Pre-Mission Work

In mid April, we had some exciting news, Felicity started her mission papers!  She's been talking about serving a full time proselyting mission the past few years and this week after meeting with her Bishop started on her application paperwork.  She had to call home with some questions and to get help, "what's my social security number?" etc.  We are proud of her and look forward to seeing how it all works out.  She's going to finish her cosmetology program and get her license in July and put her mission availability starting in August.  Here she is at the Gila Valley temple, she tries to go every week.

In May Felicity did a lot of "adulting".  She's been working on her mission application and as such had a lot of appointments.  She had a dental evaluation and got a full set of X-Rays.  They cleared her of any dental problems and referred her to an oral surgeon for a consult on having her wisdom teeth removed.  In preparation for her medical evaluation she looked over her vaccine record and realized she was going to need a tetanus shot, so she and Dad went to CVS and got both a tetanus and COVID booster.  She saw the oral surgeon next and they scheduled her wisdom teeth extraction for the following week.  She happened to schedule it for the same day as her medical evaluation, so that should be fun.    She's only going to be home until the 26th of May at which point she has to be back in Thatcher for her last semester of beauty school; we're trying to cram a lot into a couple weeks.

May 20th Felicity had her wisdom teeth removed, a pre-requisite for missionary service. Jude and I took Felicity to her appointment at the oral surgeon.  I didn't feel like we had to wait very long.  They walked her out to the car when she was done and she was groggy and weepy from the general anesthesia. 

She said that she felt like Mike Wazowski after he got stung all over the face with glow urchins in Monsters University from this scene in the movie...which led to this conversation:

On the way home she switched between crying, quoting movies, talking incessantly, and at one point treated us to a rendition of "Take Me Home, Country Roads".  Poor baby was sore and swollen all weekend.  I wasn't going to take a video of her after anesthesia, but I had tears streaming down my face from laughing and I couldn't help myself.

Felicity had double-booked herself and so after taking a nap and after most of the anesthesia fog had worn off I took her to an appointment with our nurse practitioner.  She looked over all of Felicity's labs and filled out the rest of the medical paperwork necessary for her to apply for missionary service.  I took her and Jude for ice cream when we were done.

On May 25th, Felicity and I sat down at the computer and uploaded all of her medical documents, added her picture to her application, and submitted it through the missionary portal as she continues the process to apply to serve a full-time mission.  She has an appointment with her Bishop on June 3rd and then will make an appointment with her Stake President from there and if everything is in good order, they'll submit their recommendation that she be considered for missionary service.  Felicity put her availability date at the end of August.  Once the Bishop and Stake President submit the whole package including their recommendations along with all her paperwork we can expect Salt Lake (church headquarters) to send her a "call" which will detail where she will go, what language she will teach in, and when she will report to the missionary training center.  Its exciting (and scary)!  Below is a clip describing the process by which mission calls are extended to prospective missionaries.  You can read/watch the whole talk about full time missionaries here.

Felicity successfully met with her Bishop and then with her Stake President and after conducting an interview with her and going over all her paperwork he submitted her missionary application to church headquarters.  She can expect to receive a mission call, an email detailing where she will serve her mission and in which language she will teach, in the next two to six weeks, although the Stake President said realistically about 14 days.  We will be having an Ice Cream Sundae and Soda Bar at our house on Sunday, June 29th at 6:00pm for any friends or family who would like to join us to make a guess as to where she will serve and be there when Felicity opens her mission assignment.