Serving in Florida: Mission Call

Austin received his mission call on Thursday, April 4th. We received a courtesy call from the post office around 8a.m. letting us know that we could go pick up his call. When I went to pick up his call, the post master asked me if Austin was wanting to go foreign and I told him that he thought it would be nice to go foreign. He then proceded to tell me that he could tell by the thickness and weight that it was in the states. I didn't tell Austin, as I wanted it to be a surprise. I contacted him at school to let him know that his call was here and we got ahold of family and friends letting them know that he would be opening his call that evening. He had a lot of family and friends come and support him when he opened his mission call. We had 2 maps up for everyone to guess where he might be going in the United States and out of the United States. The person who guessed the closest, received a bag full of some of Austin's favorite goodies. His dad guessed the closest. The next 2 closest guesses got a bag of gummi bears saying "You BEARly missed it." Tyson Taylor was one of the winners and I don't remember who the other winner was. :( I had a neighbor, Debbie Cherrington, help me make 4 dozen cinnamon rolls for a treat afterwards. When Austin opened his call, it read:

Dear Elder Whaley: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Florida Tampa Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months. You should report to the Provo Missionary training Center on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language. "