Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Day the Call Came - October 16, 2013

October 16, 2013

This was an awesome day.... the day Brock opened his mission call.  Jim and I had returned from a quick trip the night before and, suspecting that October 16th would be the day his mission call arrived, Brett Peters' mom Shelly loaned this classroom-sized roll-down map to Brock.  When we returned home on October 15th, Brock had it propped up on the mantle in our great room, being held in place by two 3-lb. weights!

All day on October 16th, we took guesses from family and friends on where Brock might be called to serve and attached them to the map with neon green sticky tabs.  Many people guessed many different places, but only 4 people, John Whiteman (Christy's dad), Nick Miller & Sydney House (both friends of Brock) and Brock's cousin Joey guessed that he might be called to Texas.  The guessing made the waiting game a little easier to take and filled the day with lots of what-ifs and fun.


Many of Brock's friends came to be there with him when he opened his call.  His older brother Zack even surprised Brock by driving down his cousin Paige's car the day before he was to open the call so he could be there.  Brock's cousins Paige and Josh Snow were there, along with many friends.  A couple of parents, Brother Peters and Sister Miller, even made the trip to our house for this exciting evening.



Before Brock opened his call, we made sure to get his dad, Tony, his mom, Nancy, his grandfather Dayle, Jim's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Wilson and siblings Sean, Bailley and Caisa on speaker phone so they could hear Brock as he read his call.  Brock opened the call and pulled the page out of the envelope.  Then he did something none of us expected.  He stopped and looked at all of us in the room.  He said, "I didn't always want to serve a mission." Then, Brock took a couple of minutes to thank his family and friends for their amazing support and guidance and love, without which he was sure he wouldn't have been sitting there opening a call to serve a mission.

Then, Brock opened the call and read, "Dear Elder DeLuca, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are called to labor in the Texas Houston Mission......"  But Brock didn't stop there.  He read the entire mission call letter.  It was an emotional experience and the Spirit was strong.  Here's Brock's mission call.




After Brock read his call, there were hugs and tears from everyone.  And at the earliest opportunity, Brock went to his room, got his cowboy hat and his boots and came out, fully ready to go to Texas!  The best thing about Brock being called to go to Houston, other than the fact that he loves country music, BBQ and fast cars is the fact that he is going to be speaking English.  He was very relieved about that.  He also had a very good feeling that, even though he had previously had a feeling he might get called to Boise, he had the strong feeling that he has been called where he needs to go.


Here's the group that came to be there with Brock when he opened his call.  There were many family and friends who weren't able to be there.  We felt them there with us in spirit and we were happy for their love and support from a distance.


After reading the call and talking to everyone, Brock went to the kitchen and made his favorite concoction.....milkshakes made using Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla ice cream and raspberries from Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's garden.....yum!




1 comment:

  1. What a great young man her is! I look forward to reading about his experiences and watching him grow. Thanks for sharing the pictures Christy! xo

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