This story will probably be somewhat familiar to many of you.
I have 4 sons. Our youngest, who just turned 19 received his mission call the other day. He will be the only one to serve a mission in our family. My other 3 sons, who grew up saying they would had lost interest in the Church by this age and were on to “other” things.
My son took 2 years of American Sign Language (ASL) in high school. In addition, this past year went to class on Saturdays to learn Korean. He stated on his missionary application that he was willing to learn a new language and go foreign.
I know what you’re thinking. Means nothing. Usually. Though most of the young men in our Ward who took Spanish, went to Spanish-speaking countries or Spanish-speaking missions in the US. All the ones we know who studied Japanese went to Japan.
So, we fully expected and/or fully hoped he would serve somewhere foreign. Maybe Ireland, where his Mom’s family is from. Maybe Ukraine where most of my family is from. Maybe even South Korea. Or, an ASL mission. Surely, there was always a need for that skill. Or, definitely somewhere where his Mom and I could travel to pick him up!
He went on Facebook and asked for guesses, which were willingly offered and represented many parts of the world and the US. We even considered Boise. (Think RM).
So, this past Monday, the letter came and it was time to find out where he would go. So, in the company of his older brother’s family, another great family from our Ward, his parents and Facebook Live, he opened the letter:
Brother Spector, you are called to serve in the Georgia Atlanta North Mission in the English language.
What???!!! Actually, one friend had guessed Atlanta. But, it did come as a shock to most of us. But, it is very exciting. We are so thrilled to have our son serve. He leaves for the MTC on Aug 30th. We told him, gee, you will get to learn another language, Southern! And you might come back with an ascent.
One thing we noticed since his call, we see and hear about Atlanta all the time now, whenever we turn on the TV. It’s bizarre.
Now, let’s hear some good stories about mission calls.
Wheat & Tares 
Perhaps he’ll teach some Korean or ASL investigators there… My friend heard one of the apostles talk about the missionary selection process, and how the missionary photo and the open missions map is up on the screen at the same time, and sometimes they match the missionary to the location, and sometimes they match the missionary to the mission president–and sometimes it’s because the mission president needs that missionary. I thought Bednar’s recent talk about being called to the work and not a place was helpful, we get so caught up in the location aspect of it all. Best wishes to your son on his upcoming journey!
Thanks for the post, Jeff. Our family are converts, the first ones in our extended families, and our old oldest son desired to serve a mission. He indicated to stay domestic (he’s a very picky eater) and to hopefully be in an area with genuine winters (which we don’t have). He got it with the Boise ID Mission and later the Nampa ID mission after Boise was split.
I was leery of him serving a mission. He didn’t seem the type. I told him “you don’t like giving a Sacrament talk or volunteering for service; and a mission has you doing that every day”. My brothers couldn’t understand the concept of a mission at all.
What happened to my son on his mission is something I pray happens to them all. He was, shall I say, empowered to do the things he was expected to do; and I like to believe it was a special imparting of the Holy Ghost to those who serve on missions.
My oldest child enters the MTC next Wednesday after a freshman year at BYU.
He wanted English speaking, stateside, warm climate and he got it-California Rancho Cucamonga. He is pretty nervous but is mentally ready. I know he’ll be fine.
My in-laws arrive in a few hours and will take him back to UT with them on Tuesday (we live in TX). Need a farewell talk and evening open house first on Sunday before he gets set apart. I spent yesterday baking.
I never served but my husband was French speaking in Switzerland and France. If I could have gone at 19, I would have.
This will be a good thing for my son. He has always tended to be self-absorbed and serving others for 2 years will be good for him.
We had a sister missionary here who learned ASL in High School and was upset she didn’t get called to do ASL. Funny thing is she served in our ward who has 4 deaf members and have many deaf friends who were taught the gospel and it worked out well
Prior to my mission call, I had had a number of powerful spiritual experiences that I interpreted as God telling me I would serve a mission in Africa. Mind you, this was prior to me even being certain I wanted to serve, or even prior to me being certain that the Church was true. These powerful experiences actually put me on a path towards full activity and building my own faith (“If I’m going to Africa on my mission, I guess I’d better start by getting my own testimony!”). I took French in college in hopes of increasing the odds (many African countries were French colonies and use French as a second language). Then, I got my patriarchal blessing, and it talked about me going on a mission “perhaps to remote parts of the world.” I was absolutely certain that I had personal revelation that I was going to Africa. I even told people that’s where I was going, as if it were a done thing.
So when I opened my mission call and it said Germany-Duesseldorf, I felt like I had been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer. It was such an incredibly horrible feeling. There was no joy, no celebration, nothing like that. I was devastated.
I spent the whole time in the MTC and probably for the first three months of my mission secretly hoping/expecting that someone would get revelation to fix this, and I’d get re-assigned. But nope. I finished out my mission in Germany, came home, got married in the temple, etc.
But the irony is that the very process that first set me on the road to belief in Mormonism also planted the seed of doubt that eventually led me right out again.
I definitely spent my whole mission trying to convince myself of things like “well, there are a lot of African immigrants in Germany, and we work with them, so maybe that’s what this was all about?” or “well, Germany is spiritually remote.” Or maybe I was supposed to go to Africa and then this one extremely difficult missionary companion I had decided to serve and God needed me to serve with him instead.
None of that ever made me feel any better for long.
The ASL will almost certainly come in handy at some point.
In many ways my mission was the making of me. I was a bright kid but lacked focus, didn’t know what I wanted to do, was lazy and didn’t study enough. My post-mish success in college was largely as a result of the mish.
I was one class shy of a French minor when I got my mission call to Spain. I was VERY disappointed, to say the least, but honestly, it was the best thing ever for me. I loved the Canary Islands, the weather, the people, my fellow missionaries. Spanish was a cake walk after learning French, and Spanish is a more practical language anyway. My husband also served there, and we love to go back. And my recent DNA test just showed I have 4% Iberian ancestry that I wasn’t aware of. Maybe I have more connections to Spain than I knew about!
Congratulations.
Having served a French-speaking mission, can I just say that one of the best things about serving a mission in your native tongue, is that you will retain for the rest of your life all those scriptures you memorized, & be able to USE them weekly at Church. I have a son who lives in Ackworth, GA. I am not sure if that is in the Georgia Atlanta North Mission, but the people are nice.
I opened my mission call all by myself one day when I came home, nobody home, and I saw the envelope on the table that my mom had left for me. Back in the day you could tell from the envelope size if you were going foreign or domestic. An 8×11 envelop meant going overseas (due to passport stuff), while a letter size meant state side.
Mine was big, and alone I opened it as saw I was going to Concepcion Chile. I had one year of HS Spanish.
I had great missions presidents (I won the leadership roulette for two years!), and had a great time on my mission.
Congratulations. I have a young friend fluent in Spanish called to a Spanish speaking mission in one of the southern US states where she learned Chinese and taught in Chinese with a Chinese companion with little English. Anything can happen. I know some wonderful members in the Georgia Atlanta North mission area.
Kullervo–I take it you did not serve in Soest. Not many Africans, but plenty of remoteness.
Of all the cities in the south, my opinion is that Atlanta is one of the most progressive (Stone Mountain notwithstanding). It’s one of the few cities in the south I would consider living in.
Atlanta – traffic-bad.
I had a friend at BYU who was from Miami, dad was Cuban, mom was Brazilian, and he spoke fluently English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Where did he get sent on his mission? Tokyo. I always though that was funny. The Lord works in mysterious ways…
I was called to serve in South Carolina, but spent 1/3 of my mission in southeast Georgia. My brothers served in Florida and Missouri. We know the South quite well! Congrats to you and your son! I definitely learned the Bible VERY well! It snowed just twice on my mission–snowed and melted same day, and the other time snowed and stayed cold for a week. No snowplows, so roads were treacherous! But it sure was nice enjoying 60 degree Christmas Day!
I took 4 years of high school Spanish, two if college Italian, and sang in a Russian choir before I decided to go. I deliberately sent my worst headshot because I’d heard rumors that there’s a beauty requirement for Temple square sisters and I had no intention of becoming tour guide Barbie. It worked! I got sent to the former East Germany. I was out of town when my call was going to come, so I bribed my dad’s secretary to go to my house and get it before my dad could. She faxed it to me and I read it pool side in my first ever to piece bathing suit. Five hours later when I’m still calling people on the phone I learned a painful lesson about sunscreen and abdomens.
Thank you all for the wonderful stories. Please keep them coming.
>>One thing we noticed since his call, we see and hear about Atlanta all the time now, whenever we turn on the TV. It’s bizarre<<
It's diegogarcity!
Disregard the comment from Angela C. There are many wonderful mission areas in the south. Several years ago, a survey of denominations was taken of the 6 southernmost counties of our state; the top ten faiths in each county. The LDS was in all 6 and the only one with growth over the preceding 10 years.
I was surprised to learn a few years ago that Atlanta was the third or fourth most populous city in the U.S. For some reason I thought it was a little further down.
My Dad took Spanish all through junior high and high school, then took BYU’s most difficult undergraduate Spanish classes his freshman year. He got called to England. He had some great experiences though.
I had one year of German my senior year, then got called to Denmark. The German did help a little. Having my companion and I rooming with two Elders going to Norway didn’t exactly help though. At least during the first six month of my mission Danes thought I was Norwegian, rather than American.
I live in Atlanta. Not many southern accents, everyone moved here from somewhere else. Maybe out in the small towns. Don’t try and fake southern accents. Genuine southerners can differentiate several regional variations which you really can’t fake and if you don’t sound like one of them, then they might see it as a form of ridicule.
This is a hard mission. Very hot and humid. Not garment friendly. Not bicycle friendly. Horrible traffic.. Ratty apartments in not very safe areas but not as bad as the third world. Atlanta is busy, glitzy, proud with a dark underbelly. Common sense and caution will be needed and will get him through. Southerners are very nice to those they see as friends and can be vicious to those they don’t.
Two barriers to missionary work:
Atlanta is the capital of black America and MLK is buried here. Atlanta is about 50% black, more in some areas less in the suburbs. Blacks are mostly either poor or lower to middle class, the economic demographic most likely to listen to missionaries.Many blacks remember our too late and weak support of the civil rights movement. Many blacks don’t like Mitt Romney and associate Mormons with conservative republicans. Every new black member has a built-in faith crisis when they inevitably discover our history of how we viewed and treated them. we are still paying a heavy price for the mistakes our leaders made back then. That said, we do have many excellent black members, but they don’t take kindly to young white men telling them anything. Listen and be respectful.
Second and a bigger problem is the evangelical churches here are very strong. Atlanta is the buckle of the Bible belt. The LDS church is struggling and appears to me to be losing ground. Moderate number of converts are made but we have poor retention. If religion was cars, it would be like trying to sell Yugos to people who drive Mercedes or BMWs.
Christians in the South are centered on Christ and expect other believers to be open and excited about it, not causal. If a missionary is asked, have you been saved or been claimed by Christ, and they hesitate in the slightest, wrong response. Minds snap shut. Now would be a good time for your son to read the New Testament thoroughly and become valiant and excited about Christ.
One other thing I would suggest is that your son visit as many different churches as he can and see how they do things. Listen to their music and preaching and observe their youth programs. They leave us in the dust. I believe there is much they can teach us operationally and your son can take ideas he learns on his mission spying on other churches home and perhaps enrich his future wards.
I would also suggest becoming familiar with Southern cooking. One of the best ways to prepare for a foreign culture!
One of our young men just announced his mission call to Georgia Atlanta North today. Thought of you, Jeff.
How interesting. Maybe they’ll be comps.
Southern cooking= deep fried, tasty.
Results in rampant obesity, diabetes, hypertension and coronary disease.
Some say the South is growing, both from people moving here but also the total tonage of human weight is rapidly increasing.
As a convert who entered the MTC at 21, 13 months after baptism, I never expected Italy. No Italian ancestry, no family, no roots, no language study, no particular interest. The only affinity I had for Italy prior to my mission was that I had grown up Catholic. (That was a big help, actually.) But I loved it and am grateful I went.
Many of my former companions, even the Anglos, now have kids who have been called to Italian missions. My two RM sons have gone to Brazil and to Boston (Spanish-speaking), respectively. My third son and my two daughters will probably not serve.
I have a nephew serving in Italy (Sicily at the moment), and a niece serving in Spain (currently in the Canary Islands). Another nephew served in Sydney. I have brothers who have served in Idaho (which became Boise Idaho), Scotland and Ireland (now one mission, but they were separate missions at the time).
The brother who served in Idaho was originally assigned to London South, but this was before standardised cost, and London South was considerably more than my parents had said they could pay. Another missionary leaving from the stake at much the same time had been told the church would cover the cost difference, but my brother had had no such undertaking with his call. The stake president queried this with SL, and the next we knew he was off to Provo heading for Idaho several weeks earlier than his original call. They omitted to tell the London mission president however, who rang my parents several weeks later to ask why he hadn’t arrived.
I didn’t serve myself. Far too non-conformist to have stood the rules and crazy dress-code…