The Call

Please don't get me wrong. I am excited to serve in Oklahoma. THRILLED, really. Oklahoma City nestled it's way into my heart long before I ever set foot there.

But it took a few revolutions of the clock to come to this conclusion. On Friday, August 17th, I received the official large-size envelope from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For three months I had been undertaking the appropriate medical exams and ecclesiastical endorsements to apply to serve a mission. I was employed in a far-away place for the purpose of paying for my mission. By all accounts, I was rip-raring and ready to go.

But it's a scary moment.

Brazil. Australia. Perhaps China. This is where people conjecture that you will go. But it's a call from the Lord, assigned to you by an ordained living apostle. So you don't worry about it (though secretly you know that it will be Brazil). Then you open up your call and ...Oklahoma? As in the Broadway musical? As in hicks and tornadoes? THAT Oklahoma? That English-speaking, only-three-states-from-my-own Oklahoma?

Suddenly you are glad that you are sitting on a couch by yourself, far away from concerned family members and friends who might note your un-enthused expression.

But you pray. And you read Wikipedia from beginning to end. And tornadoes do sound kind of exciting. And you rather enjoy speaking English. And for goodness sake, this mission is supposed to be about the worth of souls, and you're pretty sure they are worth as much in Oklahoma as in Brazil.
Forty-eight hours of heart-softening is all it took. Now I'm SOLD! Okie to the core.

But to those who still react to my call in an anticlimactic fashion, be comforted. I know that you will be crest-fallen and taken-aback for a fraction of a second, and then you will delight me with a robust arm-swinging rendition of "OOOKLAhoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the....mumble mumble...{no one knows the lyrics past this point, but they come up with some cute fake lyrics to manifest an appreciable amount of enthusiasm}." This is the only response you can have because it is the only thing you know about Oklahoma. Thanks for your honesty. I am humored by your loving response :)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Is it exotic? Hardly. Does it make up for it's provinciality with more than 100 tornadoes per year? Indubitably. Hold on...could this possibly be the title of a well-loved American musical? You guessed it. Oklahoma! I have been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. The adventure begins November 28, 2012. Booyah.