& Then It Came.... Again...

So there I was after waiting four months to get my papers squared away and sent in, and 3 more weeks to get the envelope in my hand, I was assigned to California Rancho Cucamonga... only to be reassigned by the members of the Quorum of the Twelve and compelled to wait another ten days for another envelope to be sent to Japan.
Now some of you may be asking, why were you reassigned? Others will playfully say, What did you do?! Well here's what I did. I received my first mission call while in Utah while my wonderful mother resided in Japan. Unfortunately, my impatience overtook my respect for common curtesy and I opened my mission call without my mom. Not only did I open it without telling her, but the first people I told were some missionaries going to Russia that were hanging out by the temple, then my friends Mark, Mike, and Jeff who sat next to me in physiology, then my brother and his EMT friends, then some guy at the dance lab, then some girls in my dance class, then Josh, theeeeeennnnnn I ran home at the end of my day of blabbing to skype my mom and tell her along with my roommate and friends.... so yeah. I'm not at all remorseful that I opened my call up by the Provo Temple by myself and I got to just feel it in my own way; however I totally gypped my mom out of one the coolest experiences a parent can share with their child. Major fault on my part! HENCE, I was reassigned so that I could be sent a second mission call so that I could PROPERLY open it, with my mother :}

So here's how it went. We were having some family friends over for dinner the night the call came so we decided to open it with them and some other family friends. So my mom picked up the envelope from our mail box (to ensure my uncontrollable selfishness wouldn't tear open the package in a rabid spree), then I spent the day distracting myself with my friend Coree at the beach. Then I patiently, (ever so patiently!) awaited for dinner to end and our other friends to come over. Then. It was time. However, I wanted to ensure that this would be the last call I would receive, so I made sure to do it as right as possible. Therefore, I devised the best way to reconcile my fault: My mom would be the one to read my mission call first. Then to further prove my repentance, everyone else present would be allowed to read my call before I did.
The paper circled the room as each individual read and reacted to my new assignment. Now, I will admit, I sneaked a little peak at the general format of it only to find that it was like FIVE LINES! Typically mission calls have a few paragraphs but this one said hardly anything! I was suddenly swarmed with flaming embarrassment! What if my call said that I was NOT to serve a mission! Every reaction seemed to justify my prediction!
Luckily, my mission call was not cancelled all together :} Instead. I was reassigned to labor in the California San Fernando Mission. I am to report to the Mexico Missionary Training Center July 31st to learn to preach the Gospel in the Spanish Language! After further analysis of my new mission area, I came to learn that my mission area is largely Hollywood and the general LA area. Success!!
So in the end, it was stressful and exciting, but no matter what that first or second mission assignment said, I know it was a call from the Lord.

I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:

I'll go where you want me to go....

Over mountain or plain or sea;

I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord;

I'll be what you want me to be.

 

Just Kidding...

What's better than enduring the heart racing, knee bopping, thrill of awaiting a big white envelope with your mission assignment beheld within.... doing it twice!

In other words, it all the sudden became not so simple. An email was sent to my Stake President saying "We just received information this morning there are changing needs for our Spanish speakers, and tomorrow morning, Sister LaBanc's name will be taken in to a reassignment meeting with a member of the Twelve. A new call packet and letter will be sent to her." How often does that happen? Answer: almost never. Which made me kind of anxious. Was the Mexico Missionary Training Center not ready? Is Rancho Cucamonga not coming along? Did I get a little too jolly with my acceptance letter? Am I not supposed to go on a mission? All possibilities. None of which gave me any idea as to where I would be going next.

So the waiting has once again commenced.

This should be thrilling :}