MISSION TALK AND OPEN-HOUSE

Blake's Misson talk was on Sunday, December 28, 2008 and had it all planned out a couple of months prior, even down to the songs we sang. He chose prayer as the theme. Blakes friend Kahana was the youth speaker. She was cool and calm and presented a wonderful heartfelt talk. His friend Ashley Moutsos sang a beautiful rendition of “I Know that My redeemer Lives” accompanied by our friend Gloria Pulver. Blake’s Young Men’s president Jim Slade spoke on Prayer and shared some of the experiences had with Blake as his YM Pres. Blake prepared and presented a wonderful talk sharing some of his personal experiences he has had with prayer. While Blake was speaking I remember thinking, yeah he is ready to go out there and serve the Lord with strength. Neighbors/friends, Becky Wakefield and Deven Higgins offered an opening and closing prayer.

We had a fun time opening our home for family and friends to stop by, eat, sign Blake’s mission quilt, to just spend time with Blake and wish him well. Yes the after a small mishap on my end with a circular fabric cutter and my finger Blake’s quilt final was finished and sent to him as soon and he has an address of his first area.


Thank you to all the friends and family who came to support Blake as he spoke and following attended his Open house. It was incredibly memorable day.

To view more pictures of this event....go to the righthand column and view the slideshow.

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

Now the T0-Do-List starts. Reading the mission call packet over and over to make sure we didn’t miss a detail of what Blake (we) needed to accomplish before January 7th. Shots, hair cut, shopping for suits, shoes, shirts, ties, and other misc clothing items, personal care items, electric razor, books, journal, bike and all the accessories to go with that. Jordan River Temple Event. Reading up on “Preach My Gospel” and Book of Mormon once again. Plus much more…..

The Mission Call Revealed!

We all gathered on Saturday, October 11th @ 10 in morning for Blake to open him mission call. A lot of friends and family came to support him and to, of course, be in the homemade oreo cookie guessing game. Whoever guessed the location closest to where Blake was called won homemade oreos by yours truly. At Blake's request we served my homemade cinnamon rolls. Nate, Gina and Kade joined us via webcam from PA! Then the time came to reveal the call! The North Carolina Raleigh mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. To enter the Prove MTC Wednesday, January 7th (same date Ron entered in 1978) Jeff Pulver guessed Raleigh, NC on the dot! That was his mission as well and he is thrilled to have Blake serving in the same place. It was a fun celebration!




A side note.... picture # 1 in “The Call” series….We thought we would “tease” Blake buy replacing his Official Mission call white envelope with one that Ron receives weakly from the church office building, same color and same size, but opened and laid it face down on the table right where Blake left his call before going to bed. When Blake came into the kitchen Saturday morning he saw the envelope opened and looked at me and I said “what can I say? Dad couldn’t wait, so he opened it.” If looks could kill…no doubt, I’d have been dead. Blake who rarely loses his cool….LOST IT! Ron came down the stairs and said “Gotcha Bud!” A look of PURE RELIEF came over Blake and we all had a good laugh.

LET'S GET THIS MISSION STARTED

The process started with an interview, Doctor’s physical, Dental check-up/procedures, and pictures

On September 18, 2008 Blake began the process of electronically filling out his Mission application.

On September 29 Blake completed and submitted his electronic missionary application to The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Missionary department. I was right there camera in hand as he clicked on the SEND button. Then the waiting began.

Blake let a week pass buy and then he was at our mail box each day. The Mission calls typical arrive, in a large white envelop, in the mail on Wednesdays two weeks after the application is submitted. So after two Wednesday’s having gone by and no call, Blake was prepared to wait another week. Blake had it all planed out ….he was to call his friends, and I call my friends that wanted to share in this event, and we were to have a pizza party and then open the call. Well you can imagine our surprise to find a large white envelope in the mail on Friday. Ron was out of town and prior to him leaving they had it worked out that we would put Ron on speaker phone as he opened the call. Since Ron was coming home 9 pm that night, Blake said let’s just open it Saturday morning. So it was set for 10 am and Blake switched up the pizza plan to serve my homemade cinnamon rolls instead.