MTC on July 22, and reports to the Provo MTC on July 31. He flies out to Madrid on September 6. It's going to be an exciting summer, and I can't believe he is already at the start of this journey! We are feeling so blessed and happy!
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