A whole new pillar of reality

Howdy y`all! :)

Though about a day late, I congratulate you all for surviving the "cliff hanger" from last time! I really hope none of the two people who actually follow my blog regularly have died of tension. Even a 50% readership loss would be bad. You know...the whole "worth of souls" thing is getting a new meaning haha :)

However, I will not release the tension all at once. That would be just as bad for you! Therefore, here is a little teaser story:

Last Sunday afternoon, after Church, I traveled down to Roy to visit my host family. Those times are always exciting! I love them so much! :) Not only for the many great things they`ve done for me, but altogether. But this time coming into Roy, I was honestly a little scared. Here is what happened: Two week before, I had also been in Roy, intending to share my Mission plans with the family (which doesn`t have a very positive outlook on organized religion [anymore]). I had them almost set up all the way. I had talked to them for a while, then helped my host dad with the payroll for his daycare, and when we got done I was almost getting ready to invite them out for dinner. Well, I`m not even sure how it happened, but all of a sudden my host dad was talking about the Church and about homosexuality and intolerance and race relations, and though not blindly bashing the Church as less classy people might have done, the Spirit had withdrawn from the room within the fraction of a millisecond. Aaaargh! I could have banged my head against the wall. So I skipped my confession and postponed it for another while.

Then, before the camping trip to Paradise, I e-mailed him if I was allowed to borrow his sleeping bag (which I had done before, and he said I always could. But I still felt like asking). In the same e-mail, I also mentioned that I would love to come back to Roy on the upcoming Sunday to talk about some things. Like, some big things. Which might be a shock for them right now but which would probably benefit them as well in the long run. I didn`t mention my Mission but I figured that they would get the hint...and either accept it or kick me right back out. I knew they usually would never to the latter to anyone but still...there was a subtle fear within me to say the least.

When I got there, my host mom was still upstairs fixing this week`s payroll, and my host dad was downstairs watching golf. He was very happy to see me, greeted me with enthusiasm and said, "Well, so I thought you would be here to tell me about your Mission plans? So, where are you going?" He wasn`t mad or disappointed at all. As I explained the layout for my plan, he just got up and gave me his longest hug ever! :) I was SOOO happy and this was such a relief :) He also told me how happy he was for me, how much he admired my dedication and how excited he was for the adventure ahead of me. :) Oh, and he says that it would be funny if I got called to Hong Kong, because I always emphasized how much I disliked listening to the Cantonese language while sharing my host family with another exchange student from Hong Kong. Haha...well, Heavenly Father would certainly be very humorous if that happened. And I feel like it could. This might be something I need to be taught haha ;)

So, after this wonderful exciting story, let`s get to what you`ve all been waiting for (unless you follow my facebook posts, in which case you already know): Bishop`s interview! Yay! :) The second-to-last step to submitting my papers. And it went great! :) In fact, by the time we had scheduled it to begin we were already done. My ward clerk called me in about 40 minutes early, which I really appreciated. There is not a lot that I feel like sharing from the interview itself because it was actually really technical, although you could cut the Spirit with a knife. We just talked a little bit about how special my role as a convert Missionary would be, how great of an impact I could have on investigators with my background. Then we had the actual worthiness interview, which lasted for about two minutes and then we went over the call process again. In the end, Bishop said that he would recommend me for service, and that he would create my portal account by Sunday. Yay!! :) I should also get my interview with my Stake President scheduled no later than Sunday. I`ll keep you posted! :)

Anyways, going on a Mission has just gotten so much more real to me! I definitely know now with more certainty than ever that it is going to happen, and that it is going to happen SOON :) And I love this feeling :)

Have a wonderful weekend! I gotta take off because I will soon be kicked out of this computer lab. Anyhow, the Church is true! I know it :)

Love :D
-- Pascal