On 3^rd August with as many members of the family as we could get together, and some very close friends, Eleanor opened her mission call. Martha, our 9 year old daughter, had designed a poster and also a chart that listed all of our guesses. Eleanor had also posted on Facebook in the morning asking for people’s thoughts. The most popular destinations seemed to be Scotland or Germany; others included Leeds and Japan. I’m not sure if everyone quite understands that it could quite literally have been anywhere in the world- we have family friends serving at the moment in London, Germany, Dallas among others. For me this shows the faith of our young people- that they are willing to serve wherever.

Back to Eleanor. A couple of us were videoing- the video that she uploaded to Facebook was taken by her Uncle John- it was a smaller size than mine so we were able to upload it quickly (even though it seemed to take forever!) but the one below is the ‘Extended Edition’. There was a slight hiccup at the beginning as she took everything but the letter out of the envelope. You will notice a slight stutter as she says ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’- she tells us she had read ahead to where her mission was going to be- you may also see a broadening of a smile.

This post is purely about the opening- we will explore more things about her mission and which countries, etc it involves in upcoming posts. But for now we need to change the strapline for the blog and the lovely autumnal scene is no longer suitable.

How do we feel right now? It’s all a bit surreal- we drove Gideon back to camp last night and we all feel a little stunned. This was not what we expected but we know it is where the Lord wants Eleanor to serve. The enormity of it may hit us in the coming days and weeks but for now we will survive on adrenaline to finally know where she is going and the language she will be speaking.