On Wednesday, April 25, 2007, we received a large white envelope in the mail from the First Presidency of the church. We thought about trying to get the whole family online at once to hear where we were going, but decided to just open it ourselves. Pat did the official reading which said,
"Dear Elder Max and Sister Pat: You are hereby called to serve as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Ghana Accra Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.
You should report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on Monday, 17 September 2007. Your mission president may modify your specific assignment according to the needs of the mission."
We were happy to accept the call. We feel strongly that it is where we need to be. Since that time we have been busy getting lists made and starting to put things in a box.
Getting a visa is an interesting experience. It will just be a three-month tourist visa, so it will have to be renewed five times while we are gone. Yesterday we went to Wallmart and got 56 passport photos. Before we got home, we wished we'd just had Brad do it for us. We also had to get clearance from our police department saying we were not criminals. We had to make copies of all our dipolmas, awards, certificates and such. We even had to produce two copies of our marriage license. (It has been interesting, but at least they know we are upright citizens and won't become a burden on their country.)
We are hoping to be able to update this blog while in Ghana. We will just have to wait and see.
