November - Call arrived

After have all the interviews are over and knowing that everything has been submitted, comes the waiting and then more waiting and then waiting some more.  It is a very long two weeks before the call arrives.  Every time you go to the mail box your heart races.  For Mike, living up at BYU-I, it was waiting for the phone call.  When Wednesday rolled around he waited for the call.  Nothing.  When Thursday came and passed and no phone call, Mike was sure that he would have to wait another week to get his call.  His family was pretty sure it would be another week also, but you never know.  Mike's mother on Friday went out to check the mail about 5:00 p.m. and there was no mail.  The mailman had not yet delivered it.  There wasn't much hope that it would come on Friday anyway.  So Mike's family, consisting of his Mother and Father, sister (Jenny), brother-in-law (Logan) and his favorite niece (Emma, his only niece) went out to get a bite to eat.  Upon our arrival back home, we again checked the mail.  In the mail box was a large white envelop addressed to Elder Michael Clark Obray.  It was unbelievable that it would come on Friday.  Needless to say there was much excitement and a call was placed to Mike.  He was told that his call had come and we asked if he would like us to bring it up.    At first Mike was surprised and then excited and yes he definately wanted us to come up.  I believe that he was more excited then we were and that would be hard to do.  


We hopped in the van and headed up to Rexburg as fast as we could.  We arrived there in about 30 minutes.  As we gathered around the kitchen table in Mike's apartment you could cut the feeling of excitement and anticipation with a knife.  Phone calls were made to Mike's brother (Nate) in Logan and his sister (Izzy) and her husband (Nick) in Texas so that they could listen as Mike announced where he was going.  It seemed like it took he forever as he slowly opened his envelope and pulled out its contents.  He began reading.  "Dear Elder Obray:  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 Argentina Bahia Blanca 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, January 19, 2011."  Mike in his farewell talk to the ward recalled the moment when he opened his call.  He said, "After I had opened my call and read where I was going, the Spirit bore witness to me that this is the place I should go and that this mission was right for me." 

Wow, Argentina, we were all very excited.  Mike got lots of hugs and congratulations from his family and roomies that were there.  It was an awesome experience.