It all started on Monday morning when I told my mom that she should go and check the mail for my mission call because my bishop told me that it had been assigned about a week ago so it should be in the mail any day now. IT WAS THERE! But do you want to know the worst part about it was? It was Monday. And I had a quiz on Tuesday. And a exam review on Wednesday. And a quiz on Thursday. And a quiz and paper due on Friday. So there was no way that I could get home to open my call until after my stats quiz at 8:30am on Friday. And that sucked. I was the worst student ever this week. I couldn't focus to save my life- all I could think about was the white envelope with my mission call inside sitting on my kitchen counter at home. I just wanted to open it. It was finally Friday and I almost ran out of the classroom on Friday after my quiz to go home and pack up Henry for our road trip.
The whole road trip consisted of singing really loud Disney music and Country Shindigs then honking at cows as we passed by. We had to stop in Idaho Falls for some Jimmy John's and a potty break and then got back on the road and headed to Quickwater Ranch.
Of course, we were put right to work in the garden at the Ranch digging out weeds and lining the rows with compost. Then we had dinner and changed into clothes that weren't covered in mud and it was time to (finally) open my mission call.
There's no way to really explain what it feels like to hold you mission call envelope. And there's no way to prepare you for the overwhelming presence of the Spirit either. I practiced saying "Dear Sister Dunlop, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" a million times and didn't even cry once. But as soon as it was real, I lost it. And the way that everything had lined up about my call opening was perfect; being at Quickwater Ranch, opening my call exactly five months after my scary car accident, having my family and Fierce Felicia's there, and everything about it was perfect. It's amazing and terrifying and exciting because inside that envelope is your life for the next 18 months and you have no idea where that is. Once we had everyone FaceTimed in and ready for my to open it, my heart was racing. Like racing. I thought I was going to throw up or something.
"Dear Sister Dunlop, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the ALASKA ANCHORAGE mission."
At first, I was shocked. I had never even thought of Alaska, there's like nothing up there but trees and eskimos. My cousin, Riley, had told me that you will get called to wherever you don't think of and so all week I had been looking at maps and imagining myself at each place, just to prove her wrong. She was right though. The whole shock wore off really quickly though because I knew that this is exactly where Heavenly Father needs me right now. I am so excited.
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| #calledtofreeze #thefrozenchosen #caitiegoeseskimo |
The Fierce Felicia's got to take over the LTeam cabin Friday night and I think that all my stories about living there this summer with all the mice and all the crazy things that happened there freaked my roomies out a little bit. Don't worry, we survived the night. I didn't sleep at all. I just kept watching videos of the Northern Lights and reading blogs by the missionaries that are serving in Alaska Anchorage right now. I am so excited.
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| drenched |
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| I love LTeam 2015 (and Victoria & Rebekah) |
I don't know if Allie, Ashly, and Abbey really knew what they were going into when I invited them to come with me to open my call at Quickwater. But they were troopers and dug a fabulous trench in the pouring rain for hours anyways with me. Bless you.
Once we had finally thawed out and started to feel our fingers again, I drove the Fierce Felicia's over Teton Pass and into Jackson. We made a quick pit-stop at my house to drink Wyoming Water and grab blankets and dry hoodies then headed over to watch my high school's boy's soccer team play Worland. It was so weird to be back on that field and not in high school. But once a Bronc, always a Bronc. Then we came back to my house and met up with my family then ordered enough Pinky G's to feed all of Alaska. Then we were going to watch Brother Bear but my roomies were out before the title scene was even over. We are going to have to re-watch it sometime.
On Sunday, we went to my home ward and it was so funny to watch Allie, Abbey, and Ashly put names and stories to faces about all of the people in my hometown. After church, I decided that I was going to try one last time to show my roomies the Tetons (because they had been hiding under the clouds all weekend) and so I drove them out to Mormon Row but my mountains stayed in hiding. Thanks. But we just pretended you could see them and it worked the same. Mother Earth made up for it by having bison walk across the road right in front of my car on our way back though.
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| #jacksonhole in a photo |
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| when you try to take photos in WY |
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| Abbey is good at making animal friends |
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| strike a pose |
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| welcome to wyhomeing |
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| jumping photos are always a necessity |
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| so lucky to be randomly assigned to live with these peeps |
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| I love Fish Stick and am so excited to live in the same room as her in a few days (I love you Abbey) |
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| Alaska+Anaheim |
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| rush kappa delta |
After lunch, we packed Henry up and headed back down to Logan for our last week and a half of school. I have no idea how I'm going to make it through Dead & Finals Week without thinking about Alaska. But I won't have to write another English paper or do another organic chemistry equation for 18 months so that will help a little bit.
Go Aggies!
I'll be in the lib.
Love, Caitie
(and the other Fierce Felicias)
