On April 7th, Zak received his mission call. I had tears in my eyes as he started to read the letter, "Dear Elder Terry, 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 Mexico Monterrey West Mission." At this point I screamed! All of Zak's friends have been called stateside, so that was really what we were anticipating. I was really shocked when we found out he wouldn't go until August 24th. He has been chomping at the bit to go since all of his friends are gone now. But it is amazing to me that he didn't have one bad thing to say about that. His attitude is that now he will have more time to prepare. He took Spanish for one year in high school but he hated it. It is amazing how your attitude can change when the perspective is different. Now his wants to do everything he can to learn it before he goes.
Grandma Jeannette has been saving these pennies for over forty years. She always said she would give them to her first grandson to serve a mission. She figures there should be around $300 worth. So it will make a nice dent in his clothing purchases. It was a really neat evening. We had Grandpa and Grandma Terry, Grandma Wilding and Brandi here when he opened it. We also had Grandpa Wilding and Grandpa Romrell on speaker phone when he opened the letter. Afterwards we had taco soup while Zak stayed busy making phone calls letting all the rest of the family and friends know about his call.
At the end of the evening Tanner asked Zak if he was happy. Zak grabbed Tanner's shoulders and said, "Are you kidding me? This is the best night of my life! This is better than Christmas!"
After everyone left I told Zak that I hadn't received a hug yet. He gave me one of the longest hugs I have ever received and whispered, "Thanks, Mom. It is all because of you." Now while I know that isn't quite true it is always nice to hear. Needless to say I had tears in my eyes and his eyes were even glistening. Another big mother's payday!
Here are a few basic stats on Monterrey. It is located in North Eastern Mexico.
I was soooo excited when I heard about the call... but then it was West instead of East - so now I am angry! :) I'm sure that he will meet / run into Matt Brandenburg in the MTC. This is Shane's nephew (the baby boy to his twin sister) and he is going to Monterray Mexico, East. He enters the MTC in July.
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