This has been a crazy week. Being involved in conference in some way shape or form now for the second time I now see why I won’t particularly miss not being here after I enter the MTC. The week between the women’s session and the sessions the following weekend are organized chaos. However, chaos is ultimately still chaos.
This Tuesday I received a text message from Bishop Daley telling me that I had been assigned my mission and that I could expect my call any day. It was a dream come true. Just the night before I had a dream that my call came, but I woke up before I could open it in the dream.
This week has been one of anxiety as I have gone from waiting to impatiently waiting for my call. I guess the Lord is really trying my patience right now. That’s okay, it’s a virtue I’ll need on my fulltime mission.
This week at the Conference Center was amazing. I’m not really sure why it was so busy this week, but that’s okay. The only people I’ve given tours to this week were non-members. I’m not allowed to ask if they are or are not, but when I ask them if they’ve seen the building or are familiar with the Book of Mormon, it’s obvious when they are or are not. It is fantastic preparation especially when showing guests the various paintings in the building for my fulltime mission.
It’s a joyous feeling to be able to say that my full-time mission papers are in. A year ago, I never thought that it would be possible, but it was. Now I wait (not exactly patiently) for the call to come. It could come this week or next week. I was a little scared when I got the email about my blood pressure being too high, but thankfully that was just a typo.
This week I’ve lost several more pounds, bringing me to 100 pounds lost. The theme for devotionals this month is obedience. Obedience to the word of wisdom is not restrictive, but rather it is freeing.
This week was great at the Conference Center. Now that it is getting warmer and the sun is out longer, we have steadily been getting more people coming for tours. Headquarters FM (Facilities Management) group even turned the fountains and streams back on the roof, giving an optimal viewing pleasure there. I’ve been using our tour script to find similarities between it and Preach My Gospel so I can use tours as practice for my full-time mission.
A week or so ago after posting on Facebook that I had lost more than 90 pounds and am now eligible to serve a full-time mission, I was asked several times how I did it. This is my response:
Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? I’m Allen (you know that) and I was born of goodly parents. I’m overweight; I’m working on that though. My goodly parents however goodly they may be were not the best examples I could have had growing up in the food department. Let’s review:
My father would drink at least three cans of soda a day plus a bottle or two of it per day several times a week. At home his man cave was in the basement and he’d keep bags and bags of candy, chips, and whatever junk food he could squeeze into the shopping car and bring them home to eat while he sat around watching TV.
My mother, while not as bad as what my father would do, kept stashes of food as well. There were many instances, not as often thankfully, where she would bring home Oreos, Cheetos, and graham crackers.
We’ve all heard of the phrase “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Boy could this statement not be truer for me. It’s like sugar was in the air when they would bring home this food. Seeing my parents eating this made me want my share. For about a year, when I joined the workforce, I would pack several cans of soda for lunch. I ate more than my fair share of donuts, cookies, brownies or anything else that I could get my hands on. I was happy, or so I thought.
I realized this week was exactly one month since having the prompting that I needed to go on a full-time mission. A lot has happened in that month time. I’ve had my dentist/doctors appointments, my bishop interview, my papers submitted, and new pictures taken. I have felt the help of the Lord every step of the way, there is no way this could have happened without His help.
This week nothing much has changed at the Global Service Center, but it will be nice to start getting phone calls soon for more events coming up in the next few weeks.
I got some new photos taken (free of charge!) on Thursday which was the final step for submitting my mission papers on my end. I received the email with the photos on Thursday evening and made a quick stop in the office on Friday afternoon after a temple session to submit & finish my papers The last thing I need to do now is to have my interviews. I have an appointment with Bishop Daley on Sunday after church and then I need to meet with President Young after that. I have called the stake executive secretary, but have not heard back from him yet. I technically don’t have approval from the doctor yet, it’s conditional on passing the blood work, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have no issue with that.
There are no pictures this week. There have been so many things to do and not enough time to do them in. Yesterday, I went to the dentist office, the dentist here has given me the approval to go on a full-time mission, so long as I come in for a cleaning and filling on March 12th. He says I only need one filling done, the others are fine so long as I continue to brush and floss regularly. This Tuesday I see the doctor, I’m fairly confident that he’ll give me a clean bill of health.
I’ve lost even more weight. My new weight loss number is 90 pounds. After sharing my news this week that I’m going ahead with putting in my full-time mission papers, every has been telling me that they’ve been noticing my weight loss and are happy that I’m preparing to serve a full-time mission.
As you are well aware, I’m getting the ball rolling on my mission papers. I’ve got appointments set for both the doctor and dentist and they’re both in the next week and a half! This would not have been possible without help of the Lord. I’m meeting with Bishop Daley this afternoon to get more of my papers filled out on the computer.
I’ve met with my mission leaders to update them with the news and they’re all willing to request early releases so I can go on my fulltime mission. Elder Broderick is very excited for me and Tabernacle Choir President Jarrett is very happy as well, you can expect a letter from him soon.