The Mission Call!

Lots of excitement at our house this week!

Braeburn's mission call came last Thursday morning.  Braeburn paced around the house all morning debating back and forth about when and where to open it.  Granny Smith said, "when does the mail come in?"  And Braeburn said, "I think it will be here at 11:00" then glances at the clock, drums his fingers on the kitchen counter, wanders around some more, and then says, "I'm going." and walks out the door.

We watch the car go down the lane and wonder if he's coming back to open his call or heading for the hills or somewhere private.  Knowing his dad.... and how Mr. Bechtel retreated to the wilderness to open his call and compose himself before making things public knowledge, I could understand how Braeburn wanted to do this his own way.  His first theory was that he was going to open his call in the bathroom, text Golden Delicious and have her tell us!??  Then he changed to opening it with one of his buddies who's struggling with whether he's going on a mission or not.  We really had no idea what he was doing. 

But, here he came, back down the lane again.  Granny Smith, the spy, raced out to see what was going on and came flying back in saying, "it came!  It came!"  Tanner came in and handed it to me.  I thought I should probably have special gloves on or something to hold it.  So much suspense over one sheet of paper!  More pacing and thinking. "Well, from watching guys at BYU open their calls, if they are heavy it usually means they're going foreign.  And this is pretty heavy.  Still, I am not getting my hopes up.  I am absolutely fine wherever I go."  

Mr. Bechtel came up from his office at this point, looks at Braeburn and the call, and says, "Braeburn, this is like taking off a band-aid.  You just need to rip it off."  So Braeburn takes a deep breath, whips open his pocket knife and slices the package open while Granny Smith jumps around yelling, "he's opening it  He's opening it!"

Everything went totally silent.  I was watching Braeburn's face for some clue - where was he going?  Braeburn's eyes scanned rapidly down the page and then his face contorted and he shut his eyes - either agony or absolute happiness, I couldn't tell, and then he starts whooping and jumping around the room, and thumping Mr. Bechtel on the back, and giving him a big hug, and so I thought, "ok.  it's good.... But where??"  Finally he reads us the call.   England!  He quickly sent a text to Golden Delicious, who was at school, and her immediate response was, "Are you kidding?"  Then she called and got the whole story.  No one even let themselves hope for England, because we all know how much Braeburn adores Brittania, and so we knew he was NOT going there.  But look, he is - on  August 9th.   And all is well.