Mission Possible! April 2, 2014

We'll start Joshua's mission journey on April 2, 2014 when he received his mission call in the mail.  He was so excited and anxious to check the mail so he decided to get into the car and try tracking the mailwoman down.  As soon as Josh left in the car, the mail truck came down the street.  We all thought he missed it (and we all laughed) but he saw the truck and did a few circles around the neighborhood so he didn't look too eager :)  As soon as the mailwoman put the big white envelope into the box, Joshua was right there to take it out.  He came in and was smiling ear to ear.  We were all so excited!!! The plan was to wait until the following day because one of Joshua's best buddies would be able to come and also Eric (Josh's bro-in-law) would be here from Arizona to watch Joshua open his call.  Because of Joni's wedding, it was so fortunate that our whole family was able to be here when he finally got to open the envelope.  However, it was a very hard thing for Josh to wait an extra day to find out where he would be going on his mission.  Later that day, Josh had the opportunity to go on some splits with the full-time missionaries which really helped make the wait bearable and also got him even more excited about serving a mission.  The next day, April 3, Joshua opened his mission call with family and friends surrounding him.  Joshua sat down and began to open his envelope (which had already been torn a little on the edges from his anticipation) He purposely took his time which made us all very impatient...exactly what Josh was going for :)  When he took the packet out of the envelope he saw where he was going and was overcome with emotion.  He began to read and the tears started to flow.  It was very sweet and touching for everyone.  Joshua managed to to read enough of the letter to announce that we would be serving in the Peru, Lima East mission! I got to give him his first hug and kiss of many...then his sisters smothered him with hugs and loves.  Robert got in on a big group hug and then everyone was able to congratulate him.  It was one of those precious times that I'll never forget.  Little did I know that the next few months would be full of these tender moments.